【推荐2】Scientists have discovered a new material that can hold the key to unlocking the potential of hydrogen-powered(氢动力) vehicles.

As the world looks towards a gradual move away from fossil-fuel-powered cars and trucks, greener alternative technologies are being explored, such as electric-battery-powered vehicles. Another “green” technology with great potential is hydrogen power. However, the major obstacles have been the size, complexity, and expense of the fuel systems—until now.

An international team of researchers, led by Professor David Antonelli of Lancaster University, has discovered a new material that offers a solution. The new material would be used to make molecular sieves(分子过滤器) within fuel tanks—which can store the hydrogen and work alongside fuel cells in a hydrogen-powered “system”. It makes the design of tanks far smaller, cheaper, more convenient and energy-denser than existing hydrogen fuel technologies, and significantly outperform battery-powered vehicles.

The cost of manufacturing this new material is so low, and the energy density it can store is so much higher, that the hydrogen fuel cell systems cost five times less than ordinary batteries as well as providing a much longer range—potentially enabling journeys up to around four or five times longer between fill-ups.

The new material makes the cooling system unnecessary. This is crucial because it means cooling equipment does not need to be used in vehicles, resulting in systems with the potential to be far more efficient than existing designs.

Although vehicles, including cars and heavy goods vehicles, are the most obvious application, this material can also be used in portable devices such as drones or within mobile chargers so people could go on week-long camping trips without having to recharge their devices. It could also be used to run a house or a remote neighborhood off a fuel cell.

1. What can we infer from paragraph 2?

A．Fossil fuel will soon run out.

B．It is impossible to conserve fossil fuel.

C．Electric cars will replace gasoline cars.

D．It is not economical to use hydrogen power now.

2. Which of the following best explains the underlined word “outperform” in paragraph 3?

A．Lose control of.	B．Take the place of.
C．Be less successful than.	D．Perform better than.

3. What do we know about the new material?

A．It’s too complex to make.

B．It simplifies the cooling system.

C．It’s cheaper and more efficient.

D．It can be used only for vehicles.

4. In which section of the Internet can you probably find this text?

A．Education.	B．Science.
C．Life.	D．Biology.

【推荐3】Your glasses may some day replace your smartphone, and some New Yorkers are ready for the switch. Some in the city can’t wait to try them on and use the maps and GPS that the futuristic eyewear is likely to include.

“I’d use it if I were hanging out with friends at 3 a. m. and going to the bar and wanted to see what was open,” said Walter Choo, 40, of Fort Greene.

The smartphone-like glasses will likely come out this year and cost between $250 and $600, the Times said, possibly including a variation of augmented reality, a technology already available on smartphones and tablets that overlays information onto the screen about one’s surroundings. So, for example, if you were walking down a street, indicators would pop up showing you the nearest coffee shop or directions could be plotted out and come into view right on the sidewalk in front of you.

“As far as a mainstream consumer product, this just isn’t something anybody needs,” said Sam Biddle, who writes for Gizmodo.com. “We’re accustomed to having one thing in our pocket to do all these things,” he added, “and the average consumer isn’t gonna be able to afford another device that’s hundreds and hundreds of dollars.” 9 to 5 Google publisher Seth Weintraub, who has been reporting on the smartphone-like glasses since last year, said he is confident that this type of wearable device will eventually be as common as smartphones.

“It’s just like smartphones 10 years ago,” Weintraub said. “A few people started getting emails on their phones, and people thought that was crazy. Same kind of thing. We see people bending their heads to look at their smartphones, and it’s unnatural,” he said. “There’s gonna be improvements to that, and this is a step there.”

1. Which is one of the possible functions of the smartphone-like glasses?

A．Programing the opening hours of a bar.

B．Supplying you with a picture of the future.

C．Providing information about your surroundings.

D．Updating the maps and GPS in your smartphones.

2. According to Sam Biddle, the smartphone-like glasses are _______.

A．necessary for teenagers	B．attractive to New Yorkers
C．available to people worldwide	D．expensive for average consumers

3. What can we learn about the smartphone-like glasses from the last two paragraphs?

A．They may have a potential market.	B．They are as common as smartphones.
C．They are popular among young adults.	D．They will be improved by a new technology.

【推荐2】When you think of the Arctic, you imagine an icy land of pure white snow. Others imagine it as the last really clean place left on Earth. We have polluted the deepest oceans with plastic trash,     1    

German scientists have recently found microplastics in Arctic snow.     2    Sadly, the scientists found 1,800 pieces of microplastic per liter of snow.

How is plastic pollution reaching the Arctic? According to scientists. "It's apparent that the majority of the microplastics in the snow comes from the air." They fall off plastic objects and are moved by the wind, just like dust.     3    Finding these plastics in Arctic snow means that we may breathe them in. An even higher amount of microplastic was found in the snow around cities.

The high concentrations found in snow samples suggest microplastics, which contain rubber or chemicals used in synthetic fabrics（混合纤维）, may cause significant air pollution.

    4    Scientists cannot answer this question for now, according to the world Health Organization. We do know that our bodies cannot take in "large" pieces of microplastics. However, if the plastics are small enough, they can find ways into our bodies and stay there for a long time. What's more, earlier studies have shown that microplastics may contribute to lung cancer risk, heightening the need to further assess the risks of taking them in, the study said.

Microplastics have also been found in rivers and oceans around the world. Previous research has found that they flow over long distances and into our oceans, damaging ecosystems along the way.    5    The waste water then flows into rivers and out to sea, where they are eaten by sea animals. If people then eat these animals, it means that we're eating the plastic as well.

A．Are they bad for us?

B．and now it's the Arctic's turn.

C．so we should take action to protect the world.

D．They mix with ice in the air and fall to the ground as snow.

E．Microplastics are pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters.

F．They start in our water when we wash clothes with plastic fibers.

G．Is plastic pollution doing great damage to our global economy?

【推荐3】Microplastic pollution is increasing dramatically around the globe, according to a study of airborne (空气传播的) plastic particles (粒子).

People are already known to breathe, drink and eat microplastics, and research suggests that pollution levels will continue to rise rapidly. The researchers said that breathing in these particles can damage lung tissue and lead to serious diseases.

Professor Natalie Mahowald, at Cornell University in the US and part of the research team, said, “But maybe we could solve this before it becomes a huge problem, if we manage our plastics better, before they accumulate (积聚) in the environment and move around quickly everywhere.”

The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined airborne microplastics, which have been far less studied than plastic in oceans and rivers.

The team gathered more than 300 samples of airborne microplastics from 11 sites across the western US. These were the basis for atmospheric modeling that estimated (估计) the contribution from different sources, and was the first such study to do so.

They found that roads were the main factor in the western US, linked to about 85 percent of the microplastics in the air. These are likely to include particles from tires on vehicles, and plastics from litter that had been broken down.

The researchers enlarged their modeling work to a global level and this suggested that while roads are also likely to be the main driver of airborne plastics in Europe, South America and Australia, plastic particles blown up from fields may be a much bigger factor in Africa and Asia.

Professor Andreas Stohl of the University of Vienna’s Faculty of Earth Sciences, and not part of the study team, said, “The study confirms the global-scale nature of microplastic transport in the atmosphere and does a good job in highlighting highly relevant and concerning possibilities, but more measurement data is needed to get a better idea of the sources.”

1. What did the researchers find out about airborne plastic pollution?

A．Its impact varies on different continents.

B．Public transportation takes responsibility for it.

C．Its main driver differs across continents.

D．Africa is suffering the most from the pollution.

2. According to Professor Andreas Stohl, what is the next step of the study?

A．To predict the possible damages of microplastics.

B．To get more data to understand the sources of microplastics.

C．To understand the nature of airborne plastic pollution globally.

D．To improve the method of collecting samples of microplastics.

3. What could be the best title for the text?

A．Effects of microplastics on human health

B．Possible solutions to microplastic pollution

C．Microplastic pollution on the global scale

D．Microplastic pollution rising rapidly in the air

4. Which section of the newspaper may this article be found in?

A．Society.

B．Nature.

C．Health.

D．Science.

【推荐2】Every year, thousands of teenagers participate in programs at their local art museums. But do any of them remember their time at museum events later in life? A new report suggests that the answer is yes — and finds that arts-based museum programs are credited with changing the course of alumni’s (毕业生的) lives, even years after the fact.

The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles recently asked researchers to conduct a study to find out how effective their long-standing teen art programs really are. They involved over 300 former participants of four programs for teens that have been in existence since the 1990s. Alumni, whose current ages range from 18 to 36, were invited to find out how they viewed their participation years after the fact.

Among the alumni surveyed, 75 percent of them thought the teen art program experience had the most favorable impact on their own lives, beating the family, school and their neighborhoods. Nearly 55 percent thought that it was one of the most important experiences they had ever had, regardless of age. And two-thirds said that they were often in situations where their experience in museums affected their actions or thoughts.

It turns out that participating in art programs also helps keep teens keen about culture even after they reach adulthood: Ninety-six percent of participants had visited an art museum within the last two years, and 68 percent had visited an art museum five or more times within the last two years. Thirty-two percent of alumni work in the arts as adults.

Though the study is the first of its kind to explore the impact of teen-specific art programs in museums, it reflects other research on the important benefits of engaging with the arts. A decade of surveys by the National Endowment for the Arts found that the childhood experience with the arts is significantly associated with people’s income and educational achievements as adults. Other studies have linked arts education to everything from lower dropout rates to improvement in critical thinking skills.

1. What is the main function of paragraph 1?

A．To make a comparison.	B．To propose a definition.
C．To provide the background.	D．To present the subject.

2. Why were the researchers asked to conduct the study?

A．To change the course of alumni’s lives.

B．To introduce the art museums.

C．To explore the impact of teen art programs.

D．To invite people to participate in the art programs.

3. What do the figures in Paragraph 3 show?

A．Students are more influenced by the family and school.

B．Teen art programs in museums are highly beneficial.

C．Many teens fail to realize the great value of art programs.

D．Most experiences in museums are boring for today’s teens.

4. What does Paragraph 4 tell us about art programs?

A．They are intended to attract more adults.

B．They are designed to support art museums.

C．They create adults who are culturally aware.

D．They provide many job opportunities for adults.

5. What do the studies mentioned in the last paragraph have in common?

A．All prove the good effects of art education.

B．All suggest the need to improve museum programs.

C．All show the growing popularity of art programs.

D．All focus on the link between art and education.

【推荐3】The Notre Dame fire has been put out, but its spire and a large portion of its wooden roof have been damaged. The terrible destruction causes a sudden sharp pain to people around the world. On Chinese social media network Wechat a common comment on the disaster is: “What a pity that we cannot see the damaged parts of the wonder anymore.”

But the good news is that there is at least one way of seeing them, namely via a video game called Assassin’s Creed: Unity. In this game, the player can travel to one city after another and enter the buildings exactly like what they are in reality, and see Notre Dame as it was before the fire. Further, with virtual reality technology, which is already quite mature, one can even look around the undamaged Notre Dame as if it is still there. Maybe digital technology could help to better protect architectural cultural heritage.

The idea of digitizing ancient buildings, making digital models of them so their data can be saved, dates back to the 1990s and the necessary technology has continued to advance since then. By scanning the ancient buildings with lasers, building 3D models with multiple images, as well as measuring everything precisely, engineers can make a copy as accurate as the real one.

As computers and smartphones are hugely popular, the digital replica has great use value. First, it allows tourists to feel the cultural relics without touching them, which helps protect them. The virtual tour of Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu Province is a good example of this as tourists can view the paintings without standing near them. Furthermore, it can make the digitized cultural relics more famous by spreading awareness about them via the Internet. In 2000, a virtual tour of the Great Wall became very popular at the Hannover World Expo, which increased the number of foreign tourists visiting the site in the following years. Above all, it preserves all the information of the cultural relics. Even if the original ones are damaged one day, people can still know what they were like and can build a replica if desired.

Of course, however precise a model is, it is not the original. Time is the biggest threat to a country’s architectural heritage, which will always become ruins with the passing of time. Maybe we will have better technologies in the future, but the digital technology offers a practical way to preserve architectural cultural heritage at the moment.

1. What will engineers do to create a digital replica of the ancient buildings?

A．Improve the technology needed.	B．Scan the photos of the buildings.
C．Build 3D models of full size.	D．Measure all the parts exactly.

2. What value does a digital replica have?

A．It keeps the relics safe.	B．It helps to guard the relics.
C．It gathers data of the relics.	D．It advertises the history of the relics.

3. How does the author prove the digital copy has vital practical importance?

A．By comparison.	B．By giving examples.
C．By classification.	D．By listing data.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards the application of digital technology?

A．Doubtful.	B．Ambiguous.
C．Supportive.	D．Conservative.

【推荐1】Space travel is definitely bad for astronauts' bones, reducing their bone density (密度) after only a month of weightlessness, according to French research published on Friday.

Laurence Vico and his fellow workers at St Etienne University called for more research into the effects of microgravity, after their study of 15 astronauts from the Russian MIR station showed bone loss continued throughout space flights.

"Bone loss was especially striking in four astronauts," the scientists reported in the Lancet Medical Journal.

They measured the bone mineral density (BMD) of the bones in the forearm (前臂) and lower leg of the astronauts who had spent one to six months in space.

The BMD loss was significant in the tibia (胫骨) of the lower leg, a weight-bearing bone, but barely changed in the radius (桡骨) of the forearm. "Our results indicate the need to investigate not only different bones, but also different areas of the same bone since not all sites of the skeleton (骨架) are similarly affected by space conditions," they added.

Without gravity the body isn't bearing any weight so there is no need for calcium (钙) which makes bones strong, and it begins to empty into the bloodstream.

The research team suggested in future scientists should try to determine if the loss of bone density was only on weight-bearing bones on longer flights.

1. French scientists did their research on Russian astronauts, because ________.

A．they only cared for the Russian astronauts

B．they were not interested in their own astronauts

C．the Russian government invited them to do their research

D．the Russian astronauts worked in space for a long time

2. Scientists have found that ________.

A．the BMD loss may cause serious illness for astronauts

B．the BMD loss may cause some change in astronauts' bodies

C．astronauts shouldn't care about the BMD loss

D．astronauts should take some calcium before space travel

3. What caused the BMD loss for astronauts, according to this passage?

A．The food they ate in space.

B．The drinks they took in space.

C．The temperature in space.

D．Gravity in space.

4. In the third paragraph, the word "striking" means ________.

A．unusual

B．simple

C．weak

D．slow

【推荐2】Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they express regret, lost chances, mistakes, and disappointment.

My father is famous in our family for saying, “Take another minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “another minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something small like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a table, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (粘贴衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.

I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone a chance to say “I love you” or “I forgive (原谅) you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he’s 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up a chance to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.

I know there will still be times when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is certainly better because of my rule of doing everything possible to avoid that possibility. And even though it takes another minute to do something right, or it sometimes takes an hour or two in my busy timetable to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for avoiding saying “if only”.

1. Why does the writer regard “if only” as two of the saddest words in the English language?

A．Because people use them when they feel sad.

B．Because they mean sadness in the English language.

C．Because they mean regrets and disappointment in life.

D．Because they make the writer think of some sad experiences.

2. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “foregone” in Paragraph 3?

A．given up.	B．looked for.
C．waited for.	D．made use of.

3. The author decided to go to her office on Good Friday to       .

A．see a doctor	B．finish her work
C．join a celebration	D．create a chance to see her father

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Advice from My Father	B．The “Another Minute” Rule
C．Avoidance of saying “If Only”	D．The Saddest Words in English