Chinesepeopletaketheirfoodande-优题课

With fifteen years Britain and other nations should be well on with the building of huge industrial complexes (综合体) for the recycling of waste. The word “rubbish” could lose its meaning because everything which goes into the dumps would be made into something useful. Even the most dangerous and unpleasant wastes would provide energy if nothing else.
The latest project is to take a city of around half a million inhabitants and discover exactly what raw materials go into it and what go out. The aim is to find out how much of these raw materials could be provided if a plant (发电厂) for recycling waste were built just outside the city. This plant would recycle not only metal such as steel, lead and copper, but also paper and rubber as well.
Another new project is being set up to discover the best ways of sorting and separating the rubbish. When this project is complete, the rubbish will be processed like this: First, it will pass through sharp metal bars which will tear open the plastic bags in which rubbish is usually packed; then it will pass through a powerful fan to separate the lightest elements from the heavy solids; after that rollers will break up everything that can be broken. Finally, the rubbish will pass under magnets (磁铁), which will remove the bits of iron and steel; the rubber and plastic will then be sorted out in the final stage.
The first full-scale giant recycling plants are perhaps fifteen years away. Indeed, with the growing cost of transporting rubbish to more distant dumps, some big cities will be forced to build their own recycling plants before long.
The phrase “be well on with ……” (Para .1) most probably means ______.

A．have achieved a great deal in

B．get ready to start

C．have completed what was started

D．put an end to

What is NOT mentioned as a part of the recycling process described in Paragraph 3?

A．Breaking up whatever is breakable.

B．Sorting out small pieces of metal.

C．Separating light elements from the heavy ones.

D．Sharpening metal bars.

What’s the main reason for big cities to build their own recycling plants?

A．To get big profits from those plants.

B．To find out how much of the raw materials could be provided

C．To get raw materials locally.

D．To deal with wastes in a better way.

The first full-scale huge recycling plants ______.

A．began to operate fifteen years ago

B．will probably be in operation in fifteen years

C．will be built fifteen years later

D．will take less than fifteen years to build

The passage is mainly about ______.

A．a cheap way to get energy

B．the location of recycling plants

C．new ways of recycling wastes

D．the probability of city environment

Boredom and Creativity
Most of us think of being bored at work as a negative experience, but a new study suggests it can have positive results including an increase in creativity because it gives us time to daydream.
That is the finding of Dr. Sandi Mann from the University of Central Lancashire. Dr. Mann conducted two studies. In the first experiment, 40 people were asked to carry out a boring task. They were told to copy numbers out of a telephone directory for 15 minutes. After that they were asked to complete another task. A pair of cups were given to each of them. Everyone tried to come up with different uses of the cups, and was given a chance to display their creativity. Meanwhile, another group of 40 people were just asked to come up with uses for the cups without doing any boring tasks before. It turned out that the 40 people who had first copied out the telephone numbers were more creative than the control group(对照组).
To see if daydreaming was a factor in this effect, a second boring task was introduced that allowed even more daydreaming than the boring writing task. This second study saw 30 people copying out the numbers as before, but also included a second group of 30 reading rather than writing them.
Again the researchers found that the people in the control group were least creative, but the people who had just read the names were more creative than those who had to write them out. This suggests that more passive boring activities, like reading or perhaps attending meetings, can lead to more creativity. Compared with reading, writing reduced the scope(范围) for daydreaming. As a result, it reduces the effects of boredom on creativity.
Dr. Mann says: “Boredom at work has always been seen as something to be avoided, but perhaps we should accept it in order to promote our creativity. What we want to do next is to see what the practical implications of this finding are. Do people who are bored at work become more creative in other areas of their work--or do they go home and write novels?”
Who proved to be the most creative in the two studies?

A．The people who attended meetings.

B．The people who invented uses for cups.

C．The people who did the reading task

D．The people who copied telephone numbers.

The studies conducted by Dr. Mann indicate that creativity results from _______.

A．creative tasks

B．the range of daydreaming

C．controlled activities

D．reading and writing ability

What is Dr. Mann’s attitude towards boredom at work?

A．Subjective	B．Skeptical
C．Positive	D．Disapproving

What will Dr. Mann probably continue to research in their study?

A．The actual use of boredom.

B．The real causes of creativity.

C．The practical reasons of boredom.

D．The writing ability improved by boredom.

Forty years ago, Finland was a small country with ordinary public schools. Today, Finland is still small but no one calls Finland’s public schools ordinary anymore.
In 2000, the Finns surprised the world when their 15yearolds scored at the top of a closelywatched international exam called the PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment. Finland has stayed near the top ever since, while the US scores around the middle.
Pasi Sahlberg, an official of Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, is in Seattle this week to share the story of Finland’s success, and what states like Washington can learn from it.
Sahlberg’s message, although he is too polite to put it so directly: Stop testing so much. Trust teachers more. Give less homework. Shorten the school day.
On Tuesday, in a room filled with teachers, principals, professors, schoolboard members and policy makers, Sahlberg joked about the Finns’ reputation for being a quiet, humble people. When Finland hit the top of the PISA, he said, the biggest disbelievers were Finns.
More seriously, he said, Finland never set out to create the world’s top school system. Instead, he said, the country decided in the 1970s that it wanted to ensure that a student’s success didn’t depend on family background.
To achieve that goal, Finland relied on cooperation among teachers and schools, rather than on competition.
Rather than judges teachers and schools based on test scores, he said, Finland puts trust in its teachers and principals. Teachers develop the curriculum(课程) in Finland, and design their own tests. There are no national tests, except one at the end of high school.
That’s just the start. Along with a shorter school day, Finnish students don’t even start school until they are 7 years old. Many primary schools have a policy against giving homework.
But Finland, he said, succeeded in part by adapting ideas from the US and other countries. And those countries, he said, can learn from Finland, too.
What might be the author’s purpose in writing the passage?

A．To introduce a Finnish official.

B．To share the story of Finland’s success in education.

C．To compare the education systems of Finland and the US.

D．To ask the US to improve its education.

People first learned Finland’s success in education from ________.

A．its ordinary public schools

B．its international exchange students

C．lectures given by Pasi Sahlberg

D．its students’ performance in an International exam

Which of the following contributes to Finland’s success in education?
a. Giving students fewer tests
b. Giving teachers more trust.
c. Evaluating students’ family background.
d. Creating the world’s top school system.
e. Starting school late.

A．a, b, e	B．c, d, e
C．a, b, c	D．b, c, d

What Pasi Sahlberg says in the passage suggests that ________.

A．children should start school as early as possible

B．the US education system is still the most advanced

C．competition among teachers is harmful to education

D．it’s necessary to set up a national curriculum

Chocolate soap is supposed to be good for the skin. But it’s not so good for the tongue. Unfortunately for the US soldiers of World War II, the chocolate bars the army gave them tasted like they were intended for use in the bath.
In the army’s defense, it wasn’t trying to win any cooking awards. In fact, it specifically ordered that its chocolate bars not be too delicious, so soldiers wouldn’t eat them too quickly. These bars were created for survival, not taste. “They were awful,” John Otto, a former army captain in World War II said, “They were big, thick things, and they weren’t any good. I tried them, but I had to be awfully hungry after I tried them once.”
As unappealing as the chocolate bars were to some, others like them. Samuel Hinkle, the chemist who created the chocolate bars, pointed out that the number of bars made were far greater than the army needed. “It soon became obvious that the generous American soldiers were sharing their valued possessions with their foreign friends, whether soldiers of other countries or local citizens.”
The bars turned many hungry Europeans into friends of the United States. “People wanted them,” said Otto. “You’d give them to kids. In some places they were very hungry. And they surely helped relax people about American soldiers.”
Otto said he never saw a European turn his or her nose up at the chocolate. “It was food,” he said. “At that time, everyone was very hungry. I saw German kids standing outside the US army kitchen. They weren’t begging, just standing there very politely. When we were done, the kids would eat the food out of the garbage. They were so hungry.”
Other Europeans did not see chocolate until well after the war ended. “We didn’t see any Americans where I was,” said Elizabeth Radsma, who was 25 years old when the Germans occupied her country, the Netherlands. “Even after the war, we saw only the British. Maybe the Americans gave out some chocolates in the big cities, but we were only in a small town. Before the British, we saw only German soldiers. But chocolate? Don’t make me laugh! Maybe in my dreams!”
A soldier in the field might have responded “Be careful what you wish for”--and then gratefully bit on a chocolate bar, the only food available for miles.
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The US soldiers used the chocolate bars as bath soap.

B．The US army produced more chocolate bars than necessary for its soldiers.

C．The US soldiers did not have enough food during World War II.

D．European people regretted eating chocolate bars from the US soldiers.

The underlined expression “turn his or her nose up at” probably means “________”.

A．receive	B．demand
C．refuse	D．smell

Why does the author mention the German kids’ story?

A．To tell how friendly the American soldiers were.

B．To show how much they were eager for chocolate.

C．To prove German kids could be very polite.

D．To describe the hunger in Germany during the war.

Elizabeth Radsma never saw chocolate during the war because ________.

A．the US soldiers never showed up in the small town she lived in

B．the German soldiers kept them all for themselves

C．the British soldiers didn’t share it with the local people

D．the US soldiers handed out all chocolates to people in big cities

How to look good in a photo?
What should you do if you want to have a nice photo taken? Whether it's work or fun, the most important thing is lighting. If you get bad lighting, you will look bad, too. Know where the light is. You don't want it below you or above you, you want it to shine directly at you.
The key thing is no shadow. If you are being photographed outside, do it in the morning, or wait till the 2 o'clock shadow has passed. Also don't let pictures in the magazines stress you out--all the pictures are taken by great photographers. And all the faces have had pimples(丘疹, 粉刺) taken out by computers.
Tip your head and learn what angles work with your face; everyone is different. So you have to learn what suits you. You can practice in Photo Booth for as long as it is your turn, to learn what angles suit your face. Tip your neck to make it look longer, make eye contact with the camera. No one can look bad if they smile.
For long legs, point one leg into center of the frame and get the photographer to shoot looking up your body.
For just leg shots, lie upside down and raise legs in the air for the best angle. And your legs will look thinner and be in better shape.
Keep shoulders back.
Always have mouth slightly open, enough to put a penny between your lips, as this will make your lips look fuller.
Lower your eyes and then look up just as shutter(快门) is clicked for full eyes.
Delete any evidence of a less than perfect photogenic moment, everyone has off days.
If you want to look good in a photo, the light should be ______.

A．below you	B．directly at you
C．above you	D．right behind you

According to the passage, we should consider all EXCEPT ______.

A．light	B．shadow
C．photographers	D．angles

What advice does the author give on taking photos?

A．Raise legs on the wall.	B．Look down.
C．Put a penny between lips.	D．Keep shoulders back.

A．Dumplings	B．Moon Cakes
C．Jiaozi	D．Zongzi