If you live in the U.S., you’re probably used to throwing banana peel into the trash. But people in other countries, including India, have been taking advantages of their nutritional benefits for many years.

While the flesh of a banana is soft and sweet, the skin is thick, hard and slightly bitter. To eat the peel, you can fry, bake, or boil it for at least 10 minutes. Also, the riper bananas get, the thinner and sweeter banana peel will become. That’s because of a natural plant hormone(激素) called ethylene(乙烯) that fruits release as they ripen. Ethylene interacts with the sugars and fiber in the banana skin, changing complex sugars into simple sugars and breaking down pectin, a form of fiber in bananas that keeps them stiff. That’s why the older your banana is, the flimsier(不结实的) it feels.

The sweet flesh of a medium-sized banana contains great percentages of your daily recommended intake of various nutrients, such as:

·12% of your daily fiber, which helps with digestion and may help lower your risk of diabetes(糖尿病)

·17% of your vitamin C, which is important for your immune system as well as your growth

·20% of your vitamin B6, which aids the body’s ability to turn food into energy

·12% of your potassium, which helps with the development of cells, tissues, and organs throughout the body

If you eat the skin along with the flesh, you will get an even bigger increase in these same nutrients.

Eating the peel is not only good for your body but also better for the earth. The average American ate 11.4 pounds of bananas in 2014. Since a medium-sized banana weighs about 0.3 pounds, that equates to about 38 bananas per person, or about 12 billion for the whole of the U.S. And since most of us throw away the peel, that also means a lot of organic waste.

1.We can learn from the text that in the U.S. people .

A. like eating bananas

B. waste a lot of food every year

C. don’t make good use of banana peel

D. know little about the value of the flesh of bananas

2.What’s the role of ethylene in bananas?

A. Helping bananas grow faster.

B. Making banana peel stay strong.

C. Keeping banana flesh from going bad.

D. Helping to soften and sweeten banana peel.

3.Which of the following helps humans digest?

A. Vitamin C. B. Potassium.

C. Vitamin B6. D. Fiber.

4.The last paragraph mainly shows that eating banana peel benefits our .

A. diet B. economy

C. environment D. physical health

Surviving Hurricane Sandy(飓风桑迪)

Natalie Doan, 14, has always felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks from the beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the waves from her house. “It’s the ocean that makes Rockaway so special,” she says.

On October 29, 2012, that ocean turned fierce. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast, and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie’s family escaped to Brooklyn shortly before the city’s bridge closed.

When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood in ruins. Many of Natalie’s friends had lost their homes and were living far away. All around her, people were suffering, especially the elderly. Natalie’s school was so damaged that she had to temporarily attend a school in Brooklyn.

In the following few days, the men and women helping Rockaway recover inspired Natalie. Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping others rebuild. Teenagers climbed dozens of flights of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings.

“My mom tells me that I can’t control what happens to me,” Natalie says. “but I can always choose how I deal with it.”

Natalie’s choice was to help.

She created a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to help. Natalie posted information about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collection when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick’s collection was replaced.

In the coming months, her website page helped lots of kids: Christopher, who received a new basketball; Charlie, who got a new keyboard. Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-needed supplies to Rockaway. Her efforts made her a famous person. Last April, she was invited to the White House and honored as a Hurricane Sandy Champion of Change.

Today, the scars(创痕) of destruction are still seen in Rockaway, but hope is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt. “I can’t imagine living anywhere but Rockaway,” Natalie declares. “My neighborhood will be back, even stronger than before.”

1. When Natalie returned to Rockaway after the hurricane, she found _________.

A. some friends had lost their lives

B. her neighborhood was destroyed

C. her school had moved to Brooklyn

D. the elderly were free from suffering

2. According to Paragraph 4, who inspired Natalie most?

A. The people helping Rockaway rebuild.

B. The people trapped in high-rise buildings.

C. The volunteers donating money to survivors.

D. Local teenagers bringing clothing to elderly people.

3.How did Natalie help the survivors?

A. She gave her toys to other kids.

B. She took care of younger children.

C. She called on the White House to help.

D. She built an information sharing platform.

4. What does the story intend to tell us?

A. Little people can make a big difference.

B. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

C. East or west, home is best.

D. Technology is power.

Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: “Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today—and 45minutes each day for the rest of the week.”

A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see what the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.

Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect(感染) other students.

Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, “But I’m just not creative.”

“Do you dream at night when you’re asleep?”

“Oh, sure.”

“So tell me one of your most interesting dreams.” The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. “That’s pretty creative. Who does that for you?”

“Nobody. I do it.”

“Really—at night, when you’re asleep?”

“Sure.”

“Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?”

1.The teacher used Tinkertoys in class in order to ________.

A. know more about the students

B. make the lessons more exciting

C. raise the students’ interest in art

D. teach the students about toy design

2.What do we know about the boy mentioned in Paragraph 3?

A. He liked to help his teacher.

B. He preferred to study alone.

C. He was active in class.

D. He was imaginative.

3.What does the underlined word “downside” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A. Mistake. B. Drawback.

C. Difficulty. D. Burden.

4.Why did the teacher ask the students to talk about their dreams?

A. To help them to see their creativity.

B. To find out about their sleeping habits.

C. To help them to improve their memory.

D. To find out about their ways of thinking.

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