英语四级2021年真题

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to a foreign friend who wants to study in China. Please recommend a university to him. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to a foreign friend who wants to teach English. Please recommend a city to him. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

中国，地球上最吸引人的国家之一，有5000多年的历史，是目前全球第二大经济体(the second largest economy)。随着广泛的经济改革，中国正经历着显著、快速的变化。1949年以前的中国极端贫困、收入不平衡(incomeinequalities)、国家不安全。由于经济改革，从1980年开始，人民的生活水平开始提升至基本水平之上。全国人口有了足够的食物、衣服和住房，普通家庭可以吃得起各种各样的食物，穿得上时尚的衣服。

鱼是春节前夕餐桌上不可或缺的一道菜，因为汉语中“鱼”字的发音与“余”字的发音相同。正由于这个象征性的意义，春节期间鱼也作为礼物送给亲戚朋友。鱼的象征意义据说源于中国传统文化。中国人有节省的传统，他们认为节省得愈多，就感到愈为安全。今天，尽管人们愈来愈富裕了，但他们仍然认为节省是一种值得弘扬的美德。

生活在中国不同地区的人们饮食多种多样。北方人主要吃面食，南方人大多吃米饭。在沿海地区，海鲜和淡水水产品在人们饮食中占有相当大的比例，而在其他地区人们的饮食中，肉类和奶制品更为常见。四川、湖南等省份的居民普遍爱吃辛辣食物，而江苏和浙江人更喜欢甜食。然而，因为烹饪方式各异，同类食物的味道可能会有所不同。

A) Getting around a city is one thing -- and then there's the matter of getting from one city to another. One vision of the perfect city of the future: a place that offers easy access to air travel.In 2011, a University of North Carolina business professor named John Kasarda published a book called Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next. Kasarda says future cities should be built intentionally around or near airports. The idea, as he has put it, is to offer businesses "rapid, long-distance connectivity on a massive scale."

B) "The 18th century really was a waterborne century, the 19th century a rail century, the 20th century a highway, car, truck century -- and the 21st century will increasingly be an aviation century, as the globe becomes increasingly connected by air," Kasarda says.Songdo, a city built from scratch in South Korea, is one of Kasarda's prime examples. It has existed for just a few years."From the get-go, it was designed on the basis of connectivity and competitiveness," says Kasada. "The government built the bridge directly from the airport to the Songdo International Business District. And the surface infrastructure was built in tandem with the new airport."

C) Songdo is a stone's throw from South Korea's Incheon Airport, its main international hub. But it takes a lot more than a nearby airport to be a city of the future. Just building a place as an "international business district" doesn't mean it will become one. Park Yeon Soo conceived this city of the future back in 1986. He considers Songdo his baby. "I am a visionary," he says.Thirty years after he imagined the city, Park's baby is close to 70 percent built, with 36,000 people living in the business district and 90,000 residents in greater Songdo. It's about an hour outside Seoul, built on reclaimed tidal flats along the Yellow Sea. There's a Coast Guard building and a tall trade tower, as well as a park, golf course and university.

D) Chances are you've actually seen this place. Songdo appears in the most famous music video ever to come out of South Korea."Gangnam Style" refers to the fashionable Gangnam district in Seoul. But some of the video was filmed in Songdo."I don't know if you remember, there was a scene in a subway station. That was not Gangnam. That was actually Songdo," says Jung Won Son, a professor of urban development at London's Bartlett School of Planning. "Part of the reason to shoot there is that it's new and nice."

E) The city was supposed to be a hub for global companies, with employees from all over the world. But that's not how it has turned out.Songdo's reputation is as a futuristic ghost town. But the reality is more complicated.A bridge with big, light-blue loops leads into the business district. In the center of the main road, there's a long line of flags of the world. On the corner, there's a Starbucks and a 7-Eleven -- all of the international brands that you see all over the world nowadays.

F) The city is not empty. There are mothers pushing strollers, old women with walkers -- even in the middle of the day, when it's 90 degrees out. Byun Young-Jin chairs the Songdo real estate association and started selling property here when the first phase of the city opened in 2005. He says demand has boomed in the past couple of years.Most of his clients are Korean. In fact, the developer says, 99 percent of the homes here are sold to Koreans. Young families move here because the schools are great.And that's the problem: Songdo has become a popular Korean city -- more popular as a residential area than a business one. It's not yet the futuristic international business hub that planners imagined. "It's a great place to live. And it's becoming a great place to work," says Scott Summers, the vice president of Gale International, the developer of the city. The floor-to-ceiling windows of his company's offices overlook Songdo Central Park, with a canal full of kayaks and paddle boats. Shimmering glass towers line the canal’s edge.

G) "What's happened is, because we focused on creating that quality of life first, which enabled the residents to live here, what has probably missed the mark is for companies to locate here," he says. "There needs to be strong economic incentives."The city is still unfinished, and it feels a bit like a theme park. It doesn't feel all that futuristic. There's a high-tech underground trash disposal system. Buildings are environmentally friendly. Everybody's television set is connected to a system that streams personalized language or exercise classes.

H) But Star Trek this is not. And to some of the residents, Songdo feels hollow."I'm, like, in prison for weekdays. That's what we call it in the workplace," says a woman in her 20s. She doesn't want to use her name for fear of being fired from her job. She goes back to Seoul every weekend. "I say I'm prison-breaking on Friday nights."But she has to make the prison break in her own car. There's no high-speed train connecting Songdo to Seoul, just over 20 miles away.

I) The man who first imagined Songdo feels frustrated, too. Park says he built South Korea a luxury vehicle, "like Mercedes or BMW. It's a good car now. But we're waiting for a good driver to accelerate."But there are lots of other good cars out there, too. The world is dotted with futuristic, high-tech cities trying to attract the biggest international companies.

J) Songdo's backers contend that it's still early, and business space is filling up -- about 70 percent of finished offices are now occupied.Brent Ryan, who teaches urban design at MIT, says Songdo proves a universal principle. "There have been a lot of utopian cities in history. And the reason we don't know about a lot of them is that a lot of them have vanished entirely."In other words, when it comes to cities -- or anything else -- it is hard to predict the future.

36. Songdo's popularity lies more in its quality of life than its business attraction.

37. The man who conceived Songdo feels disappointed because it has fallen short of his expectations.

38. A scene in a popular South Korean music video was shot in Songdo.

39. Songdo still lacks the financial stimulus for businesses to set up shop there.

40. Airplanes will increasingly become the chief means of transportation, according to a professor.

41. Songdo has ended up diferent from the city it was supposed to be.

42. Some of the people who work in Songdo complain about boredom in the workplace.

43. A business professor says that a future city should have easy access to international transportation.

44. According to an urban design professor, it is difficult for city designers to foresce what will happen in the future.

45. Park Yeon Soo, who envisioned Songdo, feels a parental connction with the city.

中国汉族人的全名由姓和名组成。中文姓名的特点是，姓总是在前，名跟在其后。千百年来，父姓一直世代相传。然而，如今，孩子跟母亲姓并不罕见。一般来说，名有一个或两个汉字，通常承载父母对孩子的愿望。从孩子的名字可以推断出父母希望孩子成为什么样的人，或者期望他们过什么样的生活。父母非常重视给孩子取名，因为名字往往会伴随孩子一生。

When travelling overseas, do you buy water in plastic bottles or take your chances with tap water? Imagine you are wandering about on a Thai island or __26__ the ruins of Angkor. It's hot so you grab a bottle of water from a local vendor. It's the safe thing to do, right? The bottle is __27__ , and the label says "pure water". But maybe what's inside is not so __28__ . Would you still be drinking it if you knew that more than 90 percent of all bottled water sold around the world __29__ microplastics?

That's the conclusion of a recently __30__ study, which analysed 259 bottles from 11 brands sold in nine countries, __31__ an average of 325 plastic particles per litre of water. These microplastics included a __32__ commonly known as PET and widely used in the manufacture of clothing and food and __33__ containers. The study was conducted at the State University of New York on behalf of Orb Media, a journalism organisation. About a million bottles are bought every minute, not only by thirsty tourists but also by many of the 2.1 billion worldwide who live with unsafe drinking water.

Confronted with this __34__ , several bottled-water manufacturers including Nestle and Coca-Cola undertook their own studies using the same methodology. These studies showed that their water did contain microplastics, but far less than the Orb study suggested. Regardless, the World Health Organisation has launched a review into the __35__ health risks of drinking water from plastic bottles.

A) adequate

B) admiring

C) contains

D) defending

E) evidence

F) instant

G) liquid

H) modified

I) natural

J) potential

K) released

L) revealing

M) sealed

N) solves

O) substance

Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. This online course is a core requirement of Georgia Tech's online Master of Science in Computer Science program. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn't enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.

Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support. When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to fade. Professor Goel decided to do something to remedy this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson, which is based on the IBM Watson platform.

Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn't too great. But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students' questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn't know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn't tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didn't inform them about Jill's true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.

The goal of Professor Goel's virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. The name Jill Watson will, of course, change to something else

茶拥有5000年的历史。传说，神农氏( Shen Nong)喝开水时，几片野树叶子落进壶里开水顿时散发出宜人的香味。他喝了几口，觉得很提神。茶就这样发现了。

自此，茶在中国开始流行。茶园遍布全国，茶商变得富有。昂贵、雅致的茶具成了地位的象征。

今天，茶不仅是一种健康的饮品，而且是中国文化的一个组成部分。越来越多的国际游客一边品茶， 一边了解中国文化。

裸婚(down-to-earth marriage )是一种新的结婚方式，指的是一对恋人没有房子、没有车、不办婚礼、不度蜜月甚至没有婚戒，只领取结婚证（marriage certificate)的结婚方式。这种形式的结婚最低成本只有9元钱。现代年轻人的生活压力较大，而且强调爱情的独立，必须有房再结婚或者大肆操办婚事的传统在年轻一代中被削弱。许多人都相信裸婚是两个人纯粹爱情的见证。

微博名人的言论

当下，名人微博（Weibo)已成为信息发布和舆论制造的重要源头。各种媒体也热衷于对名人微博的言论进行传播，共同推动其成为舆论热点。名人与公众人物，拥有很多的粉丝、更多的话语权，正因为如此，名人必须有比普通人更多的义务，对这个社会多承担一些责任；名人在进行微博发言时需以负责任的态度谨慎使用手中的话语权。

火锅

火锅中，重庆火锅（hotpot)最著名，也最受欢迎。重庆人认为以麻辣 (peppery and hot)著称的火锅是当地特色。人们喜欢围在用木炭(charcoal)、 电热或天然气加热的火锅旁边吃边聊美味和有营养的食物。人们可以选择辣汤、清汤以及鸳鸯（combo)锅底，再将肉片、鱼片、各种豆腐产品和蔬菜加进火锅，之后蘸上特制酱料即可食用。在寒冷的冬天里，吃火锅成为一件惬意十足的事情。

Directions:In this section, there is a passage with ten blanks. You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage. Read the passage through carefully before making your choices. Each choice in the bank is identified by a letter. Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre. You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

The things people make, and the way they make them, determine how cities grow and decline, and influence how empires rise and fall. So, any disruption to the world’s factories 26_____. And that disruption is surely coining. Factories are being digitised, filled with new sensor and new computers to make them quicker, more 27_____, and more efficient.

Robots are breaking free from the cages that surround them, learning new skills and new ways of working. And 3D printers have long 28_____ a world where you can make anything, anywhere, from a computerised design. That vision is 29_____ closer to reality. These forces will lead to cleaner factories, producing better goods at lower prices, personalised to our individual needs and desires. Humans will be 30_____ many of the dirty, repetitive, and dangerous jobs that have long been a 31_____ of factory life.

Greater efficiency 32_____ means fewer people can do the same work. Yet factory bosses in many developed countries are worried about a lack of skilled human workers—and see 33_____ and robots as a solution. But economist Helena Leurent says this period of rapid change in manufacturing is a 34_____ opportunity to make the world a better place. “Manufacturing is the one system where you have got the biggest source of innovation, the biggest source of economic growth, and the biggest source of great jobs in the past. You can see it changing. That’s an opportunity to 35_____ that system differently, and if we can, it will have tremendous significa

普洱(Pu'er)茶深受中国人喜爱,最好的普洱茶产自云南的西双版纳(Xishuangbanna)，那里的气候和环境为普洱茶树的生长提供了最佳条件。普洱茶颜色较深,味道与其他的茶截然不同。普洱茶泡(brew)的时间越长越有味道。许多爱喝的人尤其喜欢其独特的香味和口感。普洱茶含有多种有益健康的元素,常饮普洱茶有助于保护心脏和血管,还有减肥、消除疲劳和促进消化的功效。

铁观音 (Tieguanyin) 是中国最受欢迎的茶之一，原产自福建省安溪县西坪镇。如今安溪全县普遍种植，但该县不同地区生产的铁观音又各具风味。铁观音一年四季均可采摘，尤以春秋两季采摘的茶叶品质最佳。铁观音加工非常复杂，需要专门的技术和丰富的经验。铁观音含有多种维生素，喝起来口感独特。常饮铁观音有助于预防心脏病、降低血压、增强记忆力。

龙井 (Longing) 是一种绿茶，主要产自中国东部沿海的浙江省。龙井茶独特的香味和口感为其赢得了“中国名茶”的称号，在中国深受大众的欢迎，在海外饮用的人也越来越多。龙井茶通常手工制作，其价格可能极其昂贵，也可能比较便宜。这取决于生长地、采摘时间和制作工艺。龙井茶富含维生素C和其它多种有益健康的元素。经常喝龙井茶有助于减轻疲劳，延缓衰老。

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on whether violent video games online will cause students’ violent behaviors. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write an essay on are people becoming addicted to technology. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write on the topic Changes in the Way of Education. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write on the topic Changes in the Way of Transportation. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. 

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write on the topic Changes in the Way of communication.You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words. 

[A] Too often still, we think we know what poverty looks like. It’s the way we’ve been taught, the images we’ve been force-fed for decades. The chronically homeless. The undocumented immigrant. The urban poor, usually personified as a woman of color, the “welfare queen” politicians still too often reference.

[B] But as income inequality rises to record levels in the United States, even in the midst of a record economic expansion, those familiar images are outdated, hurtful, and counterproductive to focusing attention on solutions and building ladders of opportunity.

[C] Today’s faces of income inequality and lack of opportunity look like all of us. It’s Anna Landre, a disabled Georgetown University student fighting to keep health benefits that allow her the freedom to live her life. It’s Tiffanie Standard, a mentor for young women of color in Philadelphia who want to be tech entrepreneurs – but who must work multiple jobs to stay afloat. It’s Sharon Penner, an artisan in rural Georgia, who worries about retirement security and health care options for senior gay women. It’s Charles Oldstein, a U.S. Air Force veteran in New Orleans who would still be on the street if the city hadn’t landed a zero tolerance policy for homeless among veterans. It’s Ken Outlaw, a welder in rural North Carolina whose dream of going back to school at a local community college was dashed by Hurricane Florence –just one of the extreme weather events that have tipped the balance for struggling Americans across the nation.

[D] If these are the central characters of our story about poverty, what layers of perceptions, myths, and realities must we unearth to find meaningful solutions and support? In pursuit of revealing this complicated reality, Mothering Justice, led by women of color, went last year to the state capital in Lansing, Michigan, to lobby on issues that affect working mothers. One of the Mothering Justice organizers went to the office of a state representative

Boredom has, paradoxically, become quite interesting to academics lately. In early May, London’s Boring Conference celebrated seven years of delighting in dullness. At this event, people flocked to talks about weather, traffic jams, and vending-machine sounds, among other sleep-inducing topics.

What, exactly, is everyone studying? One widely accepted psychological definition of boredom is “the distasteful experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activities.” But how can you quantify a person’s boredom level and compare it with someone else’s?

In 1986, psychologists introduced the Boredom Proneness Scale, designed to measure an individual’s overall tendency to feel bored. By contrast, the Multidimensional State Boredom scale, developed in 2008, measures a person’s feelings of boredom in a given situation.

Boredom has been linked to behavior issues including inattentive driving, mindless snacking, excessive drinking, and addictive gambling. In fact, many of us would choose pain over boredom.

One team of psychologists discovered that two-thirds of men and a quarter of women would rather self-administer electric shocks than sit alone with their thought for 15 minutes. Researching this phenomenon, another team asked volunteers to watch boring, sad, or neutral films, during which they could self-administer electric shocks. The bored volunteers shocked themselves more and harder than the sad or neutral one did.

But boredom isn’t all bad. By encouraging self-reflection and daydreaming, it can spur activity. An early study gave participants abundant time to complete problem-solving and word-association exercises. Once all the obvious answers were exhausted, participants gave more and more inventive answers to combat boredom. A British study took these findings one step further, asking subjects to complete a creative challenge (coming up with a list of alternative uses for a household item). One group of subjects did a

Forests in countries like Brazil and the Congo get a lot of attention from environmentalists, and it is easy to see why. South America and sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing deforestation on an enormous scale: every year almost 5 million hectares are lost. But forests are also changing in rich Western countries. They are growing larger, both in the sense that they occupy more and that the trees in them and bigger. What is going on?

Forests are spreading in almost all Western countries, with fastest growth in places that historically had rather few trees. In 1990 28% of Spain was forests; now the proportion is 37%. In both Greece and Italy, the growth was from 26% to 32% over the same period. Forests are gradually taking more and in America and Australia. Perhaps most astonishing is the trend in Ireland. Roughly 1% of that country was forested when it became independent in 1922. Forests cover 11% of the land, and the government wants to push the proportion to 18% by the 2040s.

Two things are fertilizing this growth. The first is the abandonment of farmland, especially in high, dry places where nothing grows terribly well. When farmers give up trying to earn a living from farming or herding trees simply move in. The second is government policy and subsidy. Throughout history, governments have protected and promoted forests for diverse reasons, ranging from the need for wooden warships to a desire to promote suburban house-building.  Nowadays forests are increasingly welcome because they suck in carbon pollution from the air. The justification change; desire for more trees remains constant.

The greening of the West does not delight everyone. Farmers complain that land is being taken out of use by generously subsidized tree plantations. Parts of Spain and Portugal suffer from terrible forest fires. Others simply dislike the appearance of forests planted in neat rows. They will have to get used to the trees, however. The growth of Western fores

There’re three main types of financial stress people encounter. The first type is apparent in people being stressed about the 26 ups and downs of investment markets-actually not so much the ups but 27 the downs. These people are usually unable or unprepared to endure the long haul.

The next common type of financial stress is that caused by debt. In a 28 percentage of cases of debt-induced financial stress. credit cards and loans will be a central element. Often there’ll be car loan and perhaps a mortgage, but credit cards often seem to be the gateway to debt-related financial difficulties for many.

The third type of stress and 29 the least known is inherited financial stress, which is the most destructive. It is experienced by those who have grown up in households where their parents regularly 30 and fought about money. Money therefore becomes a stressful topic, and so the thought of sitting down and planning is an unattractive 31 .

Those suffering inherited financial anxiety 32 to follow one of two patters. Either they put their head in the sand: they would 33 examining their financial statements, budgeting, and discussing financial matters with those closest to them. Alternatively, they would go to the other 34 and micro-analyze everything, to the point of complete 35 .They’re convinced that whatever decision they make will be the wrong one.

A) appearance B) argued C) avoid D) considerable E) definitely

F) extreme G) inaction H) incredibly I) normal J) possibly

K) proposition L) rebelled M) statement N) tend O) traditional

In recent years, a growing body of research has shown that our appetite and food intake are influenced by a large number of factors besides our biological need for energy, including our eating environment and our perception of the food in front of us.

Studies have shown, for instance, that eating in front of the TV (or a similar distraction) can increase both hunger and the amount of food consumed. Even simple visual cues, like plate size and lighting, have been shown to affect portion size and consumption.

A new study suggested that our short-term memory also may play a role in appetite. Several hours after a meal, people's hunger levels were predicted not by how much they’d eaten but rather by how much food they'd seen in front of them—in other words, how much they remembered eating.

This disparity (盖弃）suggests the memory of our previous meal may have a bigger influence on our appetite than the actual size of the meal, says Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Bristol.

"Hunger isn't controlled solely by the physical characteristics of a recent meal. We have identified an independent role for memory for that meal，" Brunstrom says. "This shows that the relationship between hunger and food intake is more complex than we thought."

These findings echo earlier research that suggests our perception of food can sometimes trick our body’s response to the food itself. In a 2011 study, for instance, people who drank the same 3S0-calorie (卡路里）milkshake on two separate occasions produced different levels of hunger-related hormones （荷尔蒙），depending on whether the shake’s label said it contained 620 or 140 calories. Moreover, the participants reported feeling more full when they thought they'd consumed a higher-calorie shake.

What does this mean for our eating habits? Although it hardly seems practical to trick ourselves into eating less, the new findings do hig

A)I still remember my fourth-grade social studies project. Our class was studying the Gold Rush, something all California fourth-graders learned. I was excited because I had asked to research Chinese immigrants during that era. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had always known that “San Francisco” translated to “Gold Mountain” in Chinese. The name had stuck ever since Chinese immigrants arrived on the shores of Northern California in the 1850s, eager to try their luck in the gold mines. Now l*d have the chance to learn about them.

B)My excitement was short-lived. I remember heading to the library with my class and asking for help. I remember the librarian's hesitation. She finally led me past row after row of books, to a comer of the library where she pulled an oversized book off the shelf. She checked the index and turned over to a page about early Chinese immigrants in California. That was all there was in my entire school library in San Francisco, home of the nation's first Chinatown. That was it.

C)I finally had the opportunity to learn about Asian Americans like myself, and how we became part of the fabric of the United States when I took an introductory class on Asian-American history in college. The class was a revelation. I realized how much had been missing in my textbooks as I grew up. My identity had been shaped by years of never reading, seeing, hearing, or learning about People who had a similar background as me. Why, I wondered, weren't the stories, histories, and contributions of Asian Americans taught in K-12 schools, especially in the elementary schools? Why are they still not taught?

D)Our students—Asian, Latino, African American, Native American and white—stand to gain from a multicultural curriculum. Students of color are more engaged and earn better grades when they see themselves in their studies. Research has also found that white students benefit by being challenged and exposed to new perspectives.<

When is cleaning walls a crime? When you're doing it to create art, obviously. A number of street artists around the world have started expressing themselves through a practice known as reverse graffiti (涂鸦).They find dirty surfaces and paint them with images or messages using cleaning brushes or pressure hoses (高压水管). Either way, it's the same principle: the image is made by cleaning away the dirt. Each artist has their own individual style but all artists share a common aim: to draw attention to the pollution in our cities. The UICs Paul Curtis, better known as Moose, operates around Leeds and London and has been commissioned by a number of companies to make reverse graffiti advertisements.

Brazilian artist, Alexandre Orion, turned one of Sao Paulo’s transport tunnels into an amazing wall painting in 2006 by getting rid of the dirt. Made up of a series of white skulls (颅骨)，the painting reminds drivers of the effect their pollution is having on the planet. “Every motorist sits in the comfort of their car, but they don't give any consideration to the price their comfort has for the environment and consequently for themselves,” says Orion.

The anti-pollution message of the reverse graffiti artists confuses city authorities since the main argument against graffiti is that it spoils the appearance of both types of property: public and private. This was what Leeds City Council said about Moose's work: “Leeds residents want to live in clean and attractive neighborhoods. We view this kind of advertising as environmental damage and will take strong action against it.” Moose was ordered to “clean up his act.” How was he supposed to do this: by making all property he had cleaned dirty again?

As for the Brazilian artist’s work, the authorities were annoyed but could find nothing to charge him with. They had no other option but to clean the tunnel—but only the parts Alexandre had already cleaned. The artist merely continued his campaign on

The practice of paying children an allowance became popular in America about 100 years ago. Nowadays, American kids on average receive about $ 800 per year in allowance. But the vast majority of American parents who pay allowance tie it to the completion of housework. Although many parents believe that paying an allowance for completing chores benefits their children, a range of experts expressed concern that tying allowance very closely to chores may not be ideal. In fact, the way chores work in many households worldwide points to another way.

Suniya Luthar, a psychologist, is against paying kids for chores. Luthar is not opposed to giving allowances, but she thinks it's important to establish that chores are done not because they will lead to payment, but because they keep the household running. Luthar’s suggested approach to allowance is compatible with that of writer Ron Lieber, who advises that allowances be used as a means of showing children how to save, give, and spend on things they care about. Kids should do chores, he writes, “for the same reason adults do, because the chores need to be done, and not with the expectation of compensation.”

This argument has its critics, but considering the way are undertaken around the world may change people’s thinking. Professor David Lancy of Utah State University has studied how families around the world handle chores. At about 18months of age, Lancy says, most children become eager to help their parents, and in many cultures, they begin helping with housework at that age. They begin with very simple tasks, but their responsibilities gradually increase. And they do these tasks without payment. Lancy contrasts this with what happens in America. “We deny our children’s bids to help until they are 6 or 7 years old,” Lancy says, “when many have lost the desire to help and then try to motivate them with payment. The solution to this problem is not to try to use money as an incentive to do housework, but t

For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to a foreign friend who wants to learn Chinese. Please recommend a place to him. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Finally, some good news about airplane travel. If you are on a plane with a sick passenger, you are unlikely to get sick. That is the __26__ of a new study that looked at how respiratory (呼吸道) viruses __27__ on airplanes. Researchers found that only people who were seated in the same row as a passenger with the flu, for example -- or one row in front of or behind that individual -- had a high risk of catching the illness. All other passengers had only a very __28__ chance of getting sick, according to the findings. Media reports have not necessarily presented __29__ information about the risk of getting infected on an airplane in the past. Therefore, these new findings should help airplane passengers to feel less __30__ to catching respiratory infections while traveling by air.

Prior to the new study, little was known about the risks of getting __31__ infected by common respiratory viruses, such as the flu or common cold, on an airplane, the researchers said. So, to __32__ the risks of infection, the study team flew on 10 different __33__ in the U.S. during the flu season. The researchers found that passengers sitting within two seats on __34__ side of a person infected with the flu, as well as those sitting one row in front of or behind this individual, had about an 80 percent chance of getting sick. But other passengers were __35__ safe from infection. They had a less than 3 percent chance of catching the flu.

A) accurate

B) conclusion

C) directly

D) either

E) evaluate

F) explorations

G) flights

H) largely

I) nearby

J) respond

K) slim

L) spread

M) summit

N) vividly

O) vulnerable

A) Along with old classics like "carrots give you night vision" and "Santa doesn't bring toys to misbehaving children", one of the most well-worn phrases of tired parents everywhere is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Many of us grow up believing that skipping breakfast is a serious mistake, even if only two thirds of adults in the UK eat breakfast regularly, according to the British Dietetic Association, and around three-quarters of Americans.

B) "The body uses a lot of energy stores for growth and repair through the night," explains diet specialist Sarah Elder. "Eating a balanced breakfast helps to up our energy, as well as make up for protein and calcium used throughout the night." But there's widespread disagreement over whether breakfast should keep its top spot in the hierarchy (等级) of meals. There have been concerns around the sugar content of cereal and the food industry's involvement in pro-breakfast research -- and even one claim from an academic that breakfast is "dangerous".

C) What's the reality? Is breakfast a necessary start to the day or a marketing tactic by cereal companies? The most researched aspect of breakfast(and breakfast-skipping) has been its links to obesity. Scientists have different theories as to why there's a relationship between the two. In one US study that analysed the health data of 50,000 people over seven years, researchers found that those who made breakfast the largest meal of the day were more likely to have a lower body mass index (BMI) than those who ate a large lunch or dinner. The researchers argued that breakfast helps reduce daily calorie intake and improve the quality of our diet -- since breakfast foods are often higher in fibre and nutrients.

D) But as with any study of this kind, it was unclear if that was the cause -- or if breakfast-skippers were just more likely to be overweight to begin with. To find ou

Textbooks represent an 11 billion dollar industry, up from $8 billion in 2014. Textbook publisher Pearson is the largest publisher -- of any kind -- in the world.

It costs about $1 million to create a new textbook. A freshman textbook will have dozens of contributors, from subject-matter experts through graphic and layout artists to expert reviewers and classroom testers. Textbook publishers connect professors, instructors and students in ways that alternatives, such as open e-textbooks and open educational resources, simply do not. This connection happens not only by means of collaborative development, review and testing, but also at conferences where faculty regularly decide on their textbooks and curricula for the coming year.

It is true that textbook publishers have recently reported losses, largely due to students renting or buying used print textbooks. But this can be chalked up to the excessively high cost of their books -- which has increased over 1,000 percent since 1977. A restructuring of the textbook industry may well be in order. But this does not mean the end of the textbook itself.

While they may not be as dynamic as an iPad, textbooks are not passive or lifeless. For example, over the centuries, they have simulated (模拟) dialogues in a number of ways. From 1800 to the present day, textbooks have done this by posing questions for students to answer inductively (归纳性地). That means students are asked to use their individual experience to come up with answers to general questions. Today's psychology texts, for example, ask: "How much of your personality do you think you inherited?" while ones in physics say: "How can you predict where the ball you tossed will land?"

Experts observe that "textbooks come in layers, something like an onion." For an active learner, engaging with a textbook can be an interactive experience. Readers proceed at their own pace. They "customize" their books by e

When we think of animals and plants, we have a pretty good way of dividing them into two distinct groups: one converts sunlight into energy and the other has to eat food to make its energy. Well, those dividing lines come crashing down with the discovery of a sea slug (海蛞蝓) that's truly half animal and half plant. It's pretty incredible how it has managed to hijack the genes of the algae (藻类) on which it feeds.

The slugs can manufacture chlorophyll, the green pigment (色素) in plants that captures energy from sunlight, and hold these genes within their body. The term kleptoplasty is used to describe the practice of using hijacked genes to create nutrients from sunlight. And so far, this green sea slug is the only known animal that can be truly considered solar-powered, although some animals do exhibit some plant-like behaviors. Many scientists have studied the green sea slugs to confirm that they are actually able to create energy from sunlight.

In fact, the slugs use the genetic material so well that they pass it on to their future generations. Their babies retain the ability to produce their own chlorophyll, though they can't generate energy from sunlight until they've eaten enough algae to steal the necessary genes, which they can't yet produce on their own.

"There's no way on earth that genes from an alga should work inside an animal cell," says Sidney Pierce from the University of South Florida. "And yet here, they do. They allow the animal to rely on sunshine for its nutrition. So if something happens to their food source, they have a way of not starving to death until they find more algae to eat."

The sea slugs are so good at gathering energy from the sun that they can live up to nine months without having to eat any food. They get all their nutritional needs met by the genes that they've hijacked from the algae.