上海市崇明区2022届高三上学期12月英语试题

Artists Show Concern for Environment at Smithsonian Craft Show

The United Nations says more than one million plant and animal species are likely to die out because of human activity. That threat the environment and concerns about climate change influenced people attending the Smithsonian Craft Show last month. The show gave recognition to artists (create) environmentally sustainable works.

The Smithsonian Committee is made up of volunteers from the Washington, D.C. area. Joann Symons is the group's president. "In recent years, we've noticed that the artists in our shows have been working with more renewable materials and methods are environmentally safe. That's we've decided that we will reward those efforts by offering a Sustainability Award every year at our show," said Symons.

At the show last month, 120 artists from across the United States presented works of art in 12 different materials. Twenty-one artists met the requirements for sustainability. By doing so, they won the right (compete) for the Honoring the Future Sustainability Award. The winner received a prize of 1,000 dollars.

Mary Jaeger creates her works of art in a nearly 100-year-old factory building in Brooklyn, New York. She makes artworks that be worn as clothing. It combines the time-honored qualities of Japanese textiles with modern Western designs. Jaeger won the "Honoring the Future Sustainability Award" for her silk creations. She makes them by hand, combining earlier projects with materials (leave) over. The artist said, " I look at these beautiful silks that I have acquired over the years of designing, I wanted to repurpose them into something that was truly beautiful, but completely different than the original product..."

Fran Dubrowski (head) Honoring the Future, a nonprofit organization that provides the sustainability award. She said the group (set) up to take advantage of the power of art to educate and engage the public on climate change.

Praise for Pioneers in Science

In memory of Marie Curie on her birthday on Saturday, the official website of the Nobel Prize posted a photograph of her notebook saying, "Marie Curie died of aplastic anaemia (再生障碍性贫血) on 4 July 1934, a result of years of  to radiation through her work. Even today her laboratory notebook from 1899-1902, is radioactive and will be for 1,500 years."

The tales of Marie and other scientists of her time are in some sense very .

Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a professor of physics at the Wuerzburg University in Germany, discovered X-ray in 1895. A year later, Antoine Henri Becquerel found that some natural substances

 rays, too. Later, Marie and her physicist husband, Pierre Curie, gave it a name, radioactivity.

However, the harmful effects of radioactivity were not discovered until decades later. Marie and her  scientists dealt with radioactive substances for decades using little or no protection.

Marie's death is a reminder about the risks pioneers in science . It was only after people handling radioactive substances began to get similar diseases that medical experts asked people to use protection. Today, medical health workers and patients wear heavy  covers during X-rays.

It is almost  that those exploring new frontiers (前沿) for science are exposing themselves to unknown dangers. There is a(n)  for better protection for the pioneers, but that is not possible until the dangers are fully known.

For example, the space suits astronauts wear protect them against radiation. However, only time will tell if there are some other unknown dangers that they need to protect themselves against.

The contributions and sacrifices by such pioneers to the field of science are  and deserving of our respect. Because the pioneers not only  new frontiers, but also help us better protect ourselves from unknown environments.

We all know the dangers of a diet that's high in fat. But a new study from researchers at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) in Japan has now found having a fat-heavy diet can also 1hair loss.

In the average healthy adult, the hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) (毛囊干细胞) 2themselves regularly, which is why your hair grows back when you cut it and also why it becomes longer. As with most things in the human body, though, aging doesn't do the HSFCs any 3. As you get older, the stem cells lose their ability to reproduce as 4 as they once did, leaving the hair to thin and/or fall out.

In the study carried out by TMDU's department of stem cell biology, mice that had been given a high-fat diet (HFD) were more subject to inflammatory (炎症的) responses in the body which, 5, blocked follicle regeneration, leading to hair loss. What was surprising was that the 6 in the hair follicles could happen in as little as four days spent on a high-fat diet and that the problem seemed to be worse in older mice.

"High-fat diet feeding makes hair 7 faster by reducing HFSCs, especially in old mice," explains Hironobu Morinaga, the study's lead author. "We compared the gene expression in HFSCs between HFD-fed mice and standard diet-fed mice and 8 the fate of those HFSCs after their activation."

It's not just the 9 content of your food that can damage your hair as what you consume can really affect how your hair grows and even whether men will keep it, as Dr Alia Ahmed, who specializes in the study of skin, explains. 10 shortages are often the root cause of many hair problems, adds Dr Ahmed. "Iron, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, etc. — there are so many nutrients involved in hair 11," she says. "It's not just genetics."

If you've got a sweet tooth, for example, you may need to think about 12 the sweet food. Not only is sugar bad for your hair, but it can cause your blood sugar levels to rise dramatically, which, in men, can raise the levels of the hormone androgen (雄性激素), leading to follicle 13 and potential hair loss.

But don't make the 14 of substituting sugar for artificial sweeteners. Take diet drinks that replace processed sugar with artificial sweeteners like aspartame, for instance. In their analysis of aspartame, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has listed hair thinning and hair loss as one of the main side effects of 15 of aspartame.

The employees at Helwig Carbon Products in Milwaukee have their own company cafeteria on a site, a rarity it seems more and more these days. But if anyone wants to eat a doughnut (甜甜圈), it's going to cost twice as much as what they might pay for the sweet at the local grocery store. That's because Helwig Carbon Products has a wellness program, and it is one of many local companies trying to show employees how to eat healthier.

"We're really trying to persuade people to eat healthier," said Cheryl Brah, human resources director at Helwig Carbon Products. "A piece of fruit is 25 cents; a doughnut is $1.50 — and we still have people who buy doughnuts. People complain — but we really try to put our efforts toward the middle-of-the-line people who might lean more toward the wellness side, eventually."

This effort isn't just happening at Helwig Carbon. There has been a city-wide movement of 44 local companies who added or evolved their health and wellness programs to their company culture, and because of it Milwaukee is now nationally recognized for a large number of businesses with wellness programs.

It all started several years ago, when a program called Well City Milwaukee teamed up with 44 local businesses that collectively represent a workforce of 130,000 employees. Well City Milwaukee provided healthy practices guidelines for businesses. In exchange, it surveyed the employees to find out what their health needs and risks were and what activities they found interesting. Well City then set a very high bar for companies to meet a lot of expectations to be considered a top wellness program.

Companies needed a commitment from the CEO; to form a wellness team; to collect information from the employees in surveys and health assessments; to come up with an operating plan; to create a supportive environment; to self-evaluate their efforts; and finally, to choose their best approaches. That meant coming up with activities, better nutrition education, and motivational programs like getting people to quit smoking, getting people in for medical self-care and working on stress management.

A recent study published in the journal Science Advances has revealed that the United States ranks as high as third among countries contributing to coastal plastic pollution. The new research challenges the once-held assumption that the US is adequately "managing" its plastic waste. A previous study using 2010 data that did not account for plastic waste exports had ranked the US 20th, globally, in its contribution to ocean plastic pollution.

Using plastic waste generation (产生) data from 2016 — the latest available global numbers — scientists calculated that more than half of all plastics collected for recycling (1.99 million tons of 3.91 million tons collected) in the US were shipped abroad. Of this, 88% of exports went to countries struggling to effectively manage plastics; and between 15-25% was low-value or contaminated (受污染的). It means it was unrecyclable. Taking these factors into account, the researchers estimated that up to 1 million tons of US-generated plastic waste ended up polluting the environment beyond its own borders.

Using 2016 data, the paper also estimated that between 0.91 and 1.25 million tons of plastic waste generated in the US was either littered or illegally dumped into the environment domestically. Combined with waste exports, this means the US contributed up to 2.25 million tons of plastics into the environment. Of this, up to 1.5 million tons of plastics ended up in coastal environments. This ranks the US as high as third globally in contributing to coastal plastic pollution.

"The US generates the most plastic waste of any other country in the world, but rather than looking the problem in the eye, we have outsourced it to developing countries," said Nick Mallos, senior director of Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program and a co-author of the study. "The solution has to start at home. We need to create less, by cutting out unnecessary single-use plastics; we need to create better, by developing innovative new ways to package and deliver goods; and where plastics are inevitable, we need to greatly improve our recycling rates."

 "Previous research has provided global values for plastic input into the environment and coastal areas, but detailed analyses like this one are important for individual countries to further assess their contributions," said Dr. Jenna Jambeck, Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia's College of Engineering and a co-author of the study. "In the case of the United States, it is critically important that we examine our own backyard and take responsibility for our global plastic footprint."

US Businesses Give in to Worker Demands to Keep Employees

As many American businesses struggle to fill jobs, some have started negotiating demands that used to be non-negotiable for most hourly employees.

One of the top demands for many workers is scheduling — the days and time they spend on the job.  That means employees are pushing back against requirements to work weekends, late nights or holidays.

 Therefore, workers can be more careful about the jobs they choose. There were 10.4 million job openings at the end of August and 11.1 million openings the month before. Those numbers are the highest since at least December 2000, when the government started recording the data. At the same time, the U.S. Labor Department said the number of people quitting their jobs jumped to 4.3 million in August from 4 million in July.

A recent study from an employment company found that nearly 40 percent of jobseekers worldwide said schedule flexibility was one of their top three issues in career decisions. Instawork is an employment marketplace that connects local businesses with hourly workers.

Such changes are happening as companies try to hire more workers for the upcoming holiday season. Target Corporation, for example, said this month it will pay $2 an hour more to employees who agree to work schedules during busy days of the holiday season. Sumir Meghani is co-founder and CEO of Instawork.  Hourly workers are now asking how they can get the same work-life balance as workers in other kinds of jobs who can work remotely.

During the pandemic (大流行病), hourly workers were hit especially hard when businesses like department stores and restaurants were forced to close for a few months during the spring of 2020. Those who remained employed at essential businesses like grocery stores found themselves working too much and too hard.

Is Small Talk Necessary?

What's the first thing you do when you enter a crowded room? You probably look around for a familiar face. When you can't find one, you have two choices: you can stand alone, or you can walk up and speak to someone that you don't know.

Starting a conversation with a stranger, though, is often uncomfortable and can be a little scary. Yet as you go through life, you're sure to encounter strangers in many different situations, when a need to connect with others will hopefully outweigh your fears. In order to prepare, it helps to learn the art of small talk.

Small talk is the beginning stage of a casual conversation, which usually takes place between strangers or casual acquaintances. With small talk, two or more people search for common interests and points of connection. If one is discovered, the conversation usually begins to flow more naturally, often resulting in deeper discussion.

Mastering a few techniques will allow you to enter a room full of strangers with confidence.

When you walk up to a group, notice anyone trying to make eye contact with you because this is often a sign that the person is interested in talking. Begin by introducing yourself, and then, you should begin with one of three topics: talk about yourself, the other person or something you can both observe, like the weather.

Another way to begin a conversation is with a compliment. Your praise of someone's scarf might lead to a discussion about favorite places to shop.

Radio host Terry Gross, who has interviewed thousands of people over the years, says one opening request works for her every time: "Tell me about yourself." This approach gets the ball rolling because people enjoy talking about themselves.

Though small talk takes practice, it's worth the effort and it's the stimulus that can lead to deeper conversations.

假设你是中华中学的高三学生李方，你的表弟Rob是美国华裔，生在长在美国，今年也将高中毕业，最近在考虑留在美国读大学还是到中国来读大学。前几天他写了封电子邮件给你，询问你的意见。给Rob回一封邮件，在邮件中你必须：

◁就他该留在美国读大学还是到中国来读大学表达你的意见；

◁比较两种选择，陈述你的理由。

注：文中不得提及你的真实姓名或学校