prepared on busy restaurant assembly lines. But the historically high price of products is making it an even bigger drag on the bottom line.
Restaurants, colleges, hospitals and other institutions are compensating for the rising costs of waste in novel ways. Some are tracking their trash with software systems, making food in smaller packages or trying to compost (将……制成堆肥) and cut down on trash-hauling costs.
―We have all come to work with this big elephant in the middle of kitchen, and the elephant is this ?It‘s okay to waste‘ belief system,‖ said Andrew Shackman, president of LeanPath, a company that helps restaurants cut back food waste.
The interest in cutting food waste ―has just rocketed in the last six to nine months,‖ he said.
Roughly 30 percent of food in the United States goes to waste, costing some $48 billion annually, according to a Stockholm International Water Institute study. A University of Arizona study estimated that 40 to 50 percent of food in the United States is wasted. Wholesale food costs have risen more than 8 percent this year, the biggest jump in decades, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Freshman students at Virginia Tech were surprised this year when the two of the campus‘ biggest dining halls to find there were no trays.
―You have to go back and get your dishware and your drink, but it‘s not that different,‖ said Caitlin Mewborn, a freshman. ―It‘s not a big trouble. You take less food, and you don‘t eat more than you should.‖
Getting rid of trays has cut food waste by 38 percent at the dining halls, said Denny Cochrane, manager of Virginia Tech‘s sustainability program. Before the program began, students often grabbed whatever looked good at the buffet (自助餐), only to find at the table that their eyes were bigger than their stomachs, he said.
56. High price of products makes the problem of food waste ________. A. less challenging B. more unbelievable C. less noticeable D. more unsolvable
57. What does Caitlin Mewborn most probably think about the fact that no trays are provided in the campus‘ dining halls?
A. It doesn‘t help cut food waste much. B. It causes much trouble for students. C. It isn‘t well-received by the freshmen. D. It is efficient for cutting food waste.
58. The author mentions Virginia Tech as an example to support the idea that ________. A. food waste has been a long-lasting chronic problem B. novel ways are being applied to cutting food waste C. colleges are truly the biggest source of food waste D. the ―It‘s okay to waste‖ belief system is influential
B
To discipline means to teach. To be well disciplined is to have learned to live in accordance with the sensible rules and regulations that society has set up for the behavior of its members.
Unless the child learns from each disciplinary situation how better to govern his conduct, effective discipline has not been developed. Parents must accept for themselves the idea that successful discipline results in learning. When they approach situations in which a child must adapt themselves to demands made upon them as learning situations, many problems usually thought of in connection with discipline disappear.
Unfortunately, the word discipline has come to have other less constructive meanings. Far too often discipline is thought of as punishment. To many people, to discipline a child means to spank（掌掴）him or use some other method of punishment. Such people consider discipline a way of either keeping a child from doing something or of forcing him to do something.
It is the task of parents to build within themselves and within the children with whom they live this
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capacity for self-direction, based upon an understanding of what is required of individuals in a democratic society. This means learning to act in those ways known to be necessary for the ―good life‖, not for one‘s self alone but also for others.
Developing the capacity for self-discipline in a child is a long, slow process. Much patience is required on the part of the parents. During this development, it is important that the child‘s self- confidence and comfortable acceptance of himself should never be sacrificed in a disciplinary battle; instead it should be increased through the ways in which his parents meet disciplinary situations. Many parents show a good deal of impatience if the little child does not rapidly learn how to keep clean, eat well, be orderly, and do what he is told. They are so eager for him to achieve these things that they seem to try to push him rapidly through his baby period. They seem also to think that learning to do these things at the earliest possible age will place the child one jump ahead in the competitive race foe success. But expecting too much too early is a common mistake and results in many battles.
59. According to the passage, the well-disciplined people are those ________. A. behaving and considering what their parents require B. obeying what is required on some special occasions C. obeying the reasonable rules and social regulations D. having self-direction capacity in a democratic society
60. According to the passage, disciplining a child means ________ for many parents. A. developing his capacity for self-direction B. helping him understand social requirement C. setting various limitations to his behavior D. punishing him with one method or another
61. What may be the author‘s attitude towards parents‘ expecting their children to achieve too much at the possible earliest age?
A. Indifferent B. Disapproving C. Ironic D. Concerned
C A spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called Empatica, has created a wearable device that monitors epileptic seizures（癫痫发作）.
According to Statista, the value of the global mHealth market for 2015 is forecasted to be at around 14.5 billion U.S. dollars. In fact, 247 million people in the US have downloaded a
healthcare app for their personal use.
The new product, Embrace, can be paired with a companion watch that a family member, friend or caregiver can wear. When the companion watch is in range of the user‘s Embrace watch, it will vibrate to alert the companion watch of their medical situation or status.
Embrace is tied together by two apps: an event detector which sends an alert when the user‘s electrodermal response reaches a pre set level they customize based on their history and health profile; and a diary app which helps monitor and manage everyday routines.
The ultra thin Embrace is the result of several years of research from MIT professor Dr. Rosalind W. Picard, founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at MIT Media Lab and her team. Embrace evolved from a discovery with an early device called iCalm in 2008 which allowed the researchers to see the outbreak of stress even before it was noticed by the subject.
The sensors in the iCalm device measured the ―fight-or-flight response‖ through electrodermal activity which was measured from the skin surface. In a small test group, the data from the iCalm showed that the
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wristband data was related to how long the brain waves were suppressed after an epileptic seizure. According to Picard, the data showed the bigger the signal on the wrist, the longer the brain waves went flat after the seizure had supposedly ended. The problem with that discovery, according to the researchers, is that someone who‘s had an epileptic seizure and then appears to recover should be monitored and not left alone.
Over time, Picard and her team fine-tuned iCalm to what is now the Embrace watch which monitors the user‘s physiological stress levels. Embrace monitors electrodermal activity (EDA) and movement with an objective of reducing Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP), the leading cause of death of those with epilepsy.
Embrace recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for further product development. The company also has partnered with the Epilepsy Foundation and plans to give Embrace watches to children or families who can‘t afford them.
62. What can be inferred from the passage?
A. Embrace will undoubtedly have a bright market future. B. With Embrace, many epileptic sufferers have got cured. C. Embrace is unaffordable for most children and families. D. The government financially supports Embrace advances. 63. Embrace works with devices consisting of ________. A. paired companion watches B. an event detector and a diary app C. smart sensors in the iCalm device D. the signals shown on the wrist 64. Empatica developed iCalm because it ________.
A. failed to detect an epileptic patient who tends to be cured B. was weak in reporting the accurate data of the stress outbreak C. could not figure out the brain waves via signals on the wrist D. lacked the function to explain the sudden death in Epilepsy 65. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage? A. From Fine-tuned iCalm to the Embrace Watch B. A Cure of Epilepsy by Picard and her Team C. A Smart Watch to Manage Epileptic Seizures D. Embrace, a Great Scientific Breakthrough
D
The active advantages of passive housing
Imagine a house that keeps itself warm in the wintertime. Think of the savings in terms of fuel bills and unfriendly emissions. Such houses in fact exist. Called ―passive houses‖, the concept of these highly energy-efficient buildings took root in around 1990, before slowly consolidating as a niche construction concept in roughly 2000. Are passive houses now actively moving into the mainstream as sustainable buildings?
For Brian McGarry, an economics lecturer who built a family house based on passive housing criteria in the Pyrenees this year, the arguments look compelling. As his first full winter in the low energy house drew in, we asked him to keep us posted. Do passive houses work?
I had never heard of a passive house in February 2012, when I purchased a plot of land in a Pyrenees village at 1,200 m altitude on the Spanish-French border, embarking somewhat reluctantly on a self-build
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housing project. I knew what I wanted: a comfortable, pleasing and economically sensible house in an attractive location. And I knew what I didn‘t want: a costly project management nightmare for an inexperienced builder.
What I didn‘t know is that I would be persuaded to build a pre-constructed, custom-designed house based on energy-efficient passive house criteria. Some European economies are already demanding levels of energy efficiency that are close to those standards, but the simplicity and logic of the proposal proved overwhelming: it promised to be easier and quicker to build, cheaper to run, and more comfortable to live in. The objective was not to meet standards such as those of Germany's Passivhaus Institut, but to include the fundamental concepts of passive energy management in my project: an airtight and highly protected building envelope; large south-facing double or triple-glazed windows (if possible, filled with argon gas) that passively capture the energy of the sun; a heat recovery ventilation system to provide fresh air; and a simple, low-cost heating system consisting of a modern wood-burning stove, a bathroom heater and a portable radiator backup for when the sun doesn‘t shine and temperatures drop. No significant limitations were placed on the design, the risk of a budget overrun for a highly specified factory-built structure looked low, and it was environmentally friendly. Moreover, the cost was no more than a conventional build.
Certainly, arguments against the project could be made, such as the uncertain resale value of innovative houses in a conservative market, and the risk of being an early adopter of technologies that are relatively new to Spain and France.
A German architect recommended a young Catalan colleague, Josep Bunyesc, to do the job for me. In 2009 Bunyesc designed the first house in Spain based on passive house criteria, built in conjunction with an innovative industrial specialist in wooden structures, Fustes Sebastia. I was deeply impressed by the houses I visited – the functionality, comfort and spaciousness of the designs, coupled with the efficiency, quality and cost of the construction method. I then hammered out a design with the architect – the longest part of the process.
The rest was disconcertingly fast: a USB pen drive transmitted the design orders to an automated woodcutting and assembling factory in Spain. A total of 22 insulated wall and roof structures were completed in three weeks and, with most windows also fitted, these were transported by truck to the plot location across the French border. The house was then assembled on site by local house-building specialists, Ecobois.eu, who took another week to combine the structure, despite adverse weather conditions in February 2013.
What are the main performance results so far?
After six months in use, the house is proving to be both cheap to run and remarkably comfortable–staying cool in the hot summer was effortless, as long as the windows were shuttered or shaded from the sun. Now staying warm in the cold, high-altitude December climate also seems easy, so far. The temperature remains even throughout the building – no hot or cold rooms – and the dynamics of the building‘s passive heat management mean that once the sun shines with reasonable regularity, the house stays comfortable, even when empty. Arriving on a cold night after an extended absence has so far not been a concern.
Winter arrived in force in the Pyrenees in November, with abundant snowfalls and temperatures as low as minus 8° Celsius. Though early days, the house has responded well: the stove is lit during cold evenings but the portable radiator has not yet been needed. This type of construction seems not only to make economic and environmental sense, but to enhance our quality of life, too.
66. The author states in Paragraph 1 that passive housing ________.
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