【推荐1】Federal laws have been in place to protect archaeological (考古学的) resources for more than a century.    1    However, decades later the law's language was deemed too vague to offer adequate protection from looters (劫掠者) and vandals ( 故意破坏公物者). In response, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act was enacted in 1979.    2    

Yet theft, vandalism, and looting continue to pose serious threats to our cultural resources, and land managing agencies, tribal communities, and others are faced with the challenge of protecting heritage sites. A 2010 National Park Service report revealed that more than 3,000 cases of vandalism and looting on federal lands were documented within a 3-year period, and many more are likely unreported. Destructive behaviors range from the harmful act of artifact collecting to the criminal activity of looting and grave robbing.    3    For example, some artifacts (古手工艺品) are removed from their contexts by collectors.

Ancestral sites and surface artifacts are abundant in the Southwest. These material remains maintain connections to ancient traditions and cultural identity.    4     Acts of theft and destruction cause real and lasting harm, depriving us of the opportunity to learn about and appreciate the history of our land. Looters disturb human remains and steal from graves for financial gain, thereby negatively impacting the spiritual health and wellbeing of Native American communities.     5    A shared goal among many archaeologists is to increase public awareness to help stop this destruction, but we are only subset of preservation- minded groups. The support of other parties like tribal communities, environmental advocates and historians is necessary to protect archaeological resources and sacred landscapes.

A．It is of primary importance to work with local police.

B．Signs of these activities are found across the landscape.

C．Therefore, they are of cultural and spiritual importance.

D．There is no single or easy solution to this serious problem.

E．They serve as significant contributors to local and national economies.

F．The Antiquities Act, passed in 1906, was the first measure taken to preserve sites.

G．It forbids the damage to archaeological resources on public lands without a permit.

【推荐3】Suppose your permanent residence, or hukou, was in Chongqing, you worked in Beijing and you needed to get a passport for a business trip abroad. What should you do?

You have to go back to Chongqing, which is 1,500km away, and apply to local public security authorities for the passport, because in China public services are closely linked to hukou. But a new regulation, which is part of the hukou reform, will make this annoying experience a thing of the past.

The regulation targets China’s newly introduced residence permit system, which will take effect on Jan 1, 2016. It allows people who don’t have local hukou to receive more access to basic public services in the cities where they are living. These include education, basic employment services, automobile registration, and passport and ID card application processing.

You can apply for a residence permit at the local police station, which has jurisdiction (管辖权) over the area where you live. The documents needed for the permit application include your ID card, photos and materials that prove that you have a job, a place to live, or that you are studying at an education institution.

To certify that you have a place to live, a house rental contract or property ownership certificate will do. For employment, a business license, job contract, or employment certificate can do the trick. If you are a student applying for the permit, show your student card or other documentation issued by your school.

Despite all this, maybe you are still not happy about not having a local hukou. Don’t worry. People will have a chance, as the country is reforming the hukou system further.

1. What is the purpose of the first 2 paragraphs?

A．To introduce the topic of the passage.	B．To emphasize the focus of the passage.
C．To summarize the main idea of the passage.	D．To arouse the readers’ interest of reading

2. People who want to apply for a residence permit should ________.

A．receive more access to basic public services

B．provide proofs of identification

C．present a house rental contract

D．show your student card or other documentation

3. What does the underlined word “certify” in para 5 mean?

A．apply

B．prove

C．permit

D．test

4. What will the writer tell us in the following paragraph?

A．China plans to create a new hukou system

B．Getting a hukou may be easier with new policies

C．Other reforms that will bring people more happiness

D．People will not need hukou in China soon.

【推荐1】The Importance of Accessibility Awareness

At a recent Teen Leadership of Jewish Family Services meeting, people with disabilities talked about their lives.     1     However, what amazed me most was the great importance of education about handicap accommodations (残疾人便利设施).

One school-teacher who is blind, and a woman who has used a wheelchair all her life are two important members of the National Group for Disabled Persons, devoted to raising awareness about disabilities.    2    These include handicap parking spots, handrails, and wheelchair ramps. One big concern is the people who   take advantage of aids, such as handicap parking spaces.    3    And the meeting focused on educating the public.

Some handicap spots have extra room next to them, marked with the “No Parking” signs. “As long as I'm not in the spot, I can take the no-parking area next to it,” some people say. However, the woman who uses a wheelchair disagrees to this. The space exists to allow someone in a wheelchair to have room to get in or out of their car.    4    

Some walkways have handrails next to them to help those who require extra assistance. Whether it is a blind person seeking guidance or an elderly person seeking support, the rail is there for walking. Sometimes the rail is blocked, by a parked bicycle for instance, and consequently made useless.    5    People who are informed of the rail’s use would be less likely to mistake it for a bike rack.

Meeting some of the people who are affected by the lack of education about accommodations made me see that there is work to be done. If more people were educated about the proper uses of accommodations, there would be fewer challenges for people with physical disabilities.

A．Accommodations will vary according to the needs of the disabled.

B．As with the parking spot, this is more likely a case of lack of education.

C．They educate about all the accommodations for people with disabilities.

D．Improvement must be made so that disabled people can fully participate.

E．If there is a car in that space, the handicap parking spot is no longer useful.

F．So people without disabilities need to be educated about these accommodations.

G．I was amazed to hear about the challenges faced by people with physical disabilities.

【推荐2】Education for Japanese children is free for the first nine years and all children must go to school for six years of primary schooling and three years of secondary schooling.In the primary and secondary schools，about 99.9 percent of school age children are present.School usually begins at 8 o'clock in the morning and ends at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on weekdays and at noon Saturdays.The school year begins in April and ends in March.There is a summer holiday in August and a winter holiday during the New Year season.

After nine years of schooling，students can enter the three­year high school by passing an examination and by paying a small charge each year.After high school，students can go on to study at various types of colleges，usually for four years.There are also two ­year junior colleges.

1. When do Japanese students have a summer holiday?

A．September.	B．August.
C．July.	D．June.

2. The passage mainly discusses about ________.

A．colleges in Japan	B．free education in Japan
C．education in Japan	D．school time in Japan

3. How many days do the Japanese students have to go to school every week?

A．Not known.	B．Four and a half days.
C．Five days.	D．Five and a half days.

4. If you want to go to high school in Japan，you must ________.

A．pay a small amount of money

B．study at primary and secondary school for 9 years

C．take part in the exam and pay a little money

D．pass the exam and pay a little money

【推荐3】The Case for and Against Homework

Homework is typically defined as" any tasks given to students by school teachers that are meant to be carried out during afterschool hours". Homework has been a hot topic of debate in education. Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, educators commonly believed that homework helped create disciplined（遵守纪律的）minds.     1    Since then, arguments for and against homework have continued to grow.

A number of studies have been carried out on homework. Two analyses by Cooper and his colleagues are the most comprehensive（全面的）.They concluded that the relationship between homework and students' achievements was found to be positive.     2    

    3    The authors of How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do About It criticized both the quantity and quality of homework. They provided evidence that too much homework harms students’ health and family time. They insisted that teachers reduce the amount of homework and avoid homework over breaks and holidays.

One of the most controversial（有争议的）problems in the homework debate is the amount of time students should spend on homework. Researchers have offered various suggestions.    4     Another question regarding homework is the degree to which schools should involve parents. Some studies have reported minimal positive effects or even negative effects of parental involvement.    5    

Finally, homework should cause students and their parents or other family members to take part in conversations and thus help the students' learning.

A．Improper homework may produce little or no benefit.

B．Teachers are to blame for providing too much homework.

C．Doing homework caused improved learning achievements.

D．Experts suggest parents receive clear rules and that teachers not expect parents to act as experts.

E．Although the research supporting homework is powerful, the case against homework is popular.

F．By 1940, the growing concern that homework affected other home activities caused a reaction against it.

G．For example, 5 to 10 minutes per subject might be enough for 4th graders, while 30 to 60 minutes for high school students.

【推荐1】It’s possible that your phone’s face-unlock might finally be able to work while you’re wearing a mask. Researchers have found that facial recognition algorithms are getting better at recognizing faces in masks, according to data published on Tuesday by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). Using independent testing of more than 150 separate facial recognition algorithms, the new report suggests masks may not be as big a problem for facial recognition systems as initially thought.

When NIST first examined masks’ effect on facial recognition in July 2020, it found that algorithms weren’t great at identifying faces with masks. “Face recognition can make errors, which can implicate people for crimes they haven’t committed,” writes the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “It is particularly bad at recognizing African Americans and other ethnic minorities, women, and young people.” But the pandemic has given developers plenty of time to focus on the mask problem, and NIST’s data shows that facial recognition algorithms are getting better at working with masked faces. “After the pandemic, some developers have submitted algorithms which show significantly improved accuracy and are now among the most accurate in our test,” the report reads. NIST’s public ranking for facial recognition tests bears out this report. Eight different algorithms now hold false rates below 0.05 percent.

Nevertheless, there remain a number of limitations to the study. NIST researchers did not employ actual images of masked faces. Instead, they applied masks digitally to ensure consistency across the sample. As a result, “We were not able to get a thorough simulation of the endless variations in color, design, shape, texture, and ways masks can be worn,” the report states. The digital mask was a blue surgical mask covering the full width of the face, but testers noted that performance varied considerably depending on how high the mask was placed on the face.

1. Recognizing masked faces with facial recognition systems used to be thought as _______.

A．effective

B．impossible

C．challenging

D．easy

2. What does the underlined phrase “bear out” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Stress.

B．Prove.

C．Criticize.

D．Oppose.

3. What can be learned about the study?

A．The way to wear masks may affect recognition accuracy.

B．The design of a mask makes no difference to facial recognition.

C．Facial recognition failure rates were quite low at the beginning.

D．The researchers adopted real surgical masks to ensure the accuracy.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．Limitations of Facial Recognition Software

B．The Challenge of Recognizing Masked Faces

C．The improvement in Facial Recognition Algorithms

D．Different Applications of Facial Recognition Technology

【推荐2】Microplastics, the kind of current working definition, is plastic less than five millimeters. So people commonly equate that to something like a grain of rice or a sesame (芝麻籽) seed and down in terms of size class. I will say that most of the microplastics that people are interacting with are quite a bit smaller than the sesame seed size, which I think always kind of shocks people when we start talking about the numbers because they kind of can’t see a lot of these things, at least with the naked eyes.

Kieran Cox is a PhD candidate in marine biology at the University of Victoria and one of the authors of the study, which is in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. For their study, Cox and his team pulled together past scientific literature that calculated the number of microplastics in things we commonly consume, such as in tap and bottled water, sugars, seafood—even in the air that we breathe. This analysis helped them figure out the baseline amount of microplastics that people are consuming every year. They couldn’t include common foods like beef, vegetables and dairy in their analysis because data on them doesn’t exist yet. In fact, their study could account for only 15 percent of people’s caloric intake. Even missing the majority of what people swallow, the research revealed that—at the very least—humans appear to consume somewhere between 74 000 and 121 000 microplastic particles every year. That number goes up for people drinking bottled water rather than tap water.

Now, is all the plastic safe to take in? Scientists simply don’t know yet. “This is kind of the first estimate of dose (剂量), you could say, right? So if you’re thinking in terms of toxicology (毒理学) and ecotoxicology, dose is a very important factor to think about, and so this kind of presents the first estimate, but it is very much an underestimate because of what we don’t know.”

1. What is microplastics?

A．Particles like a grain of rice.

B．Plastic particles smaller than 5 mm.

C．Something smaller than a sesame seed.

D．Something to be seen with naked eyes.

2. What is the second paragraph mainly about?

A．The study of the amount of microplastics people consuming.

B．Calculation of the amount of microplastics in food.

C．Analysis of past scientific literature.

D．The study of marine biology.

3. Which aspect should be focused on in further study?

A．Making plastics safe.

B．The number of bottled water.

C．Safe dose of microplastics.

D．The things people swallow.

4. What do we know about the study?

A．It has been published in the journal.

B．Kieran Cox is the director of the study.

C．The first estimate is accurate.

D．It is related to life security.

【推荐1】Most of us still have lots of photographs sitting around from the days when we used cameras, not telephones, to take pictures. There are probably many photos that we do not look at and may never see again. But these images, representing memories from our past, do not have to be lost. Google has create a tool to help bring these forgotten pictures back to life in very high quality.

The PhotoScan app works the same as an image scanner. But this software program uses the camera on your phone to capture images as digital copies, which is a quick and easy way to save old photos without having to spend money on new equipment. The PhotoScan app uses new technology to improve the capturing process, which makes it possible to take a picture of a photo with a camera phone, without glare, a common problem.

After opening the app, the user first puts the desired photo within the camera’s frame. When this is done, four small circles appear in different places over the photo. The user then moves the phone over each of the circles, which change color after the process completes. That’s it! The app finds the edges of the photo, straightens the image, and puts it in the right position while removing glare. From this point, the pictures can easily be saved to the Google Photos app or somewhere else. If you do have Google Photos, images are organized by face or place and can easily be found.

The release of PhotoScan came at the same time as some changes to the Google Photos app. One change is an improved auto tool that Google says creates high-quality effects in just one step. Another tool lets users choose from 12 different looks to improve overall photo quality. The third provides high-level controls for changing light and colors.

Anil Sabharwal, the Vice President of Google Photos, explained why he created PhotoScan. In 1947, his parents lived under British colonial rule in India and were ordered to leave their home with only a few belongings. They decided to leave behind jewelry and other valuables, but gathered up as many photos as they could take.

1. What can we know about the PhotoScan app?

A．It is new equipment used to scan images.

B．It can adjust the angle of cameras by moving four small circles.

C．Users can use it to take digital photos.

D．Using it to photograph pictures won’t have glare.

2. In the third paragraph, the author mentions ____________.

A．how to use the PhotoScan app	B．where to find Google Photos.
C．what the benefits of the app are	D．why the new app can benefit us

3. What is the advantage of Google Photo according to the passage?

A．It provides various styles that users can select from to improve the apps

B．Users can easily find the desired picture through the photographing place.

C．The changed storage space is bigger than before.

D．It stores most pictures captured by PhotoScan.

4. What can we infer about Anil Sabharwal from the last paragraph?

A．He got the idea for PhotoScan from his family’s experiences.

B．His parents helped him a lot while in India.

C．British colonial rule forced him to make PhotoScan.

D．His family’s poverty promotes him to create PhotoScan

5. The purpose of the passage is to__________.

A．persuade us to use the PhotoScan app.

B．tell us a new Google app brings old photographs back to life.

C．remind us of the pictures representing memories from our past.

D．offer some suggestions for Google to improve its new app.

【推荐2】When my son Connor started walking, we knew something was wrong. He was 17 months old, and he walked on his tiptoes. Soon Connor's muscles began to lose strength. At three he showed signs of upper-body weakness, by five he couldn't hold his head upright, and by the first grade, he would need a wheelchair. As the day passed, he tired and couldn't hold a pencil to write. Within two years, he would be too tired to feed himself dinner. Everyone was puzzled. Physically, his body was twisted, but he was mentally perfect. We ran tests after tests, but no definite answer.

Finally, in 2004, we consulted Dr. Shawn, a geneticist, who said that Connor's symptoms had signs of dystonia(肌张力障碍) —a very rare genetic disorder, and a possible cure was L-dopa. Though there was possible side effects of the treatment, when Connor’s condition worsened, I had little choice.

Dr. Jacobs, a neurologist(神经学家), gave Connor the first dose (一次剂量的药) on June 21, 2007, when he was nine years old. The next morning, when I went in to wake him up, I found him kneeling on his bed — he hadn't done that since he was learning to walk. He shouted, “Look at me, Mom!” Connor was excited.

Over the next few days, Connor kept getting stronger. He held his upper body much straighter after the first week. A few weeks later, he “furniture-walked,” supporting himself on chairs and couches. He later walked holding both of my hands, then just one hand. And on August 13, he walked across my mother’s living room by himself.

I could now believe the unbelievable: The medicine was working. The child who had been too weak to feed himself dinner was walking. Since then, every year on June 21, we celebrate Dopa Day with a cake and presents, for it’s Connor’s second “birthday,” and it marks the best day of my life.

1. What’s wrong with Connor?

A．The doctor found he couldn’t walk.

B．Something was wrong when he was born.

C．Neither his mind nor his body was normal.

D．His mind was fine but his body was abnormal.

2. Which of the following statements is true?

A．The L-dopa dose proved effective.

B．The L-dopa treatment was proved safe.

C．There were other cures for Connor's illness.

D．Nobody knew what kind of disease Connor had had.

3. What’s special about the day of June 21?

A．It was Connor’s birthday.

B．It was the day when Connor started walking.

C．It was the day when Connor recovered completely.

D．It was the day when Connor got his first treatment of L-dopa.

【推荐3】The Outdoor Centre
Opening times
Water sports: 9 am-5 pm
Play Park: 10 am-4 pm
Entrance / Car park fees
Low season: Weekdays £2.00 per car
Weekends £3.00 per car
High season: 23 July-11 September
Weekdays and weekends £4.00per car
One-day adventure (冒险) course

This is a chance you have been waiting for. Come and try sailing, climbing and surfing. This course is trying to introduce outdoor activities to adults in a fun way. You do not need to be very fit or to have had experience of the activities. All you need is to be interested.

Play Park

The Play Park is suitable for children from 2to 10 years of age. It is one of the best of its type in the country. It has sand and water play, a large ball pool, play castle and much, much more.

Group day and weekend courses

We also offer day and long weekend courses for groups. We receive regular visits from schools and colleges. There are three large rooms with twelve beds in each, which can be booked beforehand for groups of up to 36people (12 at least).

Summer adventure holiday (for 8 -14 years of age)

Safety is of great importance at the Outdoor Centre. All our workers are fully trained in first aid, and able to teach the activities on offer. We also make certain that all children only take part in activities that are suitable for their age and physical abilities. For this programme children must be able to swim 25metres and be in good physical health.

1. How much should a family driving two cars pay when entering the centre in August?

A．£2.00.	B．£4.00.
C．£6.00.	D．£8.00.

2. Which of the following is suitable for a group of ten children aged 6 to 8?

A．Summer adventure holiday.	B．One-day adventure course.
C．Play Park.	D．Group day and weekend courses.

3. If you want to take One-day adventure course, you need to _________.

A．be in good physical health

B．be pupils

C．have rich experience

D．have interest in outdoor activities

4. Which of the following students numbers can take Group day and weekend courses?

A．25.	B．10.
C．38.	D．50.

5. People who want to take the summer adventure holiday __________.

A．can stay overnight if they want	B．can do any sport they are interested in
C．should have a knowledge of first aid	D．should have basic skills in swimming