Mr. Fang is now the owner of 36 greenhouses producing organic vegetables in the Gobi desert in Northwest China’s Gansu province. He is one of the beneficiaries of the Gobi Farming Program of Gansu province that is building rows of greenhouses in the desert to help transform local farming and alleviate poverty.
Grain production in Gansu is greatly affected by the climate and the output is unstable. Agricultural production there relies heavily on rivers, oases and groundwater irrigation. If traditional extensive agricultural production continued, it could gradually narrow the living space.
In 1995, a local entrepreneur ventured to use Israeli technologies to build greenhouses for vegetables growing in the desert. Such individual pilot projects encouraged the Gansu government to launch a provincial-level Gobi farming program in 2017 with a target to build up a controlled-environment agriculture of about 20,000 hectares by 2022. Some cities in the province, which include Fang’s village, have already been experimenting with Gobi farming for several years.
Despite the harsh environment, farming in the Gobi desert has its advantages: the extended amount of sunlight provides adequate energy for crops, a significant temperature difference between day and night helps crops accumulate nutrients and the Gobi’s hot and dry air means fewer pests and crop diseases. The Gobi greenhouses popping up in Gansu use drip and spray irrigation, which can cut water consumption by almost 50 percent compared to a normal farm. The greenhouses are also eco-friendly, as they use substrates for soilless cultivation recycled from rotten leaves, straw and cow and sheep feces.
With the greenhouses, Fang earns around 70,000 yuan annually. Data from Suzhou. district of Jiuquan showed the greenhouse program has helped bring an average revenue of about $ 72,300 per hectare to local farmers. Large scale greenhouse farming is an investment-intensive project and cannot be sustained only by government financial support. Therefore, the local government has been encouraging villagers such as Fang to take the lead to rent greenhouses or build their own.
It is not an easy task, and many villagers still want to wait and see. However, more and more are starting to join in,either to rum their own greenhouses or work as hired workers for greenhouse owners. Starting from managing four greenhouses in 2009, Fang now is also a partner of a greenhouse farming cooperative running 120 greenhouses.
The relatively low cost of large-scale land use in the Gobi desert have also encouraged large firms to start their Gobi farming pilot projects in Gansu. If the Gobi farming proves successful, it could provide experiences for countries in Central Asia linked with Gansu both by the ancient Silk Road as well as its modern version of the Belt and Road Initiative.
1.What affects grain production in Gansu most?
A.Money. B.Sunlight.
C.Air D.Water.
2.What does the Gobi Farming Program aim to do?
A.Change the local climate.
B.Make the local residents rich.
C.Protect the traditional agricultural production.
D.Help university students start their own business.
3.What can we learn from the text?
A.The harsh environment is good for crops .
B.At first, Fang only ran four greenhouses.
C.With the greenhouses, Fang earns around $ 70,000 annually.
D.Mr. Fang now owns 120 greenhouses producing organic vegetables.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A.The Belt and Road Initiative
B.A Great Adventurer — Mr. Fang
C.The Gobi Farming Program of Gansu
D.The Advantages of Farming in the Gobi Desert
New research has found that young adults who smoke both tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes appear to have a higher risk of stroke than those who only smoke tobacco.
Carried out by researchers at George Mason University, the new study looked at 161,529 participants aged 18 to 44 years of age, who were surveyed about their cigarette and e-cigarette use.
The researchers also calculated the participants’ risk of experiencing a stroke, taking into account factors such as how much participants smoked, high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol levels, body mass index and physical activity levels.
The findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, showed that the participants who smoked cigarettes and used e-cigarettes were nearly two times more likely to have a stroke compared to current cigarette — only smokers, and nearly three times more likely than non-smokers.
The team also found that participants who used only e-cigarettes had a lower risk of stroke than those who smoked only tobacco cigarettes. In fact, those who used e-cigarettes on their own did not have a significantly greater risk of stroke than non-smokers.
However, the researchers failed to find any clear benefit from switching from cigarette smoking to using e-cigarettes, even though many people believe that e-cigarettes are a “healthy” alternative to cigarettes, and a way to help smokers kick the habit. They also noted that the nicotine dependence and toxicity associated with e-cigarettes is worrying, particularly among young adults who smoke them for fun and the range of flavors.
“It’s long been known that smoking cigarettes is among the most significant risk factors for stroke. Our study shows that young smokers who also use e-cigarettes put themselves at an even greater risk,” explained lead investigator Tarang Parekh, MBBS, MSc. “This is an important message for young smokers who perceive e-cigarettes as less harmful ones and consider them a safer alternative.We have begun understanding the health impact of e-cigarettes and concomitant cigarette smoking, and it’s not good.”
“Our findings demonstrate an additive harmful effect of e-cigarettes on smokers’ blood vessels, hearts and brains,” explained Parekh.
“Consider this study as a wake-up call for young vapers, clinicians, and healthcare policymakers. There is an urgency to regulate such products to avoid economic and population heath consequences and a critical need to conduct further research on the benefits and risks of smoking cessation altermatives,” warned Parekh.
1.What does the text belong to?
A.A science fiction. B.A news report.
C.A short story. D.A public announcement.
2.What can we know about the participants?
A.A few elderly people were surveyed.
B.Some of them are non smokers .
C.All of them use cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
D.They have a lower risk of stroke than others .
3.What does the underlined word “perceive” in Paragraph 7 mean?
A.Think. B.Practise.
C.Predict. D.Receive.
4.What did the the new research find?
A.Smoking cigarettes is among the most significant risk factors for stroke.
B.E-cigarettes are a “healthy” alternative to cigarettes.
C.Smoking both tobacco and e-cigarettes can make young adults at an greater risk of stroke.
D.It is beneficial to switch from cigarette smoking to using e-cigarettes.
Mr. Buxton taught me Shakespeare in 10th grade. We were reading Macbeth. Mr. Buxton, who probably had better things to do, nonetheless agreed to meet one night to go over the text line by line. The first thing he did was point out the repetition of themes. For example, the reversals of things.
What Mr. Buxton didn’t tell me was what the play meant. He left the conclusions to me. The situation was much the same with my religious studies teacher in 11th grade, Mr. Flanders, who encouraged me to have my own relationship with the Gospels.
High school was followed by college, where I read Umberto Eco’s The Role of the Reader, in which it is said that the reader completes the text, that the text is never finished until it meets this voracious (渴求的) and engaged reader. The open texts, Eco calls them. In college, I read some of the great Europeans and Latin Americans: Borges and Kafka, Genet and Beckett, Artaud, Proust-open texts all. I may not have known why Kafka’s Metamorphosis is about a guy who turns into a bug: but I knew that some said cockroach, and others, European dung beetle.
There are those critics, of course, who insist that there are right ways and wrong ways to read every book. No doubt they arrived at these beliefs through their own adventures in the stacks. And these are important questions for philosophers of every stripe. And yet I know only what joy and enthusiasm about reading have taught me, in bookstores new and used.
There is not now and never will be an authority who can tell me how to interpret, how to read, how to find the pearl of literary meaning in all cases.
Supposing the truth is not hard, fast, masculine, simple, direct? You could spend a lifetime thinking about this sentence ,and making it your own. In just this way, the freedom to see literature,history, truth unfolding ahead of me like a book whose spine has just now been cracked.
1.When did the author begin to read Shakespeare’s work?.
A.In primary school. B.In 11th grade.
C.In secondary school. D.In college.
2.What can we know about The Role of the Reader from the text?
A.It w as written by the readers.
B.It is about a guy turning into a bug.
C.It insists that the reader completes the text.
D.Some great Europeans and Latin Americans wrote it together.
3.What is the main reason of the author loving reading?
A.Being an excellent student.
B.Mr. Buxton’s teaching method.
C.The joy and enthusiasm from his reading.
D.His admiration for literature masters like Shakespeare.
4.What can be inferred about the author from the text?
A.He has a preference for the open texts.
B.Shakespeare is his favorite.
C.He is naturally talented in reading.
D.He is also a famous literary critic.
The annual Dongyue Temple Fair of Mount Tai will be held during April 29-May 6 at Dai Temple in Tai’an. Here are some items visitors may love.
Performances
From April 29 to May 6, performances of martial arts (武术), traditional music, Chinese folk art forms and local operas will be put on stage. Visitors can lift their spirits by watching long boxing and nunchakus (双节棍) performances or listening to the music played by guqin, a seven-stringed zither, and the bamboo flute.
Folk-custom activities
Visitors to the temple fair can also enjoy themselves by admiring folk-custom activities held from April 29 to May 6.
There will be exhibitions of traditional handicrafts and paper cutting works that were collected and selected by non-governmental organizations. Performers will also show traditional Chinese costumes at a garden party.
Cultural activities
If the visitors want to enjoy the cultural atmosphere at the temple fair, they can get a close look at bamboo engraving art at Peitian Gate where more than 70 pieces of engraving art are exhibited from April 28 to May 22.
Trade activities
If people want to buy Mount Tai specialties, they won’t be disappointed, for trade shows will be held during the temple fair. Tea, tourism products, donkey-hide-gelatin, rare stones and root carvings will be showed and on sale.
1.How many days will bamboo engraving art be exhibited?
A.6. B.8.
C.22. D.25.
2.What can visitors enjoy in folk-custom activities?
A.Martial arts. B.Local opera.
C.Paper-cutting works. D.Chinese paintings.
3.What does the part of “Trade activities” tell us?
A.The products are for display only.
B.You can get to know many new products.
C.Visitors can purchase some local products on the shows.
D.Don’t buy products on show, or you will be disappointed.
假如你是班长李华，你们班准备参加学校下个月举办的“英文话剧比赛”（English Drama Contest），但尚未确定参演剧目，请你给外教Louis写封邮件，内容包括：
1.活功意义；
2.征求建议；
3.请其指导。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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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：在错的词下面一横线，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。.
“Who would like this $20 bill!?" a well-known speaker asked, held up a $20 bill. Hand started going up. He said, "I am going to give them to one of you and first, let me do this." He left it on the ground and deliberate stepped on it with his shoe again and again. He picked it up, now covering with dirt. Still the hands were up in air. Because it did not decrease in value and was still worth of $20.
Many times in your lives, dropped and thrown into the dirt by the decisions you make and the circumstances and the difficulties that comes your way, you may feel as though you are worthless. But you are still priceless to your family members, that love you and depend on you.
