【推荐1】Recently, an experimental pair of gloves has been invented. It isn’t fashionable or useful for keeping anyone’s hands warm. Instead, it serves a different purpose: teaching piano and other hands-on skills.

MIT graduate student Yiyue Luo and her colleagues created these “smart gloves” using touch technology. Researchers used the gloves to record one pianist’s hand movements while playing a song. They then received and sent on those movements to a student through fingertip vibrations. This will help the learner build muscle memory and perform the piece with greater accuracy. “Hand-based movements like piano playing are difficult to record and transfer.” Luo says. “But with these gloves, we can track one person’s touch experience and share it with another person to improve their touch learning process.”

When a piano teacher wearing the gloves repeatedly performed a tune, a machine-learning algorithm (算法) processed their movement on the keys and translated it into vibrations. Students wearing their own gloves then attempted to play the same tune, with the fingertip vibrations guiding them through proper movements. By the trials’ (试验) end, students who had practiced with the gloves could play more accurately than those who had not. “This type of learning is like when you’re first starting to ride a bike,” says engineer Marcia O’Malley. “You use the training wheels to get the feeling of properly riding the bike. Eventually you take them off and start to ride independently.”

Playing piano is often just for fun, but O’Malley adds that, with an improved algorithm, the new glove technology can someday help to teach crucial practices such as surgeries. “When vibration is actually felt directly at the point of action, we can act and learn quicker and with that, there’s so much potential.” she says.

1. Who are the experimental gloves suitable for?

A．Pupils learning skills from craftsmen.

B．Performers planning shows for a theatre.

C．Professors giving lecture to the students.

D．Policemen asking criminals for information.

2. What is the advantage of the gloves?

A．Aiding learners to build up muscle.

B．Making touch learning process easier.

C．Improving the speed of piano playing.

D．Teaching varieties of hand movements.

3. Why is the example of learning to ride a bike mentioned?

A．To offer supporting evidence.	B．To explain the type of learning.
C．To show the differences.	D．To suggest another possibility.

4. What is O’Malley’s attitude toward the new glove technology?

A．Doubtful.

B．Curious.

C．Approving.

D．Unclear.

【推荐2】Since the end of its own space shuttle program in 2011, the US has used Russian Soyuz spacecraft every time it wants to transport humans to and from space. While NASA is busy working on its own solution, the agency has increasingly turned to US private companies, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to meet its off-planet transportation needs. Although SpaceX has successfully flown cargo (货物)flights for NASA since 2012 via the reusable Dragon spacecraft, the company has yet to launch humans in its so-called Crew Dragon capsule. Originally scheduled to launch in 2017, the program has seen multiple delays. After all, it is rocket science and the path has not been easy.

But 2019 seemed different. NASA’s pre-purchased Soyuz flights had run out by the end of 2019, and SpaceX, along with Boeing, had scheduled all its final tests to achieve certification in time to pick up where Soyuz left off. On March 2, the Crew Dragon capsule was launched on a run without crew toward the International Space Station (ISS). The flight, known as Demo-1, went successfully.

The next major milestone scheduled was the in-flight abort test (飞行中止测试)，another dry mission meant to test the reliability of the abort system that would save the crew in case of any accident during launch. The plan was to use the same capsule from the Demo-1 flight. But SpaceX never got the chance.

In April 2019, the company ran what was supposed to be a routine test, firing certain rockets with the capsule anchored firmly to the ground. Some 100 milliseconds before the engines fired, a leak of oxidizer caused an explosion that completely destroyed the capsule.

SpaceX spent the rest of spring and early summer figuring out what had gone wrong and pushing preparations for a replacement capsule. While the problem is now solved and the Crew Dragon spacecraft for Demo-2 has arrived at the launch site, NASA and SpaceX haven’t set an exact date for the first test flight with astronauts to the ISS.

1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A．US tends to continue reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecrafts.

B．SpaceX can cover all NASA’s off-planet transportation needs.

C．NASA has not ceased developing its space travel technology.

D．Russia and SpaceX are competing for US space transportation.

2. The underlined word “dry” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to .

A．without crew

B．without cargo

C．without a capsule.

D．without fuels

3. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．A Ray of Hope for Space Exploration

B．The Rough Road to Launching A Dragon

C．Opportunities for Elon Musk’s SpaceX

D．Doubts about Off-planet Transportation

【推荐3】“One reason I can do stand-up comedy is because of all the material I have from being a male nurse，”says Adrian Matei. False stereotypes（刻板观念）about nursing make for good jokes. But they may also put men off the job.

At a conference in May of the royal college of Nursing（RCN），David Ferran，a nurse in Belfast，proposed a campaign to promote nursing to men. His proposal did not pass as the view was that nursing should be intended for anyone with the right skills，whatever the gender（性别）.

Undeterred，Mr. Ferran started a group，Northern lreland Men in Nursing，which visits schools to promote nursing as a career for men. Similar groups are being set up elsewhere. Several universities have launched social-media campaigns to draw men into nursing programmes.

With a growing decline of nurses across the National Health Service（NHS），attracting men is becoming more urgent. In 2017，for the first time in a decade，more nurses left the profession than joined. Applications to nursing programmes are down by a third since 2016. And the shadow of Brexit makes it tougher for the NHS to fill its 40，000-odd nurse vacancies from abroad. Doubts about whether they will be able to stay discourage nurses from EU countries.

Last month the NHS launched its biggest-ever nurse recruitment（招募）campaign. TV advertisements show them in action in hospital wards and ambulances，and on home visits. Some are male-an improvement from previous campaigns，but not enough to draw men in. Paul Vaughan from NHS England，who leads a proposal to change concepts of nursing，thinks recruitment should avoid playing to gender stereotypes. He takes a negative view of slogans like "Are you man enough to be a nurse?" used in the campaign.

Views of nursing as a "woman's job" have deep roots. Florence Nightingale, who established the principles of modern nursing in the 1860s, insisted that men's rough hands were not fitted to touch, bathe and dress wounded limbs. The RCN did not even admit men as members until 1960. Outdated titles such as "sister" and "matron" (used for men as well) do not help. Mr. Ferran says some patients are surprised when he shows up, because they thought only women could be nurses.

Boys do not see nursing as a career because they lack role models. In films, female nurses are cast as helpers of heroic male doctors. "When I do ward rounds with my nurse mentor and she asks questions, patients often turn to me to respond" says Richard Dowell, a third-year nursing student. On the other hand, those men who go into nursing usually follow in the footsteps of a parent or realize that it could be a career after seeing a male nurse care for a relative.

Mr. Vaughan's team at the NHS is trying to promote the image of nursing by stressing that it is a professional job in which careers can be made, that it includes special skills such as cardiology or intensive care, and that it has a use for skills in technology and leadership. Most young people also do not realize that the job can take them round the world. For men, there is another bonus. According to his study of more than 20,000 advanced nurse practitioners, men reach the seventh band(a mid-career level) four years sooner than women partly because women are twice as likely as men to work part-time and are more likely to accept a lower band to secure a job they really want. As Mr. Dowell remembers, when he started his nursing studies, he was promised:" You'll go further because you are a man. "

1. The underlined sentence in Paragraph l indicates that________.

A．male nurses tend to be humorous

B．male nurses tend to be laughed at

C．male nurses enjoy making good jokes

D．male nurses provide material for stand-ups

2. The word "undeterred" in Paragraph 3 probably means_________.

A．determined	B．discouraged
C．cautious	D．open- minded

3. What do we know about the NHS nurse recruitment campaign last month?

A．It reveals some details about a nurse's daily work.

B．It strongly recommends men to take up nursing.

C．It takes an effective policy of involving male nurses.

D．It changes the gender stereotypes in the designing.

4. By Paragraph 5 and 6, the writer aims to tell us ______

A．the drawbacks of modern nursing principles

B．the consequence of lacking role models

C．the development of recruiting male nurses

D．the challenges of recruiting male nurses

5. According to the last paragraph, the special benefit of being a male nurse is___________.

A．building great careers	B．involving special skills
C．taking global trips	D．getting easier promotion

6. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Having male nurses has many advantages.

B．Filling nurse vacancies has become urgent now.

C．Nursing should be viewed as a man's job.

D．Nursing shouldn't be a job limited to women.