“Eat local.” It’s one way to reduce human effect on the planet. Eating local means to try to buy and consume foods that are grown in places close to home. However, most of the food sold at supermarkets is not locally grown or produced. Trucks and planes deliver these foods from hundreds or thousands of miles away. During the transportation, greenhouse(温室)gases are produced, causing global warming. So the shorter the distance your foods must travel, the less the harm is done to the environment.
But how do you get local food if you live in a large city, hundreds of miles away from farms？Environmental health scientist Dickson Despommier and his students came up with the idea of a “vertical(垂直的)farm”.

A vertical farm is a glass-walled structure that could be built as tall as a skyscraper(摩天大楼). Since the garden is built upwards, rather than outwards, it requires much less space than an ordinary farm. The world is quickly running out of room for ordinary farming. Vertical farms could be a key to this situation. Despommier imagines a 30-story building with a greenhouse on every floor. The walls of the building would be clear, to allow crops to get as much sunlight as possible. Depending on a city’s water resources, Despommier thinks hydroponic(水培的) farming is another method for the vertical farm which needs no soil to grow plants.
Despommier says the hydroponic greenhouses would use a system that would use a city’s waste water and fill it with nutritions to make the crops grow. If this method works, it would provide food to a city and save millions of tons of water.
The idea of a vertical farm has attracted the attention of government officials around the world. Scott Stringer, a government official from New York City, thinks the city is suitable for the vertical farming. “Obviously we don’t have much land left for us,” Stringer said. “But the sky is the limit in Manhattan. ”
Despommier admits that there is still a lot of work to do to make vertical farms a reality. “But I think vertical farming is an idea that can work in a big way,” he says.
【小题1】Why are people advised to eat local?

Eat less and exercise more—it has long been a magic word for reducing those extra weight. But now it seems that all the hard work may have been in vain.

Scientists say there are ten other reasons why people just keep getting bigger. They say that sleeping habits, central heating, medicines and even some pollutants (污染物质) can play a role in weight gain.

Traditionally, people have focused on diet and exercise to solve the problem. However the scientists from top US and Canadian universities say that other things must be considered.

Lack of sleep could be partly the reason. In recent years, the average night’s sleep has dropped from nine hours to just seven. Sleep shortage changes levels of the hormones (荷尔蒙) that control food intake and body fat and increase hunger and appetite.

If it is too hot or too cold, we burn calories (卡路里) to cool down or heat up. But if the temperature is just right, the calories may be turned into body fat instead.

Those who take medicine to control their blood pressure can often put on weight. Similarly, studies have shown that going on the Pill can add to a woman’s weight.

Mother nature may also be the reason, with our body shape being partly inherited (遗传的). The overweight are also more likely to settle with partners of a similar size. And their children are more likely to be obese (肥胖的).

And the use of pollutants is on the rise, say the researchers. The man-made chemicals in pesticides (杀虫剂) and plastics can lead to weight gain.

Your mother’s age and your weight at birth are also important, with older woman more likely to have obese children and underweight babies having a bigger chance of being obese in later life.

We also tend to put on weight as we get older. Finally, giving up smoking can also help pile on the pounds.

The scientists from Yale, Cornell and Johns Hopkins said there was some evidence supporting poor diet and lack of exercise as the main causes of obesity.

68. Which is commonly thought to be effective in losing weight?

A. To have operation to cut extra fat.

B. To take pills and avoid fatty food.

C. To sleep less to burn more calories.

D. To have less food and take more exercise.

69. Which of the following factors doesn’t lead to overweight?

A. Regular and enough sleep.               B. Comfortable living environment.

C. Not enough physical exercise.        D. harmful chemicals in the food.

70. Which of the following statements would the author agree to?

A. Lack of sleep leads you to take in more food.

B. Unpleasant weather helps you to put on weight.

C. Obese parents are not likely to have fat children.

D. Medicine for blood pressure helps you lose weight.

71. What would women prefer to do to have healthy children?

A. To have only one child.          

B. To marry at an older age.

C. To marry a strong husband.                  

D. To give birth to a baby at younger age.

“Eat local.” It’s one way to reduce human effect on the planet. Eating local means to try to buy and consume foods that are grown in places close to home. However, most of the food sold at supermarkets is not locally grown or produced. Trucks and planes deliver these foods from hundreds or thousands of miles away. During the transportation, greenhouse(温室)gases are produced, causing global warming. So the shorter the distance your foods must travel, the less the harm is done to the environment.
But how do you get local food if you live in a large city, hundreds of miles away from farms？Environmental health scientist Dickson Despommier and his students came up with the idea of a “vertical(垂直的)farm”.

A vertical farm is a glass-walled structure that could be built as tall as a skyscraper(摩天大楼). Since the garden is built upwards, rather than outwards, it requires much less space than an ordinary farm. The world is quickly running out of room for ordinary farming. Vertical farms could be a key to this situation. Despommier imagines a 30-story building with a greenhouse on every floor. The walls of the building would be clear, to allow crops to get as much sunlight as possible. Depending on a city’s water resources, Despommier thinks hydroponic(水培的) farming is another method for the vertical farm which needs no soil to grow plants.
Despommier says the hydroponic greenhouses would use a system that would use a city’s waste water and fill it with nutritions to make the crops grow. If this method works, it would provide food to a city and save millions of tons of water.
The idea of a vertical farm has attracted the attention of government officials around the world. Scott Stringer, a government official from New York City, thinks the city is suitable for the vertical farming. “Obviously we don’t have much land left for us,” Stringer said. “But the sky is the limit in Manhattan. ”
Despommier admits that there is still a lot of work to do to make vertical farms a reality. “But I think vertical farming is an idea that can work in a big way,” he says

1. 1.

   Why are people advised to eat local?

   1. A.
      Because it means convenience(方便) to people
   2. B.
      Because it can help people save a lot of money
   3. C.
      Because local food has more nutrition
   4. D.
      Because it is environmentally friendly
2. 2.

   Which is one of the vertical farm’s benefits when compared with ordinary farming?

   1. A.
      It produces healthier food
   2. B.
      It does less harm to the cities
   3. C.
      It needs less space of the city
   4. D.
      It requires less transport costs
3. 3.

   By saying “the sky is the limit in Manhattan”, Stringer means _____

   1. A.
      people can make full use of vertical space of Manhattan
   2. B.
      there is a limit for using empty land in Manhattan
   3. C.
      the height of buildings in Manhattan is limited
   4. D.
      Manhattan can spread as far as possible
4. 4.

   What can we learn about the vertical farming in the passage?

   1. A.
      No soil is needed to grow plants in a vertical farm
   2. B.
      It has solved the problem of the food shortage in a big way
   3. C.
      It is a 30-story building with a greenhouse on every floor
   4. D.
      Crops are mainly grown in the rainwater in a vertical farm

Would you eat a ready meal from the fridge rather than cook from scratch? Have you been doing internet shopping rather than going to the stores? What can't you be bothered to do?

A study into how lazy British people are has found more than half of adults are so lazy they'd catch the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs.

Just over 2000 people were quizzed by independent researchers at Nuffield Health, Britain's largest health charity. The results were astonishing.

About one in six people surveyed said if their remote control was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up.

More than one third of those questioned said they would not run to catch a bus. Worryingly, of the 654 respondents with children, 64% said they were often too tired to play with them.

This led the report to conclude that it's no wonder that one in six children in the UK are classified as obese (very fat) before they start school.

Dr Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health, said: "People need to get fitter, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their families, friends and evidently their pets too. Ks5u

"If we don't start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the most rudimentary of tasks."

And Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, was shamed as the most inactive city in the UK, with 75% surveyed admitting they do not get enough exercise, followed closely by Birmingham and Southampton, both with 67%.

The results cause serious challenges for the National Health Service, where obesity-related illnesses such as heart disease and cancer have been on a steady increase for the past 40 years and are costing billions of pounds every year.   

What causes children in the UK to be obese?  

A. Eating ready meal    B. Watching TV

C. Doing Internet shopping  D. Being lazy

What can be inferred from the passage?  

A. British people are too lazy to do anything.

B. Internet shopping will do harm to your health.

C. Many people would not run to catch a bus in Britain.

D. People should be more active and take regular exercise to keep fit.

Which of the following is Not true according to the passage?  

A. One sixth of British people use remote control when watching TV.

B. People will benefit not only themselves but their families by getting fit.

C. Fatness can cause diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

D. More people get obesity-related illnesses now than 40 years ago.

What does the underlined word rudimentary most probably mean?

A. basic    B. serious  C. vital    D. hard

All the following are among the most lazy cities in the UK except         . 

A. Glasgow  B. Birmingham   C. Nuffield D. Southampton

How to eat healthfully can be espeically complex for working women who often have neither the desire nor the time to cook for themselves (or for anyone else). Registered dietitian(营养专家)Barhara Morrissey suggests that a few simple rules can help.

“Go for nutrient?dense foods,”she suggests, “foods that contain a multiple of nutrients. For example, select whole wheat bread as a breakfast food, rather than coffee cake. Or drink orange juice rather than orange drink, which contains only a small percentage of real juice-the rest is largely colored sugar water. You just can’t compare the value of these foods, the nutrient?dense ones are so superior, ”she emphasizes.

Morrissey believes that variety is not only the spice of life—it’s the foundation of a healthful diet. Diets which are based on one or two foods are not only virtually impossible to keep up the strength, they can be very harmful, she says, because nutrients aren’t supplied in sufficient amounts or balance.

According to Morrissey, trying to find a diet that can cure your illnesses, or make you superwoman is a fruitless search. As women, many of us are too concerned with staying thin, she says, and we believe that vitamins are some kind of magic cure to replace food.

“We need carbohydrates, protein and fat—they are like the wood in the fireplace. The vitamins and minerals are like the match, the spark, for the fuel,”she explains. “We need them all, but in a very different proportions. And if the fuel isn’t there, the spark is useless.”

12.From the paragraph we know that working women .          

think cooking is especially complicated

do not share the same views with registered dietitians

are busy and not interested in cooking           

D.  are likely to eat healthfully

13.Orange juice is different from orange drink in that            .

A.it contains only a small percentage of real juice

B.it is natural, nutritious and prepared from real oranges

C.it is largely orangecolored sugar water

D.it produces nothing but calories

14.In Paragraph 4, “a fruitless search”means            .

A.an effort with no results                    

B.a search for a diet without fruits

C.a research on fruitless diet                 

D.a diet serving as medicine

15.Many women take it for granted, according to passage that            .

A.a balanced diet can result in being fat

B.staying thin and healthy are both possible

C.lack of variety in diets leads to staying thin

D.vitamins are some kind of subsitutions for food

16.By “if the fuel isn’t there, the spark is useless”,the author means            .

A.carbohydrates, protein and fat are enough to support a human life

B.vitamins and minerals are virtually of no valuew.

C.carbohydrates, protein and fat are as important as vitamins and minerals

D.without carbohydrates, protein and fat, vitamins and minerals are of no use