【推荐2】Every year, the Joint Mathematics Meeting brings more than 5,000 math lovers together. It’s the largest math meeting in the world. In January 2019, mathematicians flew to the meeting in Baltimore, Md. , to learn about new ideas and talk about their work. Many even came to admire the latest in mathematical art.

The meeting included an entire art exhibition. Visitors felt amazed at sculptures made from metal, wood and folded paper. One was based on a supersized Rubik’s cube. Many like triangles, were arranged in strange and surprising sizes and colors. The collection also included drawings and paintings inspired by the study of numbers, curves（曲线）and patterns.

Art and math may seem like a strange pairing. People usually experience art through their senses. They see a painting or listen to music. If this art moves them, they will have an emotional（情感上的）response. Working at math problems is usually viewed as something you think about—not feel. But connections between the two fields reach far back in time. Sculptors and architects in some ancient civilizations included numbers and math ideas into their works.

“A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns,” wrote British mathematician G. H. Hardy in 1940. If a mathematician’s patterns are more permanent, he continued, “It is because they are made with ideas.”

Henry Segerman is a mathematician and artist. When he was in high school, in England, he was good at math and art. But he had to choose. “I went in the math direction back then,” he says. He thought it difficult to succeed as an artist.

Still, Segerman’s math studies led him into the visual areas of math, such as geometry. In 2015, Segerman and some math art friends created a virtual-reality artwork. Participants can put on a pair of VR goggles to float around and through four-dimensional shapes. Art makes it possible to interact（互动）with these shapes, which would be impossible to create in our three-dimensional world. As beautiful as it is to see, Segerman’s work also offers a new view on mathematical ideas.

1. What is special about the exhibits at the meeting?

A．They are made based on math ideas.

B．They reflect the long history of math.

C．They are art works with high technology.

D．They turn abstract art into specific math.

2. Why does the author say “art and math may seem like a strange pairing”?

A．They’re experienced in different ways.

B．They seem extremely hard to appreciate.

C．They’ve been separated since ancient times.

D．They fail to bring about people’s responses.

3. Henry Segerman’s story suggests that________.

A．one can’t easily succeed in science	B．math makes art easier to understand
C．math is actually the origin of fine art	D．math learning promotes the creation of art

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Real artists will stand the test of math.

B．Artists make math become a kind of art.

C．Modern artists turn into mathematicians.

D．Math and art turns out a great combination.

【推荐3】The highlights of every World Cup are the impossible goals, especially the arc (弧线) ball goals. It’s breathtaking to watch. Every spin (旋转) of the ball moves air across the surface, pushing it into a bend.

When a soccer ball flies, the air forms a layer around the surface of the ball. As the balls pins, it changes the direction of the air to one side, says John Bush, an applied mathematician at MIT. This air pushes the ball in the opposite direction. The player starts with a strike on the outside of his right foot, which hits the left side of the ball, starting a clockwise spin. It throws the air off to the left, and the force created by the air leaving the ball pushes it to the right, explains Bush. Thus, a ball spinning to the right (that’s clockwise) will also are towards the right. This force is called the Magnus Effect.

It helps the goalkeepers, because they see uniform curvature (曲度) when players are taking bending shots at them. If they can pick up the spin right, it’s going to be the same amount of curvature, and they know where to put their hands. This is partly why players are much more likely to take bending shots during free kicks when goalkeepers can’t see their kicks quite as well because of the wall of defenders. If a ball isn’t spinning, it does something called knuckling, where the air turns the ball to one side in random directions, causing it to bounce in the air unpredictably. “It’s usually achieved when a player manages a sharp, fast touch of the ball, typically right on the air valve where the ball is most firm.” says Bush. Its lack of spin kept the goalkeeper from being able to predict where it was going until it was too late. All the goalkeepers tremble before the kicker that can shoot this kind of soccer ball.

1. What is the Magnus Effect according to the text?

A．The force applied to a spinning ball.

B．The theory proposed by John Bush. .

C．The direction opposite to a player’s strike.

D．The goal scored with a bending ball.

2. Why do soccer players prefer to take bending shots during free kicks?

A．Because they can change the ball’s curvature.

B．Because they can take bending shots more easily.

C．Because they can get a cover from the wall of defenders.

D．Because they can help their team’s goalkeeper.

3. Which shot might be the most predictable for goalkeepers?

A．A free-kick shot.

B．A fast shot without spinning.

C．A shot with a unique curvature.

D．A bending shot without defensive blocking.

4. What’s the best title of the text?

A．The Development of Football	B．The Principle of a Bending Ball
C．The Secret of Blocking a Goal	D．The Theory of Applied Mathematics

【推荐1】Music for Humans and Humpback Whales (座头鲸)

As researchers conclude in Science, the love of music is not only a universal feature of the human species but is also deeply fixed in complex structures of the human brain and is far more ancient than previously suspected.

In the articles, researchers present various evidence to show that music-making is at once an original human “business”, and an art form with skillful performers throughout the animal kingdom.

The new reports stress that humans hold no copyright on sound wisdom, and that a number of nonhuman animals produce what can rightly be called music, rather than random sound. Recent in-depth analyses of the songs sung by humpback whales show that, even when their organ would allow them to do otherwise, the animals converge on the same choices related to sounds and beauty, and accept the same laws of song composition as those preferred by human musicians, and human ears, everywhere.

For example, male humpback whales, who spend six months of each year doing little else but singing, use rhythms (节奏) similar to those found in human music and musical phrases of similar length — a few seconds. Whales are able to make sounds over a range of at least seven octaves (八度音阶), yet they tend to move on through a song in beautiful musical intervals (间隔), rather than moving forwards madly. They mix the sounds like drums and pure tones in a ratio (比例) which agrees with that heard in much western music. They also use a favorite technique of human singers, the so-called A-B-A form, in which a theme is stated, then developed, and then returned to in slightly revised form.

Perhaps most impressive, humpback songs contain tunes that rhyme. “This suggests that whales use rhyme, the same way we do: as a technique in poem to help them remember complex materials,” the researchers write.

1. The underlined words “converge on” in Paragraph 3 probably means       .

A．tend towards	B．refer to
C．turn into	D．put forward

2. Which of the following shows the advanced musical ability in humpback whales?

A．They can remember complex materials.

B．They can create pleasing patterns of music.

C．They can make sounds like drums continuously.

D．They can sing along with rhythms of western music.

3. What is the main idea of the article?

A．Animals are able to compose and enjoy music like humans.

B．Human beings borrow ideas in music from humpback whales.

C．Humpback whales are skillful performers in the animal kingdom.

D．Music-making is an ancient activity of both humans and animals.

4. The main purpose of the passage is to       .

A．argue and discuss	B．inform and explain
C．compare and advertise	D．examine and assess

【推荐3】What is the most popular way to travel in the whole world，not counting a human being's two legs？You say by car？No.Train？Wrong again.Airplane？I'm sorry，but you're not even close.The most popular way of going from one place to another is by bicycle.And it is a surprise to most Americans.After all，we see thousands of cars each day.We don't see nearly as many bikes.

In the United States most bike riders are either young people or adults bicycling for exercise.About nine million bikes are sold in America each year.Nearly three million are sold to adults.The rest are to children.But in the rest of the world，far more people use the bike as their main way of traveling.They ride bikes to work，to school，and to stores.

Bicycles have been around for a long time-about 300 years.You would not like to ride around on those early bikes，though.They didn't have any pedals(脚蹬).The riders had to push along with their feet.And this bike only went straight ahead.There was no way to turn the front wheel.If the rider wanted to change direction，he or she had to get off and move the bicycle.When pedals were put on the front wheels，riding became easier.The most popular kind of bike in the late 1800s had a very high front wheel and a small back wheel.It was a long fall to the ground!

Another problem was that there were no rubber tires(橡胶轮胎).So bike was called the "Boneshaker" at that time. Then in the 1880s，air-filled rubber tires were put on the bicycle's wheels, which made people feel more comfortable. Since then the bicycle has not changed very much.Of course bikes come in different shapes and colors now，but the main design is still the same.

1. Compared with those in America，bikes in the rest of the world .

A．are much cheaper	B．are more popular
C．are mainly used by children	D．are mainly used to do exercise

2. Why did people dislike riding early bikes？

A．They were too large.	B．They were dangerous.
C．They were hard to control.	D．They were too high for many people.

3. The underlined word "Boneshaker" in the last paragraph shows the bike was .

A．uncomfortable

B．slow

C．broken

D．old

4. The author wrote this text mainly to .

A．warn readers about bicycle safety.

B．introduce the new shapes of bicycles.

C．encourage readers to bicycle for exercise.

D．tell readers the history of bicycles.

【推荐1】Effective Friday, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has declared a strike against 11 video game publishers over games that went into production after Feb. 17, 2015. The companies include some of the heavyweights of the industry, like Electronic Arts Productions, Insomniac Games, Activision and Disney.

The strike comes in light of an unsuccessful 19 months of negotiations after the existing labor contract known as the Interactive Media Agreement expired in late 2014. Overall, the strike is an effort to provide more secondary compensation along with other concerns, such as transparency upon hiring talent and on-set (制作中) safety precautions.

The video gaming industry has ballooned in recent years. The Los Angeles Times reports that the industry is in the midst of an intense increase in cash flow. In 2015, gaming produced $23.5 billion in domestic revenue.

But SAG-AFTRA says voice actors don’t receive residuals (追加酬金) for their gaming work. Instead, they receive a fixed rate, which is typically about $825 for a standard four-hour vocal session. So the voice actors are pushing for the idea of secondary compensation—a performance bonus every time a game sells 2 million copies or downloads, or reaches 2 million subscribers, with a cap at 8 million.

“It’s a very small number of games that would trigger this secondary compensation issue,” said voice actor Crispin Freeman, who’s a member of the union’s negotiating committee. “This is an important aspect of what it means to be a freelance (从事自由职业的) performer, who isn’t regularly enjoyed every single day working on projects.”

Another major complaint from the actors is the secrecy of the industry. “I can’t imagine if there’s any other acting job in the world where you don’t know what show you’re in, when you’re hired,” says voice actor Keythe Farley, who chairs the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee.

“And yet that happens every day in the video game world,” Farley told reporters during a press conference Friday. “I was a main character in Fallout 4, a character by the name of Kellogg, and I never knew that I was doing vocal recording for that game throughout the year and a half.”

Scott Witlin, the lawyer representing the video game companies, says voice actors “represent less than one tenth of l percent of the work that goes into making a video game.” So “even though they’re the top craftsmen in their field,” Witlin says, “if we pay them under a vastly different system than the people who do the 99.9 percent of the work, that’s going to create far more problems for the video game companies.”

1. Why did SAG-AFTRA declare a strike against some video game publishers?

A．It had been cheated repeatedly in the 19 months of talks.

B．The labor contract between them had been violated.

C．The negotiations between them had broken down.

D．Its appeal to renegotiate the contract had been rejected.

2. What do we learn from the passage about the video gaming industry?

A．It has invested a lot in its domestic market.

B．It has attracted many famous voice actors.

C．It has become more open and transparent.

D．It has gained huge profits in recent years.

3. What are the voice actors demanding?

A．Extra pay based on sales revenues.	B．A non-discriminatory contract.
C．A limit on the maximum work hours.	D．More regular employment.

4. What does Keythe Farley say about voice actors?

A．They are not paid on a regular basis.

B．They are kept in the dark about many details of their job.

C．They are discriminated against in the gaming industry.

D．They are not employed full-time.

5. What is the argument of lawyer Scott Witlin?

A．Changing the pay system would cause the industry more problems.

B．Paying voice actors on an hourly basis is in fine with the law.

C．Voice actors should have a pay raise if they prove to be top craftsmen.

D．Voice actors are mere craftsmen, not professional performers.

【推荐2】You are a member in a full-time school called “life”. Each day here you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

Why are you here? What is your purpose? Humans have sought to discover the meaning of life for a very long time. What we and our ancestors have to overlook is that there is no one answer. The meaning of life is different for every individual.

Each person has his own purpose and distinct path, unique and separate from anyone else’s. As you are traveling your life path, you will be presented with numerous lessons you will need to learn in order to achieve that purpose. The lessons you are presented with are specific to you; learning these lessons is the key to discovering and achieving the meaning of your own life.

As you are traveling through your lifetime, you may meet challenging lessons that others don’t have to face, while others spend years struggling with challenges that you don’t need to deal with. You may never know why you are blessed with a wonderful marriage, while your friends suffer painful divorces, just as you cannot be sure why you struggle financially while your peers enjoy abundance. The only thing you can count on is that you will be presented with all the lessons that you specifically need to learn.

The challenge, therefore, is to arrange yourself with your own unique path by learning individual lessons. This is one of the most difficult challenges you will face in your lifetime, as sometimes your path will be different from others. But don’t compare your path with that of people around you and focus on the differences between their lessons and yours. You need to remember that you will only face lessons that you can learn and are specific to your own growth.

Our sense of fairness is the expectation of equality. Life is not, in fact, fair, and you may indeed have a more difficult life path than others around you, deserved or not. Everyone’s circumstances are unique, and everyone needs to handle his or her own circumstances differently.

1. According to the passage, how can the meaning of your life be realized?

A．Gathering different opinions from others

B．Taking the distinct path from others.

C．Learning the lessons presented to you.

D．Doing the different things from others.

2. From the passage we can conclude     .

A．everyone has his own track to follow

B．unexpected things usually happen to the peers

C．a painful divorce must lie in financial problems

D．a wealthy man must have a wonderful marriage

3. In your lifetime, the lessons you are faced with      .

A．are beyond your power

B．keep you from growth

C．limit your development

D．help you with your success

4. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．All things should be equal and justice to everybody.

B．You should learn to deal with specific problems differently from others.

C．One has to fix his mind on unfairness of circumstances.

D．You can complain life is unfair whenever possible.

5. Life is called a full–time school, because      .

A．it is full of all lessons to learn

B．you have plenty of time to learn lessons

C．you meet with specific lessons every day

D．you can learn many things helpful to you

【推荐3】Why do people drink too much, eat too much, smoke cigarettes or take drugs? What’s to blame for all the bad behavior? Most people would say that, while these self-destructive acts can have many root causes, they all have one obvious thing in common: they are all examples of failures of self-control, lacking the will power to resist them.
According to a recent study, however, if you really think about it, something about that simple answer doesn’t quite make sense. In fact, it turns out that sometimes it’s having will power that really gets you into trouble.
Think back to the time you took your very first sip (啜饮) of beer. Disgusting, wasn’t it? When my father gave me my first taste of beer as a teenager, I wondered why anyone would voluntarily drink it. And smoking? No one enjoys their first cigarette — it tastes awful. So even though smoking, and drinking alcohol or coffee, can become temptation (诱惑) you need will power to resist, they never, ever start out that way.
Just getting past those first horrible experiences actually requires a lot of self-control. Ironically (讽刺的是), only those who can control themselves well, rather than give in to them, can ever come to someday develop a “taste” for Budweiser beer, Marlboro cigarettes, or dark-roasted Starbucks coffee. We do it for social acceptance. We force ourselves to consume alcohol, cigarettes, coffee and even illegal drugs, in order to seem experienced, grown-up, and cool.
These bad habits aren’t self-control failures — far from it. They are voluntary choices, and they are in fact self-control successes. Self-control is simply a tool to be put to some use, helpful or harmful. To live happy and productive lives, we need to develop not only our self-control, but also the wisdom to make good decisions about when and where to apply it.
1. What do most people think causes bad behavior?

A．Being forced by others.

B．Not having enough will power.

C．Enjoying their first experiences.

D．Following the examples of their friends.

2. The author mentions his experience in the third paragraph to prove ____.

A．will power helps develop bad habits sometimes

B．drinking beer is harmful to the health of teenagers

C．self-control should be developed when one is young

D．everyone can be challenged by different temptations

3. In the last paragraph, the author stresses that ____.

A．without self-control, no one can succeed

B．bad habits don’t always lead to bad results

C．applying self-control correctly is important

D．people can develop wisdom from bad behavior

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．My First Sip of Beer	B．Do You Have Will Power ?
C．Does Will Power Benefit Us?	D．Dark Side of Self-control

【推荐1】There are several ways of retelling “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. In 2005 Hollywood focused on Willy Wonka, the factory’s owner, portraying him as a purple-gloved man-child. A new musical production of Roald Dahl’s children’s story at the Theatre Royal in London concentrates on the up-from-poverty fortune of Charlie Bucket, the boy who finds the golden ticket.

Tales of upward social mobility attempted or achieved are crowding the London stage. “Billy Elliott”, the story of a miner’s son who strives with the death of family strikes to make it as a ballet dancer, recently celebrated its four-millionth visitor. “Port”, an account of a Stockport girl’s attempts to escape her depressing origins, was a success at the National Theatre this spring. Last year “In Basildon” described strivers in the typical upwardly-mobile Essex town.

It is a respectable theatrical (and literary) theme, but it is being handled in a different way. John Osborne’s 1956 play “Look Back in Anger” showed a working-class man’s anger at the middle class he had married into. By the 1970s and 1980s writers were looking down their noses at social climbers, in plays like “Top Girls” and “Abigail’s Party”, in which a middle-class arriviste (暴发户) serves inferior snacks and the wrong kind of wine.

Social mobility moved away as a topic for a while, as playwrights like David Hare turned to examine carefully the state of the nation. Now it has returned—and is described much more sympathetically. Dominic Cooke, who directed “In Basildon” at the Royal Court Theatre, says this may be a delayed reaction to the collapse of state socialism in Europe.

A possible reason for the sympathetic tone is that upward mobility can no longer be taken for granted. In 2011 researchers at the London School of Economics concluded that intergenerational social mobility, assessed by income for children born between 1970 and 2000, had suspended. Another study, by Essex University academics, found matters had not improved during the crisis.

So it is fantastic fun to see people make it. Charlie Bucket does so spectacularly(壮观地). At the end of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” he is a pint-size entrepreneur(企业家), with an immigrant workforce of Oompa-Loompas to ensure he does not fall back down the social ladder.

1. What are the versions of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” mentioned in the passage?

A．Magic and ballet.	B．Movie and musical.
C．Drama and painting.	D．Novel and documentary.

2. What does “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．The story of a miner's son.

B．The topic of upward social mobility.

C．An account of a Stockport girl's attempts.

D．A striver in the upwardly-mobile Essex town.

3. According to the author, ______ may attribute to(归因于) being classified as middle-class.

A．gaining by dishonest means

B．serving others what they like

C．being involved in social climbing

D．marrying the one sharing your background

4. How does the author feel about social mobility in reality?

A．Curious.	B．Optimistic.
C．Pessimistic.	D．Concerned.

【推荐2】What's the point in dining out when we can have whatever meal we want delivered to our homes as we watch movies on our giant flat-screen TVs? According to statistics from Technomic, 86% of consumers are using off-premise (非经营场所的) channels at least once a month, and a third of consumers are using it more than they did a year ago.

Most restaurants companies are chasing these trends simply to keep up with quickly changing consumer demands. Fazoli's has spent the past two years investing in its drive-through, carryout, catering and delivery businesses, and has launched a new loyalty app aimed at making carryout orders easier. These efforts have paid off so far- off-premise sales are up 18.5% over last year for the company, said Jennifer Crawford, director of off-premise sales at Fazoli's.

But, she notes that sales aren't the only benefit to giving priority to these channels.“The off-premise channel is a great opportunity to communicate and connect with a new consumer group," Crawford said.“Many of our off-premise guests have not dined in a Fazoli's or experienced our menu. With options like third-party delivery and online ordering, we have the capability to tap into potential new guests.

Sales lifts and new customer potential are great rewards, to be sure. But that doesn't mean carrying out off-premise channels comes without challenges. Crawford said a big one is the lack of control and maintaining the guest relationship.“When a guest dines in, we can provide a level of service that improves the consumer dining experience," she said, The lack of control extends into the digital experience, as third-party apps can also be an issue. “Orders are not often processed properly due to the drop-down menus and default (默认) orders in third-party software," Crawford said. She adds that staffing issues can also arise when heavy delivery periods overlap strong in-restaurant traffic and maintaining food quality and integrity (完整) during drive time is tricky with certain dishes.

Nevertheless, Crawford believes the juice is very much worth the squeeze.“Across the industry, dine-in traffic continues to decline or remain flat. If brands are not driving sales through catering, carryout and delivery, they are missing out on income," she said.

1. Why does Fazoli's invest in off-premise channels?

A．Because it wants to see the potential of its consumers.

B．Because it wants to keep up with the latest changes.

C．Because it wants to survive in the changing consumer landscape.

D．Because it wants to communicate and connect with its new consumers.

2. We can know from Paragraph 4 that____________.

A．it is challenging to maintain quality and integrity of dishes during delivery

B．third-party apps cannot offer as good an experience of ordering as restaurants

C．third-party apps may get out of control when consumers experience online ordering

D．during heavy delivery periods, more staff is always needed to deal with busy dine -in traffic

3. What is Crawford' s attitude towards off premise channels?

A．Cautious.	B．Doubtful.
C．Ambiguous.	D．Favorable.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．What challenges off-premise channels create.

B．How restaurants are adapting to the rise of takeout.

C．Why restaurants are prioritizing off-premise channels.

D．How important off- premise channels are for restaurants.

【推荐3】If you're a fan of smart technology, you may have had some sleepless nights lately. That's because Alexa, the artificial intelligence （Al） behind US company Amazon's Echo smart speakers, has been "letting out an unprompted （自发的）,creepy （令人毛骨悚然的）cackle for no apparent reason, according to BBC News.

Many social media users shared their stories of Alexa scaring them with the seemingly unprompted laugh.

“Every time Alexa laughs, an angel dies," Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk joked on social media.

On March 7, Amazon released an update that fixed the problem, saying that the laugh was caused by Echo devices mistakenly thinking that users had said the command " Alexa, laugh".

However, what should have been a funny story raised the ongoing topic of man versus machine.

With the rise of artificial and robotic technology, " Digital machines started to demonstrate broad abilities in pattern recognition, complex communication, and other area that used to be particularly human," wrote Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee in their book The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. They believe that AI will "do more and more, and our lives will get better".

However, ever since the earliest days of AI there have been concerns that some day, software will take over the world. leaving the fate of humans unknown.

“With artificial intelligence we are order the demon （魔鬼）Musk told students during a meeting at MIT in 2014. "If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that. So we need to be very careful

Many scientists have shared the same concern. The late British physicist Stephen Hawking said at a technology conference in Portugal in November that "computers can. in theory, imitate human intelligence, and exceed it ••• AI could be the worst event in the history of our civilization."

If creators are to safely control AL however, Hawking suggested that they " employ best practice and effective management" .

I am an optimist and I believe that we can create AI for the good of the world," he said at the conference. "We simply need to be aware of the dangers, identify them, employ the best possible practice and management, and prepare for its consequences well in advance/*

1. What does the underlined word "cackle" in Paragraph I probably mean?

A．movement

B．laughter

C．scream

D．story

2. The story of Alexa is intended to .

A．lead into the discussion about humans and AI

B．prove artificial intelligence has its weaknesses

C．inform readers of the development of AI

D．show how Alexa's problem was fixed

3. According to Brynjolfsson and McAfee, which statement below is probably TRUE?

A．The development of AI could threaten our survival one day.

B．Digital machines have complete ability to recognize something without mistakes.

C．Robots will never match humans in complex communication.

D．Humans lives will be greatly improved with the help of robots.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Man VS.Machine	B．Time to Control Rise of AI
C．Creepy AI	D．AI: The Biggest Threat