【推荐2】In Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, you can find Jamey Turner playing an unusual musical instrument, the glass harp（竖琴）. A glass harp is made up of different sized drinking glasses, each filled with water.

Turner makes music by running his fingers over the tops of the glasses. By doing so, each glass makes a different musical sound. Visitors to Alexandria like what they see and hear. They thank Turner by leaving a dollar or more in his box for donations. Jamey Turner is 78 years old. Turner became interested in playing the glass harp at the age of six, when he heard his father playing with a glass of water at the dinner table. He has been playing it for 50 years.

Today Turner puts together his instrument by placing 60 different glasses on a wooden soundboard. He holds the glasses in place with rubber bands, which keeps them from breaking. He then adds different amounts of water to each one to create different musical notes. Adding or taking away just a little water will change the sound. Adding water to a glass will make a lower sound. The smaller bowls of water produce a higher sound, while the larger ones produce a lower, deeper sound.

Turner always uses low-priced glass because it sounds better than costly crystal(水晶) and he has more control over the sound. Before buying new glasses, he will test them in stores. He decides if they produce the right sound by rubbing his finger over the top of them.

The glass harp was popular 300 years ago when composers like Wolfgang Mozart wrote music for the instrument. There have been about 400 pieces of music written just for the glass harp. But Turner plays all kinds of music, even popular music from China. Few people play the glass harp these days, but Turner says he sees videos of people experimenting with the instrument on YouTube. He hopes the next generation will continue making its music.

1. What do visitors think of Jamey Turner's performance?

A．Boring.

B．Attractive.

C．Special.

D．Common.

2. How can Jamey Turner change the sounds of the glasses?

A．By beating the glasses in different parts.	B．By placing the glasses on a wooden board.
C．By adding or reducing water in the glasses.	D．By holding different glasses with rubber bands.

3. What may be Jamey Turner's real worry about the glass harp?

A．Little music is written for the instrument.

B．People are trying to play the instrument online.

C．Few people are playing the instrument these days.

D．The instrument cannot produce some beautiful sounds.

4. What is the best title for this text?

A．Making Music by Playing Glasses	B．Special Sounds from Glasses
C．Devotion to Playing Glasses for Fun	D．Fingers over the Tops of the Glasses

【推荐3】For some people, music is no fun at all. About four percent of the population is what scientists call “amusic.” People who are amusic are born without the ability to recognize or reproduce musical notes (音调). Amusic people often cannot tell the difference between two songs. Amusics can only hear the difference between two notes if they are very far apart on the musical scale.
As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. Their inability to enjoy music sets them apart from others. It can be difficult for other people to identify with their condition. In fact, most people cannot begin to grasp what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping mall can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics intentionally stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in withdrawal and social isolation. “I used to hate parties,” says Margaret, a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify this unusual condition.
Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from the brains of people who can appreciate music. The difference is complex, and it doesn’t involve defective hearing. Amusics can understand other nonmusical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding ordinary speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can’t see certain colors.
Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed (诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her problem with music. Now she knows that she is not alone. There is a name for her condition. That makes it easier for her to explain. “When people invite me to a concert, I just say, ‘No thanks, I’m amusic,’” says Margaret. “I just wish I had learned to say that when I was seventeen and not seventy.”
1. Which of the following is true of amusics?

A．They can easily tell two different songs apart.

B．Listening to music is far from enjoyable for them.

C．Their situation is well understood by musicians.

D．They love places where they are likely to hear music.

2. According to paragraph3, a person with “defective hearing” is probably one who __________.

A．dislikes listening to speeches

B．can hear anything nonmusical

C．has a hearing problem

D．lacks a complex hearing system

3. What is the passage mainly concerned with?

A．Amusics’ strange behaviours.

B．Some people’s inability to enjoy music.

C．Musical talent and brain structure.

D．Identification and treatment of amusics.

【推荐2】Beeping alarms in hospitals are a life-or-death matter-but with so many going off all the time, medical professionals my experience am fatigue (疲劳) that impairs car. Researchers now report that changing n alarm’s sound to include properties of musical instruments can make it more helpful in the noisy clinics.

Beeping alarms can sound up to 300 times a day per patient in U. S. hospitals, but only a small percentage require immediate action. Data from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration suggest that alarm fatigue (including when clinicians turned off or forgot to restart alarms) and other alarm-related issues were linked to 566 deaths over five and a half years.

In 2015 Doctor Schlesinger and Schutz, a music cognition researcher, began examining musical qualities called timbres (音质) that might let softer sounds command attention from busy clinicians. They found that sounds with a “percussive” timbre, many of which contain short bursts of high-frequency energy — such as wine glasses clinking -stand out even at low volume. In contrast, loud, “flat” tones that lack high-frequency components, like a reversing truck’s beep, get lost.

The researchers have since continued to conduct experiments in which participants evaluate different sounds and melodies for annoyance, detectability and recognizability. For a recent study they played participants the same sets of notes with varying timbres. They found the sounds that made these sets least annoying. with no decrease in recall, were percussive and had complex, time-varied harmonic overtones (the many components within a single sound) like a xylophone’s ping (木琴声). The researchers now are drawing inspiration from the timbres of other instruments: the triangle, for example, famously stands out in a crowd of sounds possibly because it has overtones that depart from traditional harmonic series. Such findings could lead to alarms that command attention and fit into current regulatory guidelines. Michael Rayo, who studies cognitive systems design at the Ohio State University, says that complex sounds like those instruments in the study avoid trading detectability for recognition. Experimenting with timbre, he says, “furthers our understanding of aspects that can improve performance in hospital alarms. ”

1. What is the point of changing an alarm’s sound in hospitals?

A．Curing more patients.	B．Making alarms more effective.
C．Reducing the going off of alarms.	D．Including features of musical instruments.

2. What can be called a sound with a “percussive” timbre?

A．The roll of a distant thunder.	B．The beep of a reversing truck.
C．The ringing sound of a wind-bell.	D．The sound of a working air-conditioner.

3. What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs?

A．Researching timbre ensures perfect performance of alarms.

B．Percussive sounds alone made the sets of notes least annoying.

C．Triangles stand out because of their traditional harmonic series.

D．Alarms with instrumental sounds are probably detectable and recognizable.

4. What is the most suitable title for the text?

A．Hospital Issues

B．Musical Instruments

C．Percussive Timbre

D．Musical Alarms

【推荐3】The world’s largest study about sleep was launched in June 2017 and within days more than 40,000 people from around the world participated in the online scientific investigation, which includes a questionnaire and a series of cognitive (认知的) performance activities.

“We really wanted to figure out the sleeping habits of people around the world. Obviously, there have been many smaller sleep studies of people in labs but we wanted to find out what sleep is like in the real world,” says Adrian Owen. “People who logged in gave us a lot of information about themselves. They told us things like which medicine they were on, how old they were, where they were and what kind of education they’d received because these are all factors that might have contributed to some of the results.”

About half of all participants reported typically sleeping less than 6.3 hours per night, about an hour less than the study’s recommended amount. One shocking fact was that most participants who slept four hours or less performed as if they were almost nine years older.

Another surprising discovery was that sleep affected all adults equally. The amount of sleep associated with highly functional cognitive behavior was the same for everyone, regardless of age. Also, the harm associated with too little, or too much, sleep did not depend on the age of the participants.

“We found that the best amount of sleep to keep your brain performing its best is 7 to 8 hours every night. We also found that people who slept more than that amount were equally harmed as those who slept too little.” says Conor Wild, Owen Lab Research Associate and the study’s lead author.

1. Where did the study take place?

A．In a hospital.

B．In a university.

C．In a lab.

D．On the Internet.

2. What may affect the result of the study according to Owen?

A．Professions.

B．Education.

C．Hobbies.

D．Diet.

3. Which of the following is right according to Wild?

A．Sleeping too much is as bad as sleeping too little.

B．Sleeping too little can make people look older.

C．Different people need different sleeping hours.

D．People must sleep for eight or nine hours every day.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Most people have sleeping problems in the world.

B．Owen and Wild were the first experts to study sleep.

C．Lack of enough sleep is a common problem.

D．People attach great importance to having enough sleep.

【推荐1】Kong Zi, also called Confucius(551—479B.C.) , and Socrates (469—399 B．C．) lived only a hundred years apart, and during their lifetimes there was no contact between China and Greece, but it is interesting to look at how the world that each of these great philosophers came from shaped their ideas, and how these ideas in turn, shaped their societies.

Neither philosopher lived in times of peace, though there were more wars in Greece than in China. The Chinese states were very large and feudal, while the Greek city-states were small and urban. The urban environment in which Socrates lived allowed him to be more radical than Confucius. Unlike Confucius, Socrates was not asked by rulers how to govern effectively.Thus, Socrates was able to be more idealistic, focusing on issues like freedom, and knowledge for its own sake.Confucius, on the other hand, advised those in government service, and many of his students went out to government service.

Confucius suggested the Golden Rule as a principle for the conduct of life：“Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you.” He assumed that all men were equal at birth, though some had more potential than others, and that it was knowledge that set men apart.Socrates focused on the individual, and thought that the greatest purpose of man was to seek wisdom. Like Confucius, he believed that the superior class should rule the inferior classes.

For Socrates, the family was of no importance, and the community of little concern.For Confucius, however, the family was the centre of the society, with family relations considered much more important than political relations.

Both men are respected much more today than they were in their lifetimes.

1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the first paragraph?

A．Socrates and Confucius had much in common.

B．Confucius had much influence on Socrates’ ideas.

C．The societies were influenced by the philosophers’ ideas.

D．There were cultural exchanges between China and Greece.

2. Socrates shared with Confucius the idea that___________.

A．all men were equal when they were born

B．the lower classes should be ruled by the upper class

C．the purpose of man was to seek freedom and wisdom

D．People should not ask others to do what they did not want to

3. What made some people different from others according to Confucius?

A．Family.

B．Potential.

C．Knowledge.

D．Community.

4. How does the passage organize?

A．In the patter of time and events.	B．In the patter of comparison and contrast.
C．In the patter of cause and effect.	D．In the patter of definition and classification.

【推荐2】According to some researchers, you should not praise children for everything that they do. It does not help them build self-confidence.

Most parents and teachers agree that praise can help increase children’s self-confidence—the more, the better. However, according to some researchers, only proper praise is good for children. If adults praise everything children do, it makes children look for praise all the time, not trying to do their best. "Teachers should not say things like ‘good job’ or ‘nice work’ whenever a child does anything. They should encourage them to continue to improve," some researchers advise.

Another idea is that children with high self-confidence are happier, and do better at school. About this, Marshall Duke, a researcher in children, says, "High self-confidence brought in by too much praise does not make children happier, get more, or become able to do more. Finding a child’s advantages and developing them can help build confidence more than too much praise can." Praise also loses its effect if it is given equally to all students.

"It’s important to tell children the truth about what they’ve done. Honest feedback (反馈) is far better than empty praise," Duke adds. "People have got into the habit of not telling children when they’re wrong. That makes it hard for them to deal with difficulties when they grow up. That’s just how the world is."

1. According to some researchers, if parents praise their children too much, their children will ________.

A．always look for praise	B．increase self-confidence
C．become strong	D．do better in their studies

2. In order to help children build self-confidence, some researchers advise teachers to ________.

A．make them live more happily	B．let them do more difficult work
C．help them do better in school	D．encourage them to improve

3. Which of the following is TRUE, according to the passage?

A．Praise makes children become successful.

B．Children don't know what they're really good at.

C．The same praise for all children has no meaning.

D．Duke thinks praise is more important than finding children’s strengths.

4. What is the last paragraph about?

A．It’s important to have the habit of praising children.

B．Children should know their mistakes as soon as possible.

C．We should praise children honestly and tell them their mistakes.

D．What children with high self-confidence are like.

【推荐3】As the commercialization of 5G accelerates in China, more companies are exploring what smart cities will look like in the 5G times.

US chip giant Intel Corp, for instance, is teaming up with partners such as China Unicom to build a 5G smart park in Nanjing, to offer a peek into the future of such smart cities.

The future smart city must be data-centric (以数据为中心) and intelligently interconnected. So how to better capture, transmit, store and analyze data will be the center of the future. Intel’s advantages can be found in its hardware and software solutions which can meet demands of multiple scenarios (多情景分析). The company will be devoted to opening cooperation, creating an innovative ecology and working with partners to create an intelligent future.

The company’s project, the Future Technological Smart Center in Nanjing, aims to gather a wide range of domestic and foreign partners around artificial intelligence, internet of things, 5G, cloud computing and other technological innovations to explore what future cities will look like. Intel said the Nanjing project is designed to build industry benchmarks, implement excellent solutions, and offer experience for the construction of smart cities and parks in the Yangtze River Delta region and even the entire country.

A Deloitte report said that China has already included the smart city initiative in its national strategy and made significant investments in these projects.

Both first-tier cities and small and medium-sized cities are home to smart city projects. The nation has formed many smart city groups across the eastern and southern coastal areas of China, Deloitte said.

Deloitte senior partner Ma Jionglin said in an earlier interview that China is one of the most active countries in the world in building smart cities. With advances in urban management and the increasing emphasis on the work and lifestyle of people, smart cities will be entering a new stage of development.

1. Why is the US Intel company mentioned?

A．To show Intel is a high technical company.

B．To accelerate 5G commercialization in China.

C．To offer a peek into the future of such smart cities.

D．To prove many companies are exploring 5G smart cities.

2. How will Intel Corp create an intelligent future?

A．Through intelligent interconnection.

B．Through the help of foreign partners.

C．Through teamwork and innovative ecology.

D．Through advanced hardware and software technology.

3. What’s Ma Jionglin’s attitude towards building smart cities in China?

A．Negative.

B．Positive.

C．Critical.

D．Indifferent.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The construction process of smart cities.

B．Intel’s exploration to build smart cities in China.

C．Chinese national strategy and investments on smart cities.

D．China’s leading role in building 5G technology in the world.

【推荐1】It has been four years since the Flashfood App was set to hit Canadian grocery stores and make it easier for shoppers to buy soon-to-expiry (保质期) food at a discount. Much to my delight, I heard it advertised recently on a radio station and figured it’s time for an update, especially since people became more aware of food waste’s role in the climate crisis.

The first thing I did was download the App. I hadn’t done it before because it was limited to a few locations, but now it’s all over Canada. I could see immediately that many brands of yogurt are all marked down 50 percent. Users pay for the food using the App, and then pick it up at a marked location in the store. There is no need for you to worry about them actually being bad.

It makes sense for retailers(零售商) to get behind this App because it offers a win-win situation for everyone involved. Flashfood sells 75% of the products made available through its App while saving consumers an average of 50% on those grocery items, and it has 300 000 active users right now. That number is expected to grow naturally as Flashfood partners with more grocers.

“As a food retailer, we are in the business of providing food, not wasting it. The Flashfood program allows us to provide our customers with a convenient and environmentally sustainable (可持续的) way to purchase food. Loblaw sells 77% of the items it puts on Flashfood, moving an average of ＄800 to ＄1000 worth of goods weekly at each of its largest stores,” said Gord Chem, senior VP with Loblaw’s Real Canadian Superstores.

I love looking for discount deals at the grocery store and always keep an eye out for the hot pink clearance stickers. But it’s always random, and I never know what I’m going to get from week to week. The appeal of Flashfood is that I can see what’s available, pre-purchase it, and leave it off my shopping list.

1. What can we know about the food on the Flashfood?

A．It’s delivered directly to the customers.	B．Users can pay for it in the marked store.
C．Much of it is charged at half the price.	D．It’ll be a month away before it goes bad.

2. According to Gord Chem, the Flashfood is ________.

A．impractical	B．doubtful
C．creative	D．beneficial

3. How is the advantage of Flashfood introduced in the last paragraph?

A．By making a comparison.	B．By listing some examples.
C．By explaining the cause.	D．By introducing the result.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Customers can buy much cheaper food on a recent app.

B．Canadians have a smart approach to reducing food waste.

C．A win-win situation has been set for Canadians involved.

D．Canadians adopt a new way of protecting the environment.

【推荐2】Do you want to really impress your friend with a birthday gift? How about flying a drone (无人机) made of chocolate?

It can be done, and it was done by a team of three Duke University students, with help from a chocolate maker called Chocolove. About a year ago, mechanical engineering student Anuj Thakkar and his friends were talking over coffee. “Wouldn't it be cool if we had eatable drones?" they wondered.

Over the summer, that idea began to take shape. "We tried cheese. We tried bread. Chocolate was what we settled on." said Thakkar. Chocolate is moldable, making the design process a little easier. Thakkar, Carlo Lindner and Ben Succop started designing. Eventually, to make their friend Kristine Stanner smile, they managed to build a fleet of drones out of chocolate. On Stanner's birthday, they flew a drone to her. She ate a piece of the one-of-a-kind drone at once.

However, they worked really hard for it. The summer in Durham, North Carolina, is very hot, and it's not a great time to work with chocolate. "The first drone — chocolate was falling from the sky," Thakkar said. “It was flowing in drops.” Hearing the news, Chocolove enthusiastically provided his high-quality dark chocolate for them. But the high-quality chocolate is more fragile than the cheap one, so the team had to fix it again. They put the plastic on the airframe at first and then put sweet vermicelli (细面条) to give the airframe more flexibility. The drone crashed a lot, but it always held. And it had a tendency to tear, which may be why real planes aren't made of chocolate.

Thakkar said, “I got tired of chocolate in the first day of designing, but I like to make strange gifts for my friends."

1. What does the underlined word “moldable" in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Delicious.

B．Flexible.

C．Soft.

D．Solid.

2. What did Chocolove do to help the students?

A．Planning a birthday surprise.	B．Advising some useful guidance.
C．Offering higher-quality materials.	D．Introducing some guests to them.

3. What was the biggest difficulty when the three students made the special drone?

A．The lack of chocolate.	B．The change of the weather.
C．Their unprofessional skills.	D．The unstability of the airframe.

4. Which of the following best describes Thakkar?

A．Creative.

B．Humorous.

C．Ambitious.

D．Strict.

【推荐3】The spine (脊柱) stands at the center of your health, providing your body with structure and support. It also contains a major collection of nerves that deliver electric signals from the rest of the body to your brain. Since your spine is so central to health, it’s important to take care of it.

Staying in a good position is one of the most important things you can do to keep your spine healthy. A proper position means standing or sitting while keeping your spine straight, except for its natural bending. Positions play a vital part even when you’re asleep. Stomach sleeping is far from a good idea. Many people prefer sleeping on their side, which is in the interests of their spine. Sleeping on your back has lots of benefits yet can cause lower back pain and put some pressure on your spine.

Staying still for too long — even if your position is good — can be hard on your back. Especially if you work at a task most of the day, it’s important to get up and stretch (伸展) periodically. Therefore, exercise is also a key part in the health of your spine. Stretches can help the muscles (肌肉) around your spine relax. Strength exercises with light weights or body weight exercises like push­ups can also help by strengthening the muscles. However, don’t overdo the exercise, as repeated movements can hurt the muscles around the spine, as trying to lift heavy weights with poor technique.

Your diet also affects the health of your spine because many vitamins are necessary for bones and nerves. In particular, vitamin B and omega­3 fatty acids help keep nerves healthy. Another important part is vitamin D, which is required for strong bones. Vitamin D can come from some foods, but it’s also absorbed from sunlight, so it may help to do some exercises outside. At last, many of the actions necessary to keep a spine healthy are similar to those used to protect your health in other ways. So protect your back, and the rest of the body will benefit.

1. Which sleep position is best for our spine according to the passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

2. What is suggested in Paragraph 3?

A．Doing a proper amount of exercise.

B．Staying still in a good position.

C．Repeating a certain movement more.

D．Strengthening muscles of the whole body.

3. What can we infer about vitamins?

A．Vitamin B reacts with omega­3 fatty acids.

B．Abundant vitamin D guarantees strong bones.

C．Vitamin D can’t be absorbed without sunlight.

D．Doing push­ups outside increases vitamin D intake.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Good posture, good spine

B．Stay still, stay healthy

C．Healthy means, healthy spine

D．Proper exercise, proper weight