The American local food movement has been all about buying seasonal food from nearby farmers. Now, thanks to the Web, it is expanding to include far-away farmers too. A new start-up, Foodzie, is an online farmers market where small food producers and growers can sell their products.
Foodzie was started by Mr LaFave and two of his friends, who met during college at Virginia Tech, where they would pay frequent visits to farmers markets. Last year, while living in North Carolina, one of them, Emily Olson, now 24, came up with one idea. She was working as a brand manager for a gourmet grocery chain and realized that people who enjoyed fine food but didn’t work in the business had no way to discover handmade foods outside their local farmers markets. Small farmers had no way of finding or selling to faraway customers, either.
Mr LaFAve and the third co-founder, Nik Bauman, both 25, worked in corporate sales and software development. “With business, food and computer science backgrounds, we figured we had everything we needed.” Mr LaFAve said.
The three quit their jobs, and opened this site to the public in December and the site has had 43,000 visitors in the past month. So far, 29 sellers have opened shops and 41 are in the process of opening them. The founders recently hired a fourth employee to help Ms Olson recruit(吸收) new food producers at farmers markets and food shows. Mr LaFAve is convinced that the recession(经济衰退) will not reduce people’s interest in buying locally grown and handmade food. “There is misunderstanding that all these foods are more expensive than mass-produced alternatives,” he said. “People are pouring their heart and soul into these products, and they are of the highest quality.”The passage is mainly about_______.
| A．how an online farmers’ market works |
| B．the American local food movement |
| C．three youths starting an online farmers’ market |
| D．the reasons why people are interested in local food |
Why did the founders start the online farmers’ market?
| A．Because it met the need of the market. |
| B．Because the founders were interested in seasonal food. |
| C．Because some people wanted to buy locally grown food. |
| D．Because farmers wanted to sell their foods. |
The underlined word in Paragraph 2 can be used to describe _______.
| A．food of high quality | B．terrible food | C．food of low fat | D．fried food |
About the three founders, we know that ______.
| A．they are of the same age |
| B．they gave up their work to start the website |
| C．they used to be colleague |
| D．they majored in farming at college |
Imagine you’re at a party full of strangers. You’re nervous. Who are these people? How do you start a conversation? Fortunately, you’ve got a thing that sends out energy at tiny chips in everyone’s name tag (标签). The chips send back name, job, hobbies, and the time available for meeting-whatever. Making new friends becomes simple.
This hasn’t quite happened in real life. But the world is already experiencing a revolution using RFID technology.
An RFID tag with a tiny chip can be fixed in a product, under your pet’s skin, even under your own skin. Passive RFID tags have no energy source-batteries because they do not need it. The energy comes from the reader, a scanning device(装置),that sends out energy (for example, radio waves)that starts up the tag immediately.
Such a tag carries information specific to that object, and the data can be updated. Already, RFID technology is used for recognizing each car or truck on the road and it might appear in your passport. Doctors can put a tiny chip under the skin that will help locate and obtain a patient’s medical records. At a nightclub in Paris or in New York the same chip gets you into the VIP (very important person) section and pays for the bill with the wave of an arm.
Take a step back: 10 or 12 years ago, you would have heard about the coming age of computing. One example always seemed to surface: Your refrigerator would know when you needed to buy more milk. The concept was that computer chips could be put everywhere and send information in a smart network that would make ordinary life simpler.
RFID tags are a small part of this phenomenon. “The world is going to be a loosely coupled set of individual small devices, connected wirelessly,” predicts Dr.J.Reich. Human right supporters are nervous about the possibilities of such technology. It goes too far tracking school kids through RFID tags, they say. We imagine a world in which a beer company could find out not only when you bought a beer but also when you drank it. And how many beers accompanied by how many biscuits.
When Marconi invented radio, he thought it would be used for ship-to-shore communication. Not for pop music. Who knows how RFID and related technologies will be used in the future. Here’s a wild guess: Not for buying milk.The article is intended to .
| A．warn people of the possible risks in adopting RFID technology |
| B．explain the benefits brought about by RFID technology |
| C．convince people of the uses of RFID technology |
| D．predict the applications of RFID technology |
We know from the passage that with the help of RFID tags, people .
| A．will have no trouble getting data about others |
| B．will have more energy for conversation |
| C．will have more time to make friends |
| D．won’t feel shy at parties any longer |
Passive RFID tags chiefly consist of .
| A．scanning devices | B．radio waves |
| C．batteries | D．chips |
Why are some people worried about RFID technology?
| A．Because children will be tracked by strangers. |
| B．Because market competition will become fiercer. |
| C．Because their private lives will be greatly affected. |
| D．Because customers will be forced to buy more products. |
It is difficult for doctors to help a person with a damaged brain. Without enough blood, the brain lives for only three to five minutes. More often the doctors can’t fix the damage. Sometimes they are afraid to try something to help because it is dangerous to work on the brain. The doctors might make the person worse if he operates on the brain.
Dr. Robert White, a famous professor and doctor, thinks he knows a way to help. He thinks doctors should make the brain very cold. If it is very cold, the brain can live without blood for 30 minutes. This gives the doctor a longer time to do something for the brain.
Dr. White tried his idea on 13 monkeys. First he taught them to do different jobs, and then he operated on them. He made the monkeys' blood go through a machine. The machine cooled the blood. Then the machine sent the blood back to the monkeys' brains. When the brain’s temperature was 10°C, Dr. White stopped the blood to the brain. After 30 minutes he turned the blood back on. He warmed the blood again. After their operations the monkeys were like they had been before. They were healthy and busy. Each one could still do the jobs the doctor had taught them. The biggest difficulty in operating on the damaged brain is that _______.
| A．the time is too short for doctors |
| B．the patients are often too nervous |
| C．the damage is extremely hard to fix |
| D．the blood-cooling machine might break down |
The brain operation was made possible mainly by _______.
| A．taking the blood out of the brain |
| B．trying the operation on monkeys first |
| C．having the blood go through a machine |
| D．lowering the brain’s temperature |
With Dr. White’s new idea, the operation on the damaged brain _______.
| A．can last as long as 30 minutes |
| B．can keep the brain’s blood warm |
| C．can keep the patient’s brain healthy |
| D．can help monkeys do different jobs |
What is the right order of the steps in the operation?
a. send the cooled blood back to the brain
b. stop the blood to the brain
c. have the blood cooled down
d. operate on the brain
| A．a, b, c, d | B．c, a, b, d |
| C．c, b, d, a | D．b, c, d, a |
If women are mercilessly exploited(剥削) year after year, they have only themselves to blame. Because they tremble at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are always taken advantage of by the designers and the big stores.Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be put aside because of the change of fashion.
Changing fashions are nothing more than the intentional creation of waste. Many women spend large sums of money each year to replace clothes that have hardly been worn. Women who cannot afford to throw away clothing in this way, waste hours of their time changing their old-fashioned dresses. Skirts are lengthened or shortened; neck-lines are lowered or raised, and so on.
No one can claim that the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society. Fashion designers are rarely concerned with necessary things like warmth, comfort and durability (耐用). They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfort, as long as they look right. There can hardly be a man who hasn't at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shaking in a thin dress on a winter day, or picking her way through deep snow in high heeled shoes.
When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusions to be drawn are obvious. Do the constantly changing fashions of women's clothes, one wonders, reflect basic qualities of inconstancy and instability? Men are too clever to let themselves be cheated by fashion designers. Do their unchanging styles of dress reflect basic qualities of stability and reliability(稳定耐用)? That is for you to decide. Designers and big stores always make money_________.
| A．by mercilessly exploiting women workers in the clothing industry |
| B．because they are capable of predicting new fashions |
| C．by constantly changing the fashions in women's clothing |
| D．because they attach great importance to quality in women's clothing |
To the writer, the fact that women change their old-fashioned dresses is seen as___.
| A．a waste of money |
| B．a waste of time |
| C．an expression of taste |
| D．an expression of creativity |
New fashions in clothing are created for ___________.
| A．the commercial exploitation of women |
| B．the women's strength of character |
| C．basic qualities of inconstancy and instability |
| D．an important contribution to society |
By saying "the conclusions to be drawn are obvious" ( Line One to Line Two, Paragraph Four), the writer means that ___________.
| A．women's inconstancy in their choice of clothing is often laughed at |
| B．women are better able to put up with discomfort |
| C．men are also exploited greatly by fashion designers |
| D．men are more reasonable in the matter of fashion |
Here is a story told about an American general who was a very important figure in the American army during the First World War. Everybody in the United States knew him and many people wished to have a picture or something of his in their homes.
Soon after the war the general returned to Washington. One day he went to a dentist and had six teeth pulled out. A week later the general heard that his teeth were being sold in shops at $5 each. On each of the teeth there was a label with the name of the general and words: “buy these teeth and show them to your friends at home.” The general got angry. He rushed to his office and ordered six officers to go around the city and buy all his teeth.
The officers went out and visited every shop in the capital.They were away from the office all day. In the evening they returned and put on the table in front of the general the teeth they had bought. They had collected 175 teeth.The general returned to Washington ______.
| A．during the war | B．after civil war |
| C．after 1945 | D．after 1918 |
The general’s teeth were sold in ______.
| A．the museum |
| B．the special shops selling some rare and interesting things |
| C．the department store |
| D．the hospital |
The general ordered his men to _____________．
| A．arrest the dentist |
| B．look for all his teeth and buy all of them |
| C．visit all the shops selling teeth |
| D．buy all the teeth in all the shops |
In the evening, the officers went back with all the teeth which cost ______.
| A．$ 785 | B．$ 1,050 |
| C．$ 157 | D．$ 875 |
The world’s first subway was built in London in 1863. At the time，the government was looking for a way to reduce traffic problems in the city of London. The poor areas of the city were so crowded with people that it was almost impossible for horse carriages to get through. The city officials were interested in trying to make it possible for workers to live outside of London and travel easily to work each day. If people had a cheap and convenient way that they could depend on to go to and from work, they would relocate their homes outside of the city. This would help ease(减轻) the pressure of too many people living in the poor parts of London. From these problems，the idea of the London Underground，the first subway system，was born.
The plans for building the Underground met with several problems and delays，but the fast track was finally opened in January 1863. A steam train pulled the cars along the fast underground track which was 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) long. About 30，000 people got on the subway the first day. Riders were treated to comfortable seats (standing up while the train was moving was not allowed)，and pleasant decorations inside each of the cars. However, the smoke from the engine soon filled the air in the tunnels with ash and soot(煤灰), as well as chemical gases. Fans had to be put in the tunnels later to keep the air clean enough for people to breathe.Even with its problems，riding in the Underground did catch on. It carried 9 million riders in its first year.What led the British government to build the London Underground？
| A．Traffic jams and pollution. |
| B．Population and pollution. |
| C．Overcrowding and traffic jams. |
| D．The poverty and subway problems. |
How did the London Underground solve the smoke problem？
| A．It made the tunnels larger. |
| B．It put fans in the tunnels. |
| C．It cleaned the chemical gases in the tunnels. |
| D．It reduced the number of passengers riding in the train. |
The underlined phrase “catch on” most probably means “______”.
| A．be troublesome |
| B．become popular and fashionable |
| C．keep up with |
| D．seize |
Which of the following is TRUE？
| A．To relocate the workers’ homes outside London，the government built the subway. |
| B．There were so many problems and delays that in 18th century the first subway opened. |
| C．The subway greatly eased the pressure of traffic. |
| D．There were not enough seats for the passengers the first day the subway opened. |