What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher? A doctor? How about an ice-cream taster?
Yes, there really is a job where you can get paid to taste ice-cream. Just ask John Harrison, an＂Official Taste Tester＂for the past 21 years. Testing helps manufacturers to be sure of a product’s quality. During his career Harrison has been responsible for approving large quantities of the sweet ice cream－－as well as for developing over 75 flavors (味道).
Some people think that it would be easy to do this job: after all, you just have to like ice cream, right? No－－there’s more to the job than that, says Harrison, who has a degree in chemistry. He points out that a dairy or food-science degree would be very useful to someone wanting a career in this＂cool＂field.
In a typical morning on the job, Harrison tastes and assesses 60 ice-cream samples. He lets the ice cream warm up to about 12℉. Harrison explains,＂You get more flavor from warmer ice cream, which is why some kids like to stir it, creating ice-cream soup.＂
While the ice cream warms up, Harrison looks over the samples and grades each one on its appearance.＂Tasting begins with the eyes,＂he explains. He checks to see if the ice cream is attractive and asks himself,＂Does the product have the color expected from that flavor?＂Next it’s time to taste!
Continuing to think up new ideas, try out new flavors, and test samples from so many kinds of ice cream each day keeps Harrison busy but happy－－working at one cool job.What is John Harrison’s job?
| A．An official. | B．An ice-cream taster. |
| C．A chemist. | D．An ice-cream manufacturer. |
According to John Harrison, to be qualified in the＂cool field＂, it is helpful to ______.
| A．keep a diary of wor |
| B．have a degree in related subjects |
| C．have new ideas every day |
| D．find out new flavors each day |
What does Harrison do first when testing ice cream?
| A．He stirs the ice cream. |
| B．He examines the color of the ice cream. |
| C．He tastes the flavor of the ice cream. |
| D．He lets the ice cream warm up. |
Which of the following is probably the best title of the passage?
| A．Tasting with Eyes | B．Flavors of Ice Cream |
| C．John Harrison’s Life | D．One Cool Job |
"You can use me as a last resort（选择）, and if nobody else volunteers, then I will do it." This was an actual reply from a parent after I put out a request for volunteers for my kids lacrosse（长曲棍球）club.
I guess that there's probably some demanding work schedule, or social anxiety around stepping up to help for an unknown sport. She may just need a little persuading. So I try again and tug at the heartstrings. I mention the single parent with four kids running the show and I talk about the dad coaching a team that his kids aren't even on … At this point the unwilling parent speaks up, "Alright. Yes, I'll do it."
I'm secretly relieved because I know there's real power in sharing volunteer responsibilities among many. The unwilling parent organizes the meal schedule, sends out emails, and collects money for end-of-season gifts. Somewhere along the way, the same parent ends up becoming an invaluable member of the team. The coach is able to focus on the kids while the other parents are relieved to be off the hook for another season. Handing out sliced oranges to bloodthirsty kids can be as exciting as watching your own kid score a goal.
Still, most of us volunteers breathe a sigh of relief when the season comes to a close. That relief is coupled with a deep understanding of why the same people keep coming back for more: Connecting to the community（社区）as you freely give your time, money, skills, or services provides a real joy. Volunteering just feels so good.
In that sense, I'm pretty sure volunteering is more of a selfish act than I'd freely like to admit. However, if others benefit in the process, and I get some reward too, does it really matter where my motivation lies?
（1）What can we infer about the parent from her reply in paragraph 1?
| A． |
She knows little about the club. |
| B． |
She isn't good at sports. |
| C． |
She just doesn't want to volunteer. |
| D． |
She's unable to meet her schedule. |
（2）What does the underlined phrase "tug at the heartstrings" in paragraph 2 mean?
| A． |
Encourage team work . |
| B． |
Appeal to feeling. |
| C． |
Promote good deeds. |
| D． |
Provide advice. |
（3）What can we learn about the parent from paragraph 3?
| A． |
She gets interested in lacrosse. |
| B． |
She is proud of her kids. |
| C． |
She'll work for another season. |
| D． |
She becomes a good helper. |
（4）Why does the author like doing volunteer work?
| A． |
It gives her a sense of duty. |
| B． |
It makes her very happy. |
| C． |
It enables her to work hard. |
| D． |
It brings her material rewards. |
My Favourite Books
Jo Usmar is a writer for Cosmopolitan and co-author of the This Book Will series（系列）of lifestyle books. Here she picks her top reads.
Matilda
Roald Dahl
I once wrote a paper on the influence of fairy tales on Roald Dahl's writing and it gave me a new appreciation for his strange and delightful words. Matilda's battles with her cruel parents and the bossy headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, are equally funny and frightening, but they're also aspirational.
After Dark
Haruki Murakami
It's about two sisters-Eri, a model who either won't or can't stop sleeping, and Mari, a young student. In trying to connect to her sister. Mari starts changing her life and discovers a world of diverse "night people" who are hiding secrets.
Gone Girl
Gillian Fynn
There was a bit of me that didn't want to love this when everyone else on the planet did but the horror story is brilliant. There's tension and anxiety from the beginning as Nick and Amy battle for your trust. It's a real whodunit and the frustration when you realise what's going on is horribly enjoyable
The Stand
Stephen King
This is an excellent fantasy novel from one of the best storytellers around. After a serious flu outbreak wipes out 99.4% of the world's population, a battle unfolds between good and evil among those let. Randall Flagg is one of the scariest characters ever.
（1）Who does "I" refer to in the text?
| A． |
Stephen King. |
| B． |
Gillian Flynn. |
| C． |
Jo Usmar. |
| D． |
Roald Dahl |
（2）Which of the following tells about Mari and Eri?
| A． |
Cosmopolitan. |
| B． |
Matilda. |
| C． |
After Dark. |
| D． |
The Stand. |
（3）What kind of book is G one Girl?
| A． |
A folk tale. |
| B． |
A biography. |
| C． |
A love story. |
| D． |
A horror story. |
We may think we're a culture that gets rid of our worn technology at the first sight of something shiny and new, but a new study shows that we keep using our old devices (装置) well after they go out of style. That's bad news for the environment - and our wallets - as these outdated devices consume much more energy than the newer ones that do the same things.
To figure out how much power these devices are using, Callie Babbitt and her colleagues at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York tracked the environmental costs for each product throughout its life - from when its minerals are mined to when we stop using the device. This method provided a readout for how home energy use evolved since the early 1990s. Devices were grouped by generation. Desktop computers, basic mobile phones, and box-set TVs defined 1992. Digital cameras arrived on the scene in 1997. And MP3 players, smart phones, and LCD TVs entered homes in 2002, before tablets and e-readers showed up in 2007.
As we accumulated more devices, however, we didn't throw out our old ones." The Living-room television is replaced and gets planted in the kid's room, and suddenly one day, you have a TV in every room of the house," said one researcher. The average number of electronic devices rose from four per household in 1992 to 13 in 2007. We're not just keeping these old devices-we continue to use them. According to the analysis of Babbitt's team, old desktop monitors and box TV's with cathode ray tubes are the worst devices with their energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions(排放) more than doubling during the 1992 to 2007 window.
So what's the solution(解决方案)? The team's data only went up to 2007, but the researchers also explored what would happen if consumers replaced old products with new electronics that serve more than one function, such as a tablet for word processing and TV viewing. They found that more on-demand entertainment viewing on tables instead of TVs and desktop computers could cut energy consumption by 44%.
32.What does the author think of new devices?
| A． |
They are environment-friendly. |
| B． |
They are no better than the old. |
| C． |
They cost more to use at home. |
| D． |
They go out of style quickly. |
33.Why did Babbitt's team conduct the research?
| A． |
To reduce the cost of minerals. |
| B． |
To test the life cycle of a product. |
| C． |
To update consumers on new technology. |
| D． |
To find out electricity consumption of the devices. |
34.Which of the following uses the least energy?
| A． |
The box-set TV. |
| B． |
The tablet. |
| C． |
The LCD TV. |
| D． |
The desktop computer. |
35.What does the text suggest people do about old electronic devices?
| A． |
Stop using them. |
| B． |
Take them apart. |
| C． |
Upgrade them. |
| D． |
Recycle them. |
Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit (联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.
Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialisation, the development of the nation-state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalization and better communications in the past few decades, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominantlanguages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.
At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages, often spoken by many people, while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 languages; the Americas about 1,000; Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800. The median number （中位数）of speakers is a mere 6,000, which means that half the world's languages are spoken by fewer people than that.
Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction (消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico (150), Lipan Apache in the United States (two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.
28.What can we infer about languages in hunter-gatherer times?
| A． |
They developed very fast. |
| B． |
They were large in number. |
| C． |
They had similar patterns. |
| D． |
They were closely connected. |
29.Which of the following best explains "dominant" underlined in paragraph 2?
| A． |
Complex. |
| B． |
Advanced |
| C． |
Powerful. |
| D． |
Modern. |
30.How many languages are spoken by less than 6,000 people at present?
| A． |
About 6,800. |
| B． |
About 3,400. |
| C． |
About 2,400. |
| D． |
About 1,200. |
31.What is the main idea of the text?
| A． |
New languages will be created. |
| B． |
People's lifestyles are reflected in languages. |
| C． |
Human development results in fewer languages. |
| D． |
Geography determines language evolution. |
Good Morning Britain's Susanna Reid is used to grilling guests on the sofa every morning, but she is cooking up a storm in her latest role-showing families how to prepare delicious and nutritious meals on a tight budget.
In Save Money: Good Food, she visits a different home each week and with the help of chef Matt Tebbutt offers top tips on how to reduce food waste, while preparing recipes for under £5 per family a day. And the Good Morning Britain presenter says she's been able to put a lot of what she's learnt into practice in her own home, preparing meals for sons, Sam, 14, Finn, 13, and Jack, 11.
"We love Mexican churros, so I buy them on my phone from my local Mexican takeaway restaurant," she explains. "I pay £5 for a portion(一份),but Matt makes them for 26p a portion, because they are flour, water, sugar and oil. Everybody can buy takeaway food, but sometimes we're not aware how cheaply we can make this food ourselves."
The eight-part series(系列节目),Save Money: Good Food, follows in the footsteps of ITV's Save Money: Good Health, which gave viewers advice on how to get value from the vast range of health products on the market.
With food our biggest weekly household expense, Susanna and Matt spend time with a different family each week. In tonight's Easter special they come to the aid of a family in need of some delicious inspiration on a budget. The team transforms the family's long weekend of celebration with less expensive but still tasty recipes.
24.What do we know about Susanna Reid?
| A． |
She enjoys embarrassing her guests. |
| B． |
She has started a new programme. |
| C． |
She dislikes working early in the morning. |
| D． |
She has had a tight budget for her family. |
25.How does Matt Tebbutt help Susanna?
| A． |
He buys cooking materials for her. |
| B． |
He prepares food for her kids. |
| C． |
He assists her in cooking matters. |
| D． |
He invites guest families for her. |
26.What does the author intend to do in paragraph 4?
| A． |
Summarize the previous paragraphs. |
| B． |
Provide some advice for the readers. |
| C． |
Add some background information. |
| D． |
Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
27.What can be a suitable title for the text?
| A． |
Keeping Fit by Eating Smart |
| B． |
Balancing Our Daily Diet |
| C． |
Making Yourself a Perfect Chef |
| D． |
Cooking Well for Less |