Jamie Oliver has been invited by Gordon Brown to prepare a banquet at No.10 for President Barack Obama and other leaders of the G20，offering a cut-price menu to reflect times when trade and industry are far from prosperous and the rate of employment is decreasing．
Downing Street sources say Oliver, the well-known chef, will cook using“honest high—street products”and avoid expensive or“fancy”ingredients(材料).
The prime minister is trying to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment last year when he sat down to an 18-course banquet at a Japanese summit to discuss world food shortages．
Obama，President Nicolas Sarkozy of France，Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and other leaders will be served by apprentices(学徒)from Fifteen，the London restaurant Oliver founded to help train young people in poverty in order to make a living by mastering a skill.
Brown wants the dinner to reflect the emphasis of the London summit，which he hopes will lead to an agreement to lift the world out of depression．“To be invited to cook for such an important group of people，who are trying to solve some of the world’s major problems, is really a privilege,”said Oliver，“I’m hoping the menu I'm working on will show British food and produce is some of the best in the world，but also show we have pioneered a high-quality apprentice scheme at Fifteen London that is giving young people a skill to be proud of．”
The chef has not yet finalized the menu，but is expected to draw inspiration from his latest book, Jamie's Ministry of Food，which has budget recipes for beef and ale stew(啤酒炖菜)and “impressive” chocolate fudge cake.
56. What can we learn about Oliver from the text?
A．He is a well-known American cook．
B．He is invited to attend the G20 summit．
C．He has founded the Fifteen London．
D. He is one of the apprentices serving leaders of the G20.
57．The menu of the banquet for the leaders of the G20 is supposed to .
A．include all delicious British food
B．use inexpensive produce with special characteristics
C．be rich，varied and of high quality
D．imitate the menu of last Japanese summit
58．Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
A．Oliver is honored to be invited to cook for the G20 leaders.
B. Altogether three presidents are mentioned in the text.
C．President Barak Obama offers the cut-price menu.
D．The menu for the G20 dinner banquet has been decided.
59．What is the Fifteen London?
A．an apartment in London B．a luxurious restaurant in London
C．a restaurant as well as a training center D．a famous avenue
Anyone who ever wondered why a dying plant, say, a freshly-cut red rose may appeal to a lady friend, might take some comfort in science, which once again offers us a reasonable answer to one of the world’ s great mysteries.
Beyond a common preference in people for blue, “the long history of color preference studies has been described as ‘confusing and contradictory,” write scientists Anya Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling of England’ s Newcastle University, authors of a new study in the journal Current Biology. “This fact is perhaps surprising,” they said, “though the popularity of the concept that little girls differ from boys in preferring pink.”.
But the scientists believe they have an answer to this scientific mystery, discovering women’s preference for red, hidden above the average liking for blue.
In their study, the pair quickly flashed color cards, displaying many different aspects, at 208 volunteers, mostly Britishers but with a number of Han Chinese, who moved to the United Kingdom recently. Tested in three different experiments, the researchers found out a small but significant preference for reddish colors in the female volunteers.
Puzzled, the authors realized that most of the difference between men and women came in the form of a preference for green VS red in the color cards, regardless of the other slight differences such as the slightly blue ones that everyone liked. Why might this be?
Evolution might offer an answer, they reason. Human color perception（感知）, the assessment of three separate color types-red-green-blue-in our vision is a relatively recent addition to our line of mammals.
Adding weight to their argument, they found the women who are most typically feminine（女性的）on a psychological survey also had the biggest preference for reddish colors. “My love is like a red, red rose,” wrote the Scottish poet Rober Burns in 1794.The scientists discovered the colour mystery that exists between men and women by _____..
| A．giving examples | B．doing experiments. |
| C．stating causes and effects | D．interviewing volunteers. |
The word “pair” in Para.4 refers to _____.
| A．man and woman | B．science and evolution . |
| C．Anya Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling | D．red and green |
According to the study the scientists have carried out in the passage, _____.
| A．men like blue most. |
| B．women have preference for red besides blue. |
| C．generally speaking boys prefer slight pink to blue. |
| D．girls also love slight green. |
Dickson Despommier, a public health professor at Columbia University in New York City developed an idea with his students nine years ago. They imagined people in cities growing crops inside a tall building. Tomatoes could grow on one floor of the skyscraper(摩天大楼), potatoes on the next, small animals and fish on the floor above.
This vertical(垂直的) farm, or "farmscraper", could have space for restaurants and other places that serve food, like schools or hospitals. They could serve foods that are truly locally grown.
But why would anyone want to build a farm indoors in a city? Dickson Despommier believes it will become necessary. The world needs to find places to produce enough food to feed the growing population. Space, he says, is an all-important issue.
The professor also points to the problems of traditional farms. They use a lot of freshwater. Their fertilizer and animal waste can pollute water resources. And their growing seasons can be limited.
But inside the vertical farm, crops could grow all year. And there would be no wind to blow away soil. Farmers would not have to worry about too much or too little rain, or about hot summers, freezing winters or insects. And without insects there would be no need for chemicals to kill them.
Farm machines that .use fossil fuels, like tractors, would not be needed either. And water could be recycled for drinking. "The vertical farm reuses everything, so there is no waste," says Professor Despommier.
Even buildings could be saved. Old buildings could become new farms and provide jobs.
The professor has been actively proposing the idea to cities as far away as Dubai and Canada. But so far it exists only in plans and drawings, and a model at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
Critics say building a farmscraper would cost too much, especially considering the price of land in many cities. Dickson Despommier estimates the cost at about twenty to thirty million dollars.
But he says the building would not have to be very tall. And his graduate students have found many empty lots and unused buildings in New York City that could provide space.According to the passage the purpose of proposing the idea of a farm scraper is to .
| A．find places to produce enough food |
| B．serve food that are truly locally grown |
| C．prevent polluting the limited land |
| D．save fresh water |
Which is one of the advantages of a farm scraper?
| A．It costs less |
| B．It saves labor power. |
| C．It consumes too much energy |
| D．It is more environmentally friendly. |
Those against the idea of farm scrapers argue that
| A．it uses too much land in cities |
| B．it costs too much to build one |
| C．it causes people to lose their jobs |
| D．it exists only in unrealistic plans |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．A vertical farm has been built in Chicago. |
| B．Old buildings could be changed into new farms. |
| C．Traditional farms use less water but pollute more water |
| D．There are some vertical farms being put into use in Canada. |
I love it at night. It’s peaceful. And when it cools down I sometimes do some ironing. I don’t really care for it. I work full-time and too busy for most housework. I remember the old woman who taught me to iron. I was about 15 and somehow got a live-in job taking care of a woman who had been an able-bodied, healthy woman until the accident that caused her to be paralyzed（瘫痪）.
The woman had an electric wheelchair. She could move her head and arms but not her hands or fingers. She had this clamp（夹子）attached to her arm and I’d have to open it and put a cup or a pencil in it and then she could move it. She would tell me how to do things. She would instruct me in great detail on the correct way to do things. Her home was perfect and beautiful. She would follow me around in her electric wheelchair to make sure I did everything exactly right. I’m sure she had been a perfect homemaker. She would have me fold everything, including socks and pillow cases. I would complain silently and wish terrible things on her. She taught me the right way to make the bed and tuck （塞）the corners. I know sometimes she’d get frustrated and impatient with me. I knew she wanted to grab it and do it herself. But she never yelled or scolded. Only insisted I do it right. I didn’t like it much, but I did it.
Today I can iron pretty well. I know where to start on a shirt, the right way to do the collar and sleeves. Now that I think about it, I don’t think she is an old lady. I think she might have been about my age now. Anyway, when I iron, I think of her and silently thank her for all the things I learned. From the passage we can infer that the writer of the passage now is ________.
| A．a housewife | B．a full-time worker |
| C．a clothes maker | D．a college student |
The writer used to take care of the lady because ______.
| A．she wanted to learn how to do housework |
| B．she was a relative of the disabled woman |
| C．she wanted to earn some money while sleeping and eating there |
| D．she had to do something in return to the lady for her kindness |
When the lady taught the writer how to do housework, the little girl was ______.
| A．eager to learn | B．unwilling to learn |
| C．forced to learn | D．careful to learn |
What’s the writer’s attitude towards the lady now?
| A．Sympathetic | B．Fearful | C．Hateful | D．Grateful |
Special Bridges Help Animals Cross the Road
—Reported by Sheila Carrick
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.
Most people know this joke. But recently, some people have been much more worried about how the grizzly bear (灰熊) and mountain lion can cross the road.
“Millions of animals die each year on U.S. roads,” the Federal Highway Administration reports. In fact, only about 80 ocelots, an endangered wild cat, exist in the U.S. today. The main reason? Roadkill.
“Ecopassages ” may help animals cross the road without being hit by cars. They are paths both over and under roads. “These ecopassages can be extremely useful, so that wildlife can avoid road accidents,” said Jodi Hilty of the Wildlife Protection Society.
But do animals actually use the ecopassages? The answer is yes. Paul Beier of Northern Arizona University found foot marks left by mountain lions on an ecopassage that went under a highway. This showed that the lions used the passage.
Builders of ecopassages try to make them look like a natural part of an area by planting trees on and around them. Animals seem to be catching on. Animals as different as salamanders (火蜥蜴) and grizzly bears are using the bridges and underpasses.
The next time you visit a park or drive through an area with a lot of wildlife, look around. You might see an animal overpass!The writer uses the example of “ocelots” to show that _______.
| A．wild animals have become more dangerous |
| B．the driving conditions have improved greatly |
| C．the measure for protecting wildlife fails to work |
| D．an increasing number of animals are killed in road accidents |
From the news story, we know an ecopassage is ________.
| A．an underground path for cars |
| B．a fence built for the safety of the area |
| C．a bridge for animals to get over a river |
| D．a path for animals to cross the road |
When the writer says that animals seem “to be catching on”, he means ________.
| A．animals begin to realize the dangers on the road |
| B．animals begin to learn to use ecopassages |
| C．animals are crossing the road in groups |
| D．animals are increasing in number |
The writer asks visitors and drivers to look around when traveling because ________.
| A．wild animals may attack cars |
| B．wild animals may block the road |
| C．they may see wild animals in the park |
| D．they may see wild animals on ecopassages |
With eco-tourism on the rise, eco-hotels are fast becoming the darling of the travel industry. These days, however, staying at an eco-hotel doesn’t necessarily mean vacationing in a tree house in the Costa Rican jungle, although that is certainly a choice.
The majority of eco-hotels fall into several categories: hotels and resorts that conserve ecologically important habitats; “green” hotels that reduce, recycle, minimize waste, and protect water; sustainable hotels that harvest food from gardens on the hotel property or get part or all of their power from renewable energy; hotels that encourage community involvement such as guests taking part in trail clearing; and hotels that offer some form of environmental education to their guests.
As such, eco-hotels are a various group. Stylish urban hotels like the Willard Inter-Continental Washington focus on energy conservation whereas the Rosario Resort & Spa on Orcas Island in Washington State offers a wildly popular “green” vacation package where guests can “take a hike, clear a trail”.
No matter what you call them, eco-hotel, eco-lodge, eco-resort, or green hotel, they’re all part of the “greening” of the tourism industry.
Part of what drives this greening of the hotel industry is no doubt competition. Going green is another way to distinguish a hotel from the mass of other excellent hotels that consumers have to choose from. But for many hotels, it’s also part of their philosophy. With the concept of “going green” firmly rooted in consumers’ minds, eco-hotels have taken it to the next level, and whether or not money is the driving factor behind the greening of the hotel industry doesn’t matter so much as it’s good for the planet.According to the passage, which of the following can match the idea of eco-hotel?
| A．It is comfortable and fashionable. | B．It uses renewable energy. |
| C．It has walls of glass. | D．It is home to endangered species. |
From the passage, we know the Rosario Resort & Spa is a kind of hotel that _______.
| A．encourages its guests to participate in its greening activities |
| B．harvests food from its own garden |
| C．has courses on the environment for its guests |
| D．protects important habitats |
From the last paragraph, we can infer that _______.
| A．money is the driving force behind eco-hotels |
| B．the hotel industry cares more about money than the environment |
| C．eco-hotels teach their guests the philosophy of eco-hotels |
| D．eco-hotels have no advantages in competing for guests |