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Food serves as a form of communication in two fundamental ways. Sharing bread or other foods is a common human tradition that can promote unity and trust. Food can also have a specific meaning，and play a significant role in a family or culture's celebrations or traditions. The foods we eat—and when and how we eat them—are often unique to a particular culture or may even differ between rural (农村的) and urban areas within one country.
Sharing bread，whether during a special occasion (时刻) or at the family dinner table, is a common symbol of togetherness.Many cultures also celebrate birthdays and marriages with cakes that are cut and shared among the guests. Early forms of cake were simply a kind of bread, so this tradition has its roots in the custom of sharing bread.
Food also plays an important role in many New Year celebrations.In the southern United States，pieces of corn bread represent blocks of gold for prosperity (兴旺) in the New Year.In Greece，people share a special cake called vasilopita. A coin is put into the cake，which signifies (预示) success in the New Year for the person who receives it.
Many cultures have ceremonies to celebrate the birth of a child，and food can play a significant role.In China，when a baby is one month old，families name and welcome their child in a celebration that includes giving redcolored eggs to guests.In many cultures，round foods such as grapes，bread，and moon cakes are eaten at welcome celebrations to represent family unity.
Nutrition is necessary for life，so it is not surprising that food is such an important part of different cultures around the world.
1.According to the passage,sharing bread____
A.can help to develop unity B.is a custom unique to rural areas
C.indicates a lack of food D.has its roots in birthday celebrations
2.What is the passage mainly about?
A.The custom of sharing food. B.The importance of food in culture.
C.The role of food in ceremonies. D.The specific meaning of food.
3.The author explains the role of food in celebrations by
A.making comparisons B.using examples
C.analyzing causes D.describing processes
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When a big exam is coming up, you probably feel anxious about any wasted time and want to begin school as soon as you probably can.
But tens of thousands of British high school students will soon be getting up later. They’re taking part in a new experiment by Oxford University to see if later classes can improve their exam results.
Grades 10 students in the UK have to take the nationwide General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams. They have to pass these exams in order to study more advanced courses, and later apply for universities.
The Oxford University project means that GCSE students from more than 100 schools across England will start school at 10 am, more than one hour later than the current start time (8:50 am).
The project is based on scientific evidence that teenagers are “out of sync(同步)” with traditional school hours, the Telegraph reported. And what they need is more sleep in the morning.
“We know that something funny happens when you’re a teenager, in that you seem to be out of sync with the world,” said professor Colin Epsie, who is leading the study. “Your parents think it’s because you are lazy and opinionated（固执己见的）and everything will be OK if you could get to sleep earlier. But science is telling us that teenagers need to sleep more in the mornings.”
Everyone follows a natural cycle of sleep and wakefulness. Biology has decided that teenagers go to sleep around midnight and don’t feel fully awake until 9-10 am, according to scientists. That’s two hours later than adults. And their body clocks stay like this until the age of around 21 for males, and 19 for females.
“Society provides school for learning, but the brain provides sleep. So we are exploring the possibility that if you delay the schools start time until 10 am, that will improve learning performance,” said Epsie.
The results could be positive, based on previous studies.
An early study at the UK’s Monkseaton High School in 2009 found that starting an hour later improved grades in core subjects by 19 percent.
The Oxford project is expecting to publish the results in 2018. It’s time to wait and see whether scientists will give us an excuse to get up late.
1.According to the article, students who take part in the Oxford University project_______.
A.will start school one hour earlier
B.will be guaranteed more sleeping time in the morning
C.will perform better academically than those who don’t participate
D.will no longer have to take GCSE exams
2.We can infer from the article that ________ .
A.children and adults have different natural cycles of sleep and wakefulness
B.getting up late is a sign of laziness in the eyes of most British parents
C.the Oxford University project is targeted at all British high schools
D.there is still no scientific evidence that supports a late school start time
3.What is the author’s attitude toward the Oxford University project ?
A.Critical B.Uninterested
C.Optimistic D.Doubtful
4.What’s the best title of the article ?
A.It’s never too late to learn B.An excuse to get up late
C.The later you get up, the better you’ll learn D.Wake up late to excel
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We've all heard the quote, “Be Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
My husband and son died within two years of each other. From my personal experience, I believe that if we aren't careful, grief can become a rather self-involved process in which we can become so focused on our own suffering that we miss the opportunity to connect with, and possibly bring comfort to, someone else who may be going through a similar experience.
Six months after my husband died, I was sinking in the quicksand of grief. I could not pull myself out of the misery. In that moment, I actually believed that my life was more difficult than anyone else around me. Life handed me a perfectly wrapped lesson that opened my eyes to the fact that through my suffering I had allowed myself to become blinded by my self-pity.
The lesson presented itself in a health crisis. I had complications(并发症) from a surgical procedure and ended up being hospitalized for four days. I was in an extreme amount of pain during this time. Between the physical pain and the emotional pain of grief, I was an absolute mess.
I should also tell you that I am a Registered Nurse. As a nurse, it is hard to be on the receiving end of medicine as the patient. The first three nights that I was in the hospital, the same nurse took care of me. She was young, maybe in her mid to late 20s, and she hardly interacted with me at all the first two nights, other than to give my medications as scheduled. She obviously had no idea how much emotional pain I was in. How hard is it to ask your patient how she's feeling? I wrote her off as a bad nurse who had little empathy, and remained absorbed in my own emotional and physical pain. The third night the young nurse was a little more talkative. She asked me how I was feeling (finally!). I told her that I was struggling with depression and grief because my husband had died in an airplane accident. She looked at me and told me that her husband had died too, just two months earlier. I was stunned. Speechless. Shocked.
Never, in any of the possibilities that my mind entertained of why this nurse was so stand-offish with me, did I even consider that she might be in the same pain I was. Not only was she grieving as I was, but she was having to take care of me, instead of caring for herself and her family.
We went on to talk and share our stories about our late husbands and children. I like to think that we helped each other a bit that night. We had much more in common than I would have believed. We were both widowed single moms with young children, and nurses. But, that was where the similarities ended. Her husband had no insurance policy. She had very little family support. She was working paycheck to paycheck to support her boys. I was humbled. I realized how much I had to be grateful for. And, frankly, I never saw life the same way after this experience.
This experience was a life-changing event for me. I had always prided myself on being an empathetic person, but I realize now that I had not really understood what being empathetic meant. To truly be empathetic, you must be able to see beyond your own pain to be witness to the pain. I never looked at another person in the same way after this experience. I thank death for very few things. The gift of empathy for my fellow man, and understanding that we all suffer in ways that aren't always visible, are presents from death that I will always be grateful for.
Always take the time to be kind. Even when you're suffering with your own pain. And don't assume that someone else has it easier than you. You never know the battles someone else is fighting.
1.What can be learned from the underlined sentence in para3?
A.Self-pity always brings about selflessness. B.Self-pity always results in selfishness.
C.Selflessness often brings out blindness. D.Selfishness can prevent self-pity.
2.Why did the author regard the nurse as a bad one at first?
A.The nurse treated her abruptly.
B.The nurse didn't offer medications on time.
C.The nurse seldom communicated with her.
D.The nurse was irresponsible.
3.Which one is closest to the meaning of the word 'humbled'?
A.beaten B.ashamed
C.defeated D.depressed
4.Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage?
A.Every bean has its black. B.Let bygones be bygones.
C.Stand in others' shoes. D.Misfortunes never come singly.
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Young American adults own smartphones at a higher rate than any other age group.
Researchers from Duke University wanted to see if using the smartphone with a low-cost weight-loss App might help young adults in the US who are overweight. If you're rooting for smartphones to solve all our health problems,you're not going to like what the researchers found.The smartphone App doesn't help young adults lose any weight
The study looked at 365 young adults aged 18 to 35.A third of the young adults used an Android App created for the study,which not only tracked their calories,weight and exercise but also offered interactive features like goal setting.games and social support.Another third of the young adults received six weekly personal coaching courses,followed by monthly phone follow-ups.Plus,this personal coaching group was also encouraged to track thcir weight, calories and exercise by smartphones.The last third of young adults were put into a control group and given three necessities on healthy eating and exercise-nothing else.
Researchers tracked the young adults progress after six months,one year and two years. The personal coaching group lost more weight than the other two groups at the six-month mark, but that lead(领先)disappeared at the one-and two-year follow-up.As for the group using the smartphone App,their average weight loss was never more than the other two groups. Lead author Laura Svetkey says that she and her colleagues were both surprised and disappointed at the results.“Given the power of cell phone apps and the popularity of these health and fitness apps,we thought this might be good to provide an effective solution at a low cost,”says Svetkey.
But Svetkey says it's difficult to get the same level of intensity(强度)in an App that you might get through personal coaching,Plus,she says,people tend to stop using weight-loss apps after a while.
There are good reasons to help young adults control their weight.Weight gain during the young adult years is associated with a variety of health problems later in life,including metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.
Since I am a young American adult who uses a popular weight-loss App on my iPhone,I wonder if there is any real harm in using one of these apps,even if they aren't proven effective in research studies.So I turn to Svetkey.She says,"These study results aren't the reason to give up hope about the potential for weight-loss apps,but instead are the reason to strengthen research efforts.More work is needed to understand how to use the technology and show its strengths in a way that will lead people to change their eating and exercise behaviors.”
1.The underlined part"rooting for”in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to“".
A.disliking B.supporting
C.quitting D.doubting
2.From the passage we know that in the study
A.the group using the smartphone App lost the most weight
B.participants in the control group failed to lose weight
C.all participants surveyed gains weight two years later
D.the personal coaching group was more successful at the six-month mark
3.Which of the following does Laura Svetkey agree with?
A.Weight-loss apps in smartphones are an effective solution to over-weight people.
B.Compared with weight-loss apps,personal coaching is more effective.
C.Being overweight will cause serious diseases to people.
D.People should have confidence in weight-loss apps all the time.
4.From the last paragraph,we can infer that
A.there is a long way to go to help people lose weight with technology
B.people should eat less and exercise more
C.people are advised to give up using weight-loss apps
D.the more advanced technology is,the more benefits people will get
