A growing number of health, hunger, and sustainable (可持续的)agriculture groups today announced plans for Food Day-a nationwide campaign to change the way Americans eat and think about food.Food Day will encourage people around the country to sponsor or participate in activities that encourage Americans to “eat real” and support healthy, affordable food grown in a sustainable, humane way.
Organizers hope Food Day will inspire Americans to hold thousands of events in schools, college campuses, houses of worship and even in private homes aimed at fixing America’s food system.A Food Day event could be as small as a parent organizing a vegetable identification contest at a kindergarten class-or as massive as a rally(集会)in a city park, with entertainment and healthy food.Health departments, city councils and other policy makers could use Food Day to launch campaigns, hold hearings, or otherwise address communities food problems.
The campaign will advocate progress toward five central goals:
·Reducing diet-related disease by promoting healthy foods.The American diet is too low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and too high in fatty meat, soft drinks and salty packaged and restaurant foods-contributing to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year.
·Supporting sustainable farms and stopping subsidies to agribusiness.Billions of federal dollars a year would be better spent helping environmentally conscious family farmers than hugeagribusiness operations.
·Expanding access to food and alleviating hunger.Far too many Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from, or have access to fresh produce in their neighborhood.
·Reforming factory farms to protect animals and the environment.Farming of animals can and should be done without cruelty, and without degrading the quality of life.
·Curbing junk-food marketing to kids.Food companies should not be targeting children with foods that promote tooth decay, obesity and other health problems.What is the best title of the text?
| A.Food Day Campaign | B.Eat Real and Keep fit |
| C.How to Observe Food Day | D.Food Problems in the USA |
What can we learn from Paragraph 2?
| A.Food problems are not easy to deal with. |
| B.Food Day events should be held in public places. |
| C.Kindergarten kids are unable to identify vegetables. |
| D.People are invited to create their own Food Day events. |
One of the aims of Food Day is to ____.
| A.target children with junk food | B.operate more agribusiness |
| C.increase access to food | D.cancel a series of events |
The underlined word "curbing" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to “ ”.
| A.controlling | B.enlarging | C.evaluating | D.providing |
We can infer from the text that _____.
| A.Food Day will not help preserve natural resources. |
| B.Food Day can be an opportunity to solve food problems. |
| C.Food Day has so far achieved all the central goals. |
| D.there are different ideas and views about Food Day. |
When I was younger it seemed that the super hero was Batman or Spiderman. As I grew up, I looked to real people with some of these qualities to be my super hero including being strong, honest, friendly, brave, skilled, hardworking, and reliable. The person I think of when I hear these words is my dad.
My dad is one of the toughest people I have ever met. He has been through it all. When I was five, 60 percent of his body was burned. In 1999 he fell from a tree, breaking his arm and shattering his ankle. In 2004, he had a liver transplant (移植) after being on the list for six years after a bad blood transfusion that gave him Hepatitis C. Now, my dad is 45 years old and feels better than he has in 15 years.
My dad is one of the most reliable people I know. Anything I ask of him, he does. Whenever he tells me he is going to do something, it is always done before I get home from work. Whenever I need my dad, he is there. When I was ten and he told me my grandmother was going to die, I felt really down. He was the one there trying to cheer me up.
My dad has worked hard for everything he has. At home, he is always busy doing projects and has painted every room in our house. After our shop was built, he constructed an office you would think a professional built. When I do something stupid, he helps me fix it. Of course, he does his complaining, but I know he likes fixing things just as much as I like tearing them up.
My dad has been one of the greatest parts of my life. I have learned a lot from watching him and I don’t believe I will ever meet anyone like him. I hope when I grow up, I can possess the same qualities as my dad, and have someone look up to me as a good role model. This is why my dad is my hero.The author describes his father as reliable mainly _________.
| A.by appearance | B.by example | C.by comparison | D.by behavior |
What does the underlined word “shattering” mean in Paragraph 2?
| A.breaking | B.transplanting | C.burning | D.destroying |
The second paragraph is mainly about ___________?
| A.the reasons why 60% of Father’s body was burned. |
| B.the successful skin transplant in 2010. |
| C.the sufferings Father has gone through in the last 15years. |
| D.the operations that Father had through his 45 years of struggle |
Which of the following can best describe the father?
| A.busy, tough and reliable | B.strong, skilled and optimistic |
| C.tough, reliable and hardworking | D.rough, reliable and friendly |
Which of the following can best serve as the title of this passage?
| A.My Father—My Hero | B.My Father and I |
| C.A Man Who Survived | D.A Good Model to Respect |
How Americans Began to Eat Tomatoes
People have strange ideas about food. For example, the tomato is a kind of very
delicious vegetable. It is one of useful plants that can be prepared in many ways. It has rich nutrition and vitamin in it. But in the 18th century, Americans never ate tomatoes. They grow them in their gardens because tomato plants are so pretty. But they thought the vegetable was poisonous (有毒的). They called tomatoes “poison apples”.
President Thomas Jefferson, however, knew that tomatoes were good to eat. He was a learned man. He had been to Paris, where he learned to love the taste of tomatoes. He grew many kinds of tomatoes in his garden. The President taught his cook a way for a cream of tomato soup. This beautiful pink soup was served at the President’s party. The guests thought the soup tasted really good. They never thought their president would serve his honored guests poison apples. Jefferson never spoke to his honored (尊贵的) guests about the fact.After you read the passage, which of the following do you think is true?
| A.Americans never ate tomatoes after they began to plant them. |
| B.American didn’t eat tomatoes before the 19th century. |
| C.Even now Americans don’t eat tomatoes |
| D.In the 18th century Americans ate a lot of tomatoes. |
The passage tells us that Jefferson was a President who learned to love the taste of tomatoes.
| A.while he was in Paris . |
| B.when he was a little boy. |
| C.the President ’s cook. |
| D.the President’s wife. |
According to the text, ________cooked the beautiful pink soup at the President ’s party?
| A.the President himself. |
| B.A French cook |
| C.the President ’s cook |
| D.the President’s wife |
The underlined word “cook”in paragraph2 means_______
| A.厨房 | B.厨师 | C.厨具 | D.做饭 |
From the passage we know all the honored guests invited by Jefferson were______.
| A.people from other countries | B.from France |
| C.People of his own country | D.men only |
A holiday is any day when people lay aside their ordinary duties and cares. The word came from Old English. At first, holidays honored some holy events or persons. People in Great Britain and other countries speak of holidays as Americans speak of vacations.
Every nation has its special holidays. China observes New Year’s Day (January 1), May Day and National Day as legal (法定的)holidays , as it was on Oct.1,1949 that the People’s Republic of China was founded. The Chinese have long celebrated the Chinese lunar year. In the United States, congress has declared several days as legal holidays such as New Year’s Day (January 1), Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, Washington’s birthday, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day and so on. Some holidays celebrated special events in the development of a country, such as Greece’s Independence Day, Italy’s Liberation Day and India’s Independence Day.
In the United States, banks and schools usually close on a legal holiday. When such a holiday falls on Sunday, the following Monday is usually observed. Schools and organizations often observe days known as traditional holidays, although schools and business do not close then. Those holidays include Valentine’s Day and Halloween.From the passage we know that China’s National Day is _______
| A.January1 | B.May 1 |
| C.October1 | D.December25 |
In the sentence “China observes New Year’s Day (January 1)’’, observe means ______
| A.praises | B.spends | C.celebrates | D.cares |
From the passage we can infer that _______
| A.Chinese will no longer observe the Spring Festival |
| B.students don’t have to go to school on any holiday |
| C.Chinese and Americans share at least one holiday |
| D.Americans can easily draw money from banks on legal days. |
Which of the following holidays has nothing to do with a country’s development?
| A.China’s National Day | B.Valentine’s Day |
| C.Italy’s liberation Day | D.Independence Day |
If a legal holiday falls on Sunday in the USA, people usually celebrate on ______.
| A.Sunday | B.the following |
| C.the following Monday | D.the following Tuesday. |
Poor families in some countries spend as much as eighty percent of their money on food. Rising prices in recent months have created the worst food crisis(危机) in more than thirty years. The United Nations World Food Program says high food prices could push one hundred million people into hunger.
Nathan Childs is an expert on rice markets. He notes that the harvest for the latest growing season was the largest on record. But India, Vietnam and others have restricted exports(限制出口) to keep prices down at home and protect supplies.
Thailand’s agriculture minister says his country will never restrict rice exports. He told the Reuters news agency Thursday that Thailand has enough supplies to meet demand at home and for export.
Thailand is the world’s largest rice exporter. Recent signs of an increase in supplies have helped ease record prices for Thai rice. Prices rose last week above one thousand dollars a ton.
Vietnam, the second biggest exporter, has banned(禁止) exports until June. And Vietnamese officials have now warned that non-food traders who buy rice for speculation(投机活动)will be severely punished.
Some experts say speculation is a necessary part of market activity. But the head of the U.N. Environment Program blames it for the high food prices. “We have enough food on this planet today to feed everyone.” Achim Steiner told the Associated Press.
Earlier, a member of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission didn’t accept the idea that speculators are the main cause. Bart Chilton blamed reduced harvests and grain supplies and the falling value of the dollar.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called heads of major international agencies to a meeting this week in the Swiss capital, Bern. He says high food prices could harm world trade, economic growth, social progress and political security.What is the main idea of the passage?
| A.Vietnam has banned rice exports to other countries. |
| B.Thailand is the largest rice exporter in the world. |
| C.Some families are too poor to afford enough food. |
| D.Rising prices of food have led to the world food crisis. |
Which country restricted food exports according to the passage?
A. Thailand. B. Switzerland. C. Vietnam. D. The USA.All of the following are the results of rising prices of food EXCEPT ____.
| A.the worst food crisis |
| B.reduced harvests and grain supplies |
| C.people spending more money on food |
| D.pushing one hundred million people into hunger |
What is the reason for the speculation according to the head of the U.N. Environment Program?
| A.High food prices. |
| B.The falling value of the dollar. |
| C.Enough rice supplies in some countries. |
| D.Restricted food exports in some countries. |
Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts hardly lose their pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age.” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. “Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70. one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender(性别)difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink.
They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on heahhy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease.
The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart, said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.The underlined word “longevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to _____.
| A.health | B.long life | C.ageing | D.effect |
The text mainly talks about ______.
| A.men’s heart cells | B.women’s ageing process |
| C.the gender difference | D.hearts and long life |
According to the text, the UK scientists have known that _____.
| A.women have more cells than men when they are born |
| B.women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat |
| C.the female heart loses few of the cells with age |
| D.women never lose their pumping power with age |
We can know from the passage that ______.
| A.scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells |
| B.the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out |
| C.the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss |
| D.wome over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20 |