The popularity of farmers’ markets combined with concerns over food security is making the number of school leavers taking agriculture courses increase rapidly, according to a study.
Large numbers of 16- to 18-year-olds are going to study subjects such as agriculture, food and gamekeeping despite having no background in farming. Jeanette Dawson, principal of Bishop Burton College, said women were also taking up courses at an increasing rate.
She said it was related to a series of food scandals (丑闻)such as the discovery of horsemeat in frozen meals stocked by major supermarkets.
But the movement was also promoted by an increased awareness of the importance of local food and produce, she said. The number of students taking courses in “land-based subjects” has increased by a quarter in the last 12 months alone – from 5,138 to 6,482.
Mrs. Dawson said there were a lot of young people who weren’t from farming backgrounds. But there had been a growth in the number of them accessing agriculture programes with a view to a career in the industry. She said agriculture was an “applied science, with the great outdoors as its laboratory”. And it was increasingly seen as an attractive job for school leavers.
“I never underestimate (低估) the ability of teenagers to pick up on it. The more it is in the media, the more it interests young people. Whenever I go in my local pub, it has on the blackboard where the sausages (香肠) are from. Everyone is interested in buying local food and knowing where their food is from.
The comments were made as Bishop Burton prepares to expand, with a ￡I3 million project to build a new campus in Lincolnshire. The site – due to open in September 20l5 – will be the college’s second in the county, in addition to one at nearby Riseholme.
What is making large numbers of students take agriculture courses?
| A．Agriculture is very important to a country. |
| B．People are increasingly concerned about food security. |
| C．Many colleges are offering agriculture courses. |
| D．Agriculture is an applied science. |
The example of horsemeat in the third paragraph illustrates(证明) the necessity of_________ .
| A．protecting animals |
| B．strengthening food safety |
| C．protecting the environment |
| D．forming healthy eating habits |
What does the writer mainly discuss in the passage?
| A．Why the government should strengthen agriculture. |
| B．How to strengthen food safety. |
| C．Why agriculture courses are becoming popular among students. |
| D．How to do well in agriculture courses. |
As we all know, language is always changing. In a society where life continues year after year with few changes, the language does not change either. The earliest known languages had difficult grammar but a small, limited vocabulary. Over the century, the grammar changed, and the vocabulary grew. For example, the English and Spanish people who came to America during the sixteenth century gave names to all the new plants and animals they found. In this way, hundreds of new words were introduced into English and Spanish vocabularies. Today life is changing very fast, and language is changing fast too.
There are several major(主要) language families in the world. Some scientists say there are nine main families, but other scientists divide them differently. The languages in each family are connected, and scientists think that they came from the same parent language. About 3 percent of the people in the world speak languages that are not in these major families.The early language had ________.
| A．a lot of problems |
| B．words and easy grammar |
| C．words but no grammar |
| D．grammar but not many words |
In the next few hundred years we can expect language to _____.
| A．stay exactly the same |
| B．change a great deal |
| C．change only a little |
| D．ask more words and drop some grammar |
What this article shows is that _____.
| A．languages change fast |
| B．languages really don't want to change |
| C．language really with changes in society |
| D．Spanish and English change |
Listening to music can help me focus better. Since I discovered it two years ago，I've used music to get through boring work or to focus creatively. I've found that it can make even the dullest jobs enjoyable and help clear mental blocks to creativity.
I first noticed the good effects of music while playing video games. It was a few days before Christmas in 2005 and I was playing online video games. My parents had just given me a new MP3，so I decided to listen to music through the headphones while I played. After a few minutes I noticed a great change in my style of play. I was playing more naturally. The music relaxed me，and，to a certain extent，distracted me from the game，allowing my subconscious(潜意识的)talent to come through. The music also helped me block out the outside world. With those headphones on I was like a machine，moving from one task to the next without unnecessary thoughts or actions.
Music can also have a great effect on mood. If I'm in a bad mood at work，I'll listen to some of Bob Marley's and get down to business. It always takes my mind off what I'm doing and makes me a happier person. The same is true for classic rock. One summer，I did a boring job collecting bottle openers by hand. Without a radio playing classic rock in the background，I would have hated life.
Listening to music with relaxing rhythms and a positive message helps you forget your work and think happy thoughts. But the results you see will depend heavily on your personal tastes. Experiment with the types of music you listen to during certain tasks. By trial and error you'll finally discover your best choice.
I'm always looking for new concentration aids，so I'd love to know what type of music works best for me. We can infer that the passage was written in ________.
| A．2005 | B．2006 | C．2007 | D．2008 |
The author first discovered the effects of music ________.
| A．from his parents | B．by chance | C．at work | D．when he was a child |
The author mentions the experience of collecting bottle openers in Paragraph 3 to ________.
| A．tell us that life is dull | B．prove that music affects mood |
| C．tell us how to seek happiness | D．tell us bad mood can affect work |
Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is essential to one's life. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have been told, and told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip.
But for many people, the thought of food as the first thing in the morning is never a pleasure. So in spite of all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures could be obtained, the number of people who didn’t have breakfast increased by 33%—from 8.8 million to 11.7 million—according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America.
For those who dislike eating breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years have shown that, for grown-ups especially, there may be nothing wrong with omitting breakfast. “Going without breakfast does not affect work,” said Arnold E. Bender, former professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, “nor does giving people breakfast improve work.”
Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better work is surprisingly inadequate, and most of the recent work involves children, not grown-ups. “The literature,” says one researcher, Dr Earnest Polite at the University of Texas, “is poor.”The main idea of the passage is that _______.
| A．breakfast has nothing to do with people's health |
| B．a good breakfast used to be important to us |
| C．breakfast is not as important to us as gasoline to a car |
| D．breakfast is not as important as we thought before |
For those who do not take breakfast, the good news is that _______.
| A．several studies have been done in the past few years |
| B．the omission of breakfast has little effect on one’s work |
| C．grown-ups have especially made studies in this field |
| D．eating little in the morning is good for health |
The underlined part “nor does giving people breakfast improve work” means _______.
| A．people without breakfast can improve their work |
| B．not giving people breakfast improves work |
| C．having breakfast does not improve work, either |
| D．people having breakfast do improve their work, too |
The word "literature" in the last sentence refers to _______.
| A．stories, poems, play, etc |
| B．written works on a particular subject |
| C．newspaper articles |
| D．the modern literature of America |
What is implied but not stated by the author is that _______.
| A．breakfast does not affect work |
| B．Dr Polite works at an institution of higher learning |
| C．not eating breakfast might affect the health of children |
| D．Professor Bender once taught college courses in nutrition in London |
Dear Volunteers，
The service you will provide to elderly individuals in Abilene as a Meals on Wheels volunteer is deeply appreciated. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the many miles you will travel and all of the hours you will contribute to help make this one of the best programs in the entire state.
We have our staff members make a home visit before adding each person to the program and try to visit everyone at least once every year. That is hardly enough, and we depend on your contact a great deal! It is important that you report back when you do not get an answer to your knock on the door. The person inside may be hurt or ill. They may be in hospital or out of town and fail to inform us. If they are frequently absent, we may need to determine if they still need meals.
If you find someone with a medical emergency, please call 911 to request medical assistance, and then call the Meals on Wheels office. If you find someone who needs assistance other than for a medical emergency, please call the Meals on Wheels office at 6725050, and we will try to find the appropriate agency or individual to call.
Let us know when a certain person needs extra food. We have a food preparation room of shelf stable items to share with them. Please feel free to take a few magazines when you deliver meals. Many of those we serve cannot afford magazines and enjoy reading. If someone is interested in getting books from the Abilene Public Library, let us know. We can sign them up for the Books on Wheels program. Call if you smell gas strongly when you deliver meals, or if someone needs a space heater, a blanket, or an electric fan. Please convey all needs to us, and we will try to see that they are met. Some of the elderly people who we offer our service may have cancers, liver diseases, AIDS, etc. If you do not want to deliver meals to the people with certain types of health problems, such as these, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Betty L. Bradley, LBSW,
Executive DirectorWhy does the author write this letter?
| A．To express great thanks to volunteers. |
| B．To explain how the old people get help. |
| C．To tell volunteers what they are tasked with. |
| D．To describe the life situation of the old people. |
What can we learn about the volunteers from the passage?
| A．They order books for needy people. |
| B．They design programs to help people. |
| C．They offer medical help to sick people. |
| D．They deliver food to the elderly people. |
How does the author learn about the needs of the people served?
| A．The volunteers report back the information to him. |
| B．His staff members call them to get the information. |
| C．He visits them now and then to get the information. |
| D．The family members send the information to his office. |
The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?
Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing (引证) older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is slow to learn that he has the potential of an Einstein, you're just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students' self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."
Those with low self-esteem didn't feel better after the forced self-affirmation (自我肯定). In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren't urged to think positive thoughts.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic viewpoint. Call it the power of negative thinking.The first paragraph is written ___________.
| A．to raise an argument about positive thinking |
| B．to introduce the power of positive thinking |
| C．to encourage people to have positive thoughts |
| D．to introduce the $11 billion self-help industry |
According to the study of the Canadian researchers, ___________.
| A．positive thinking is not as powerful as negative thinking |
| B．encouraging positive thinking may actually discourage people |
| C．happy people can think positively while unhappy people can’t |
| D．getting people to think positively can strengthen their confidence |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?
| A．You are pointing out the mistakes he has made. |
| B．You are reminding him that he is not intelligent. |
| C．You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough. |
| D．You are showing he has great potential in spite of faults. |
We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.
| A．negative feelings must be got rid of |
| B．there’s no point in thinking positively |
| C．it doesn’t make sense to think negatively |
| D．negative thinking is not always negative |