阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项

A

Come and enjoy Vivaldi's The Four Seasons performed by live musicians!

Tickets

* Zone A Sating (Excellent Visibility, $75)

* Zone B Seating (Great Visibility, $60)

* Zone C Seating (Good Visibility, $45)

* Zone D Seating (Restricted Visibility, 30)

Zone A and Zone B audiences will get the chance to take pictures with the performers on the stage after the show.

Highlights

* A beautiful venue bathed in candlelight.

* Classical music performance by the Angel Strings quartet

* A safe and socially-distanced event, ensuring you are comfortable and at ease.

General Info

* Dates and times: Various dates, at 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm (select during purchase).

* How long: 65 minutes. Doors open 45 minutes before the start time. We recommend you arrive at least 30 minutes before the start of the event, as late entry is not permitted.

* Where: Events on Oxlade

* Age requirement: Must be 8 years old or older to attend. Anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

* Please note: The 6:30 pm seating will take place during daylight hours outdoors, and the space will not be that dark. In the case of rain, the event will be moved to the indoor area of the venue.

Description

Whether you're looking for a beautifully unique classical music performance or a romantic candlelit experience, this performance is for you. You don't need to know all things about Vivaldi to enjoy the evening; simply sit back and admire the wonderful atmosphere and the pieces you'll hear.

Join our musicians for an evening under the stars, and prepare to be taken into the clouds with Vivaldi' s most treasured masterpieces!

B

Marcelo Toledo usually creates works of art out of metal. Now the Argentine artist is working with a new material: waste masks from the COVID-19 pandemic (流行病) to create an exhibition exploring the painful impact of the virus.

Toledo, who has made decorations for the musical “Evita” on Broadway, was among the first in Argentina to be infected (感染) by COVID-19,which left him in hospital for eight days. The experience led to a series of artworks, including a 14-meter mask with the Argentine flag that he placed on the famous Obelisk in Buenos Aires to raise awareness of organ donation (器官捐赠) during the pandemic.

For his new exhibition, the "Museum of the After,"Toledo is collecting recycled coronavirus waste which is sent by hospitals, laboratories and people,including old material parts and newspapers about the pandemic. “I am excited to be able to change pain into beauty and this exhibition is just recording everything that is happening to us as a society,” Toledo said. The artworks,which will go on show from September in a public space, will all be made from waste materials or garbage that people send him.

In the exhibition,there will be a real ship that will symbolically (象征地) cross a“storm”to raise awareness of the importance caring for the environment. “The exhibition will tell the story of this ship that went on sailing after the storm, which is a great symbol for what is happening to us.This pandemic is a great global storm,” Toledo said.

As with the huge mask, which was copied in countries such as the United States and Japan, the artist hopes to copy the exhibition in other cities around the world.

C

The British love their supermarkets. And there are more and more of them every year. But is this a good thing? Not necessarily.

For a start, supermarkets have a negative effect on local communities. Money spent in independent small shops usually stays in the area. However, money spent at supermarkets is often put into the bank accounts of distant shareholders (股东), some of whom don't even pay any tax(税) in the UK!

Supermarkets are also bad for animal welfare (福利、关心). The UK has high standards in this field, but some supermarkets get their meat from abroad. And in many cases, this meat is produced under conditions that would be illegal (违法的) in the UK. But once they've got the meat, supermarkets put a British flag on the product as the meat is packed there. Dishonest? Not exactly, but it isn't entirely true either!

Supermarkets have a poor environmental record too. Many of them don't store food products themselves as storage space is expensive, so they get food producers to do it for them. This means that supermarket trucks have to make more trips to collect supplies. In turn,this increases the amount of petrol used, which leads to more pollution. In fact, the average item of food from a supermarket travels over 1,000 kilometres. Supermarkets also use a lot of plastic packaging, which isn't good for the environment either.

So, what can be done to help the small shops? Not much really. Supermarkets have a lot of power. Many political parties (政党) receive donations from supermarkets and supermarkets often use their money to influence decisions. For example, just before the millennium (the year 2000), one supermarket gave the government £12 million to help build the Millennium Dome in London. Later, plans to tax supermarket car parks were dropped.

Supermarkets are good news for shoppers looking for a bargain, but they're definitely bad for local business, animals and the environment!

D

We use a huge amount of single-use plastic each year-we buy one million plastic bottles each minute around the world.Plastic waste,a material that can take centuries or more to disappear, is causing great damage to the planet.However,plastic waste produced in many countries typically ends up in open, uncontrolled landfills (垃圾填埋池), most of which finally enters the ocean either by wind or through waterways.

Now, Nzambi Matee, a 29-year-old woman from Nairobi, Kenya, is dealing with this global, crisis by recycling bags, containers, and other waste products into bricks (砖头) used for construction projects. Before founding her company-Gjenge Makers, Matee worked as an oil-industry engineer. After seeing plastic waste along Nairobi's streets,she decided to quit her job and built a small lab,testing sand and plastic combinations (结合) Matee managed to study in the materials lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she in the end developed a machine that produces the new bricks.

Made from a combination of plastic and sand,the bricks have a melting point higher than 350℃ and can be used for a longer time than traditional bricks. Matee and her team gain much of the raw product from factories and recyclers, and sometimes it's free, which allows the company to reduce the price point on the product and make it more affordable for schools and homeowners.

“There is waste that recyclers cannot deal with anymore. That is what we get,” Matee said. Her factory produces 1,500 bricks each day, made from a mix of different kinds of plastic.These are polyethylene (聚乙烯) used for milk bottles, sandwich bags, and ropes. But she does not work with polyethylene terephthalate or PET, commonly used for plastic bottles,which can be made into the same form easily again and again.

The plastic waste is mixed with sand, heated and then pressed into bricks, which are sold at different prices, depending on thickness and colour.

Let’s face it: Nobody really likes doing chores (家务) around the house. But at a certain age, our kids are old enough to start lending a hand with the housework. _____16_____ But what exactly are the benefits that young children and teenagers get from doing chores?

Chores help teach life skills. They’re young now, but they won’t be kids forever! Washing clothes, cooking and cleaning the room are just some of the skills kids will need once they finally move out. _____17_____ So it is really important to make kids learn them at home.

Chores teach kids how to follow directions. Whether you are giving instructions to a small child or a teenager, describing what you are expecting them to do and then doing it will teach them how to follow directions. _____18____ Remember, only age-proper instructions can help them learn this important skill.

Chores teach responsibility and respect. Having your children clean up their own messes will give them a sense of responsibility. Task them with assisting in making the family’s meals. _____19_____ These will help them understand all that their parents do to keep the home running smoothly and be more respectful of it.

_____20_____ Everyone in our home has their own jobs to do in order to allow our house to function. It not only lessens our own stress level and to-do list, but it teaches our kids that we all must work together as a team. They may complain, but they’ve come to understand that the chores they are tasked with each day or week are all a bigger part of keeping the family functioning.

When the summer holiday came, our kids joined a swim team. Every morning they ___21___ their swim skills. Then, every Thursday afternoon was the swim meet, where they could compete (竞争) for a red ___22___. My oldest son was a really good swimmer. Yet, he felt most comfortable staying at home where he could avoid ___23___.

Last Thursday, he once again said how much he ___24___ going to the swim meet. After a few minutes, we made a ___25___ that if he went to this meet and didn't like it, he could ___26___ the rest of the meets for the year and still ___27___ the swim team without competing.

We arrived at the pool early. As I returned to my seat, I noticed my ___28___ little boy sitting on his towel, lost in thought. To my surprise, when it was time for his ___29___, he jumped into the water and began paddling as hard as he could. Soon he came up to me ___30___, showing me a red band! I was also excited. He finally broke down the barrier (障碍) and had ___31___. On the drive home, he said to me, “Dad, I ___32___ to go to all the swim meets.”

Then, I remembered a famous saying, “A ship in the harbor (港口) is ___33___, but that is not what ships are built for.” We have to ___34___ the fear of failure and step out of our comfort zone (区). There are many ___35___ we can develop if we are willing to go out and try.

Reading is a pleasure of the mind, ___36___ means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness make you ___37___ good reader. Reading is fun, not because the writer is telling you something, ___38___ because it makes your mind work. Your own ___39___ (imagine) works along with the author’s or even goes beyond his. Your experience, compared with his, ___40___ (bring) you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.

Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate ___41___ books somebody tells you“ought ”to read, you ___42___ (probable) won't have fun. But if you put down a book you don‘t like and try another till you find one ___43___ (mean) something to you, and then relax with it, you ___44___ (have) a good time--and if you become as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder, or ___45___ (gentle), you won‘t have suffered during the process.