【推荐1】Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smartphone as a room key. The boutique hotel brand from Starwood to Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to offer this feature at two hotels, in the Harle neighborhood and in Cupertino, Calif, before the end of the quarter.

Starwood officials are hoping this will be one of the biggest technological changes in the industry since free Wi-Fi. "We believe this will become the new standard for how people will want to enter a hotel." says Frits van Passchen, Starwood's CEO. "It may be a novelty at first,but we think it will become table stakes for managing a hotel.

Not everyone is so sure. Past attempts to use technology to streamline the check-in process have had mixed results. Robert Habeeb, president of the First Hospitality Group, which is the owner of 55 hotels in the U.S, says he pulled out check-in kiosks at two of his Holiday Inn hotels after finding that most guests ignored them. He found that many travelers will sacrifice speed or ease to talk with a staff member and ensure their room has the right view or location, or to try for an upgrade. Other guests may still want to be greeted when they arrive.

Hotels have never been known for being in the forefront of technology. The industry is often a delay, in part because many hotels are owned and managed by separate companies, making investments in technology more complicated. Nevertheless, many hotel operators have been searching for ways to remove the bottlenecks that can form at a hotel's front desk. The delays are the bane(祸根）of many a road warrior's travel experience. “Everybody has to check in, but we are all doing it pretty much the same way we were 100 years ago, ”says Christopher Nassetta, chief executive officer for Hilton Worldwide holdings Inc.“It' s something we are seriously addressing.

Yet it is still not clear that virtual keys will do better than previous attempts to beat traditional check-ins. An effort several years ago to allow guests to enter rooms with the magnetic strip on their credit cards never became popular . Guests worried about security and were unwilling to give their kids credit cards instead of room keys.

1. According to the first two paragraphs, which of the following is NOT true?

A．Aloft of Hotel in Manhattan will allow guests to use a smartphone as a room key

B．Hotel officials hope the new room key will be a great change in hotel industry.

C．All Starwood Hotels plan to offer the new room key before the end of the quarter.

D．The new room key may become a new standard of choosing a hotel

2. The word streamline(Para. 3) is closest in meaning to _____________.

A．strengthen	B．simplify
C．change	D．unify

3. Christopher Nassetta would most likely agree that _____________.

A．it's a good idea to cancel check-in

B．the management of hotel needs to be improved

C．the way of check-in needs to be changed

D．it's time to make use of technology in hotel industry

4. From the text we can see that the writer thinks the future of the new room key is __________.

A．optimistic	B．uncertain
C．bright	D．Negative

【推荐2】One evening in February 2007, a student named Paula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote road in Wales. She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path .That’s when she heard the whistle sounded by the driver of a train. Her Renault Clio was parked across a railway line. Seconds later, she watched the train drag her car almost a kilometer down the railway tracks.

Ceely’s near miss made the news because she blamed it on her GPS device (导航仪). She had never driven the route before. It was dark and raining heavily. Ceely was relying on her GPS, but it made no mention of the crossing. “I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a speeding train,” she told the BBC.

Who is to blame here? Rick Stevenson, who tells Ceely’s story in his book When Machines Fail Us, points the finger at the limitations of technology. We put our faith in digital devices, he says, but our digital helpers are too often not up to the job. They are filled with small problems. And it’s not just GPS devices: Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones to wireless key-boards.

The problem with his argument in the book is that it’s not clear why he only focuses on digital technology, while there may be a number of other possible causes. A map-maker might have left the crossing off a paper map. Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention. Perhaps the railway authorities are at fault for poor signalling system. Or maybe someone has studied the relative dangers and worked out that there really is something specific wrong with the GPS equipment. But Stevenson doesn’t say.

It’s a problem that runs through the book. In a section on cars, Stevenson gives an account of the advanced techniques that criminals use to defeat computer-based locking systems for cars. He offers two independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country. He says that once again not all new locks have proved reliable. Perhaps, but maybe it’s also due to the shortage of policemen on the streets. Or changing social circumstances. Or some combination of these factors.

The game between humans and their smart devices is amusing and complex. It is shaped by economics and psychology and the cultures we live in. Somewhere in the mix of those forces there may be a way for a wiser use of technology.

If there is such a way, it should involve more than just an awareness of the shortcomings of our machines. After all, we have lived with them for thousands of years. They have probably been fooling us for just as long.

1. The underlined phrase “near miss” in Paragraph 2 can best be replaced by ________.

A．close hit	B．heavy loss
C．narrow escape	D．big mistake

2. Which of the following would Rick Stevenson most probably agree with?

A．Digital technology often falls short of our expectation.

B．Modern technology is what we can’t live without.

C．Digital devices are more reliable than they used to be.

D．GPS error is not the only cause for Ceely’s accident.

3. In the writer’s opinion, Stevenson’s argument is ________.

A．well-based	B．reasonable
C．puzzling	D．one-sided

4. What is the real concern of the writer of this article?

A．The major causes of traffic accidents and car thefts.

B．The human unawareness of technical problems.

C．The relationship between humans and technology.

D．The shortcomings of digital devices we use.

【推荐3】Many people think that the world is about to step into the fourth industrial revolution. This time, machines can do a lot of work in the charge of human beings, even better than human beings. In the future, the world can be more efficient and enjoy cheaper services, but unemployment will become more common.

It raises a troubling question for all of us — when will a machine be able to do my job? Katja Grace, a research associate at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, and her colleagues from the AI Impacts project and the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, have surveyed 352 scientists and compiled (汇编) their answers into predictions about how long it may take for machines to outperform humans on various tasks.

The good news is that many of us will probably be safe in our jobs for some time to come. The researchers predict there is a 50% chance that machines will be capable of taking over all human jobs in 120 years.

“One of the biggest surprises was the overall lateness of the predictions,” says Grace. “I expected the amazing progress in machine learning in recent years, plus the fact that we were only talking to machine learning researchers, to make the estimates earlier.”

“I am a bit sceptical of some of the timelines given for tasks that involve physical manipulation (操纵),” says Jeremy Wyatt, professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Birmingham. “It is one thing doing it in the lab, and quite another having a robot that can do a job reliably in the real world better than a human.”

Manipulating physical objects in the real world — figuring out what to manipulate, and how, in a random, changing environment — is an incredibly complex job for a machine. Tasks that don’t involve physical manipulation are easier to teach.

Perhaps the hardest jobs for machines to perform are those that take years of training for humans to excel at. These often involve intuitive (直觉的) decision making, complex physical environments or abstract thinking — all things that computers struggle with.

1. Why did the researchers conduct the survey on the future role of machines?

A．To make it clear how machines can replace humans.

B．To find why machines can take the place of humans.

C．To explain humans will be substituted by machines.

D．To learn when machines may be superior to humans on jobs.

2. What did Grace think of the time for machines to replace humans on tasks?

A．She thought the time would be totally uncertain despite the survey.

B．She thought the time would be later than predicted.

C．She thought the time would be earlier than predicted.

D．She thought machines would take over all the jobs in 120 years.

3. What can we infer from the opinion of Jeremy Wyatt?

A．A robot can do a job reliably in the real world better than a human.

B．Tasks that don’t involve physical manipulation are quite complicated.

C．It is difficult for robots to finish the jobs related to physical manipulation.

D．He is sure of the timelines given for tasks that involve physical manipulation.

【推荐1】Most Impressive Ways to Get from Place to Place

Horse Caravan （马车）

Go a bit old-school with a horse caravan in Ireland. While riding a horse may not offer much in the way of impressiveness, how about getting a horse to a carriage that includes cooking and sleeping areas? That sounds a bit more remarkable. Plus, the horse-drawn carriages allow a fresh perspective on the countryside and beaches.

Terra Bus

Made in Calgary, only roughly 20 of these Terra Bus Ice Explorer all-terrain vehicles exist and they almost all serve the Icefields Parkway and the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper, Canada. Designed specifically for glacier travel, the six-wheel, 49-foot-long vehicle looks like the most robust （强大的）tour bus on the planet. And it is. The Terra Bus Ice Explorer can handle 56 passengers and nearly any sort of ice, mud, sand, snow and rock the Canadian Rocky Mountains have to offer.

The Central-Mid-Levels Escalator （自动扶梯）

If this Hong Kong escalator system didn't exist, you'd have all sorts of stairs to deal with to climb between the western and central Hong Kong districts. This system of 20 escalators, built in 1993, combines to become the longest outdoor covered escalator in the world, running a total length of 2,624 feet and rising 442 feet in the process. From end to encl it's a ride lasting 20 minutes.

Symphony of the Seas

At 1, 181 feet in length and a gross tonnage of 228, 000, the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world. The steel ship features seven distinct on-board neighborhoods, surfing, ziplining, ice-skating, 3D movies and pools. Symphony is powered by solar energy.

1. What can you do on Horse Caravan?

A．Cook meals.

B．Watch movies.

C．Take an escalator.

D．Admire great mountains.

2. What is Terra Bus intended for?

A．Beach views.

B．In-city transportation.

C．On-board entertainments.

D．Complex road conditions.

3. Which of the following is in Hong Kong?

A．Horse Caravan.	B．Terra Bus.
C．The Central-Mid-Levels Escalator.	D．Symphony of the Seas.

【推荐1】“The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes with it, sleeps with it and celebrates it,” wrote Mexican author Octavio Paz.

To celebrate death, people throughout Mexico celebrate the Day of the Dead on or around Nov. 1 each year. People wear makeup to celebrate the festival on that day.

Widely considered to be Mexico’s most important festival, the Day of the Dead is deeply rooted in the culture of the local Mexica.

The Mexica were the dominant local people in Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.

The celebration is based on a Mexican legend ( 传 说 ) that says after death, souls can only communicate with their still-living families in the first days of November. One can see how these days would be quite important for the Mexican people.

Now the tradition has become a modern festival .

“It’s a celebration with many years of history, to which local people have incorporated(融合) new religious elements, such as the gathering of offerings,” said Octavio Murillo, director at the National Institute of Local People in Mexico.

On this special day, people around Mexico decorate their homes, streets and relatives’ graves with flowers, candles and colorful skulls. At the same time, they set up altars ( 祭坛) on which they place the personal belongings of the dead to welcome them home.

In recent years, this festival has become a global symbol of Mexican culture , especially after the movie Coco《寻梦环游记》 hit big screens in 2017.

“We are all afraid of death, and in Mexico, it is part of a celebration, a ritual of color. It’s amazing. ” said Alejandra Diaz, a 30-year-old traveller. She took a week-long trip from Colombia to Mexico City just to take part in the festivities.

1. What do we know about the Day of the Dead?

A．It dates back to the 15th century.

B．It is related to a Mexica legend.

C．It honors those who died for Mexico.

D．It is a traditional Christian festival in Mexico.

2. What is the main idea of Paragraphs 6 to 8?

A．The origins of the Day of the Dead.

B．Traditional ways of celebrating the Day of the Dead.

C．How the Day of the Dead is recently celebrated in Mexico.

D．Why the Day of the Dead is important for Mexican people.

3. Why is the movie Coco mentioned in the text?

A．To show that we should not be afraid of death.

B．To prove that the Day of the Dead has become a modern festival.

C．To present the influence of Mexican culture on modern movies.

D．To tell the readers that the festival stands for Mexican culture.

【推荐2】After years of travel it was bound to happen. Waiting by the moving belt, I watched the suitcases make mocking（嘲弄的）rounds. My companions, exhausted after16hours in the plane, were sympathetic and relieved. They were all thinking: at least it wasn’t me. Any moment now, I told myself, swearing at the happy vacationers busy collecting their things. What about my necessities （必需品）?

For millions of travelers a year, it happens. Their missing bags stolen, sold in blind auctions（拍卖）, or gone forever without any explanation. Today it was my turn, in a crowded Indian airport, as far from home as I’d ever been.

So, while the airline hunted for my belongings with no any order or plan and asked whether I would rather have $200– I found myself wandering the hot streets of Delhi in an orange dress and a pair of blister-producing ballet flats. Equipped with my carry-on （contents: eyeglasses, a paperback, an ancient tube of Chapstick）, I was forced to “manage”.

Day two, good news. The bag had been found! Bad news: it is still sitting in Toronto. Did it miss me as much as I missed it?

But then, a twist. I survived. By day three, I was secretly enjoying myself. What to wear? Hello, orange. Make-up today? Not an option. With almost nothing, I found better things: a new understanding of necessity, a short break from my obsession（痴迷）with stuff, stuff and more stuff, and a new appreciation for what does matter （ the Taj Mahal ）, when my bag finally made its way back to me.

That’s right, my jam-packed blue suitcase resurfaced – on day four – and I suddenly had a rainbow of ten dresses to choose from. I decided to wear my orange dress once more, for good luck. It worked: nothing went missing on my journey home.

1. How did the writer feel while waiting by the moving belt?

A．Frightened.

B．Confused.

C．Uninterested.

D．Annoyed.

2. What happened to the writer on day three?

A．The writer began to hold a negative attitude towards life.

B．The writer couldn’t manage without the suitcase at hand.

C．The writer’s appreciation of necessity changed unexpectedly.

D．The writer did not get the baggage back as it was still missing.

3. What is the message conveyed in the passage?

A．When your baggage goes missing, all is not lost.

B．Only when traveling light can one enjoy one’s journey.

C．Wearing orange can always bring good luck.

D．Air travelers are more likely to lose luggage.

【推荐3】Nao, the first robot able to show feelings, has been created by a European research team. When Nao is sad, he lowers his head and looks down. When he’s happy, he raises his arms for a hug. Nothing is out of the ordinary, except that Nao is a robot.

“We’re modeling the first years of life,” says Lola Canamero, a computer scientist at the University of Hertforshire. “The feelings are shown through physical gestures and body movements rather than facial or verbal (言语的) expressions.”

In the future, says the scientist, robots are likely to act as companions, provide support for old people, and help people shop online. In such uses, the display of feeling will be important in making the interactions (交往) more natural and comfortable.

Nao has been programmed to copy the emotional skills of a one-year-old child. It can memorize faces, and knows the basic rules of good and bad. Based on these it can decide how to react to what is going on. The actions going with each feeling are pre-programmed, but Nao decides for itself when to display them.

Nao is also programmed to have different personalities. A more independent robot is less likely to call for help when exploring a room, while a more fearful robot will show distress if it finds something in the room that may be harmful.

Canamero’s team will take its emotional programming forward into medical applications. Part of the project will look at ways to use robots in hospitals to support the roles of doctors, nurses and parents. Children might find that a small, friendly-looking robot that can understand their emotional states makes them less anxious. “We want to explore different roles—the robots will help the children to understand their treatment and explain what they have to do. We want to help the children to control their anxiety.” she says.

1. According to the text Nao_______.

A．displays different feelings in different situations

B．is able to copy adult emotional displays

C．can remember people’s feelings

D．learns feelings from facial expressions

2. What can we learn from the text?

A．Scientists worked on facial and spoken expressions to create Nao’s emotions.

B．The time when Nao displays feelings has been pre-programmed.

C．Emotional programming is used in medicine production.

D．Robots with emotional skills can help children feel more comfortable.

3. What can’t robots do in the future according to the scientist?

A．They can work as your companion.

B．They can aid old people .

C．They can shop with you.

D．They can show their feelings.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．The relationship between humans and robots.

B．The roles that robots play in different fields.

C．The first robot able to show feelings.

D．The long history of robots.

【推荐1】Sometimes，you just can’t help it．Maybe you’re watching a sad movie，or thinking about the friend who moved away．Next thing you know，your eyes are watering，and you have tears running down your cheeks．Why do people cry when they are emotional? What are tears? Scientists are working hard to find the answers to these questions．
Ad Vingerhoets is a professor of psychology at Tilburg University，in the Netherlands．He is one of the few scientists in the world who have studied crying．According to Vingerhoets，there are three types of tears．Basal tears are the first type．They lubricate(润滑)the eyes and act as a protective barrier between the eye and the rest of the World．Next are reflex tears．They wash your eyes clean when something gets in them．Finally，there are emotional tears. “These are released in response to emotional states，”explains Vingerhoets．“Especially when we feel helpless．”
Scientists believe that crying has something to do with how humans developed and learned to depend on each other．“Humans are very complex social creatures，”says Lauren Bylsma，a professor at the University of Pittsburgh，in Pennsylvania．“It seems that tears serve to arouse help and support from others，’’She says．“Another reason we weep is that humans have the longest developmental period of almost any animal．It takes a long time to grow up．”
Vingerhoets agrees．“I think that the reason why humans shed tears(流眼泪)has something to do with our childhood，”he says．“That’s the time when we are stir dependent on adults for love and protection and care．The major advantage of emotional tears is that you can target them at a specific person．”Vingerhoets says this ability to target someone could have come in hand in prehistoric times，when humans were living among dangerous animals．Crying could attract predators(捕食者)．Tears were a safer way to get attention．In this case，it is better to use a silent signal to ask for help，”he says．
Vingerhoets and Bylsma do frequent studies to better understand why humans cry．According to Byhma，there is still much more to discover．“It’s surprising，”she says，“how much we still don’t know．”
1. Which of the following is reflex tears?

A．Tears when eyes are dry．

B．Tears moved by a story．

C．Tears released when crying．

D．Tears when dirt gets into eyes．

2. What’s the function of tears according to Bylsma?

A．It helps human develop longer．

B．It helps humans attract predators.

C．It helps arouse attention．

D．It helps people to be independent．

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Emotional tears are better than reflex tears．

B．Basal tears are a type of protective barrier．

C．Tears helped frighten predators away．

D．It’s easy to understand why humans cry．

4. What’s the main idea of this passage?

A．Why people shed tears．	B．When people shed tears．
C．How people shed tears．	D．Where people shed tears．

【推荐2】Thinking of getting your child to take up a sport that involves a coach or instructor? There is a piece of good news. A new study finds that children who join in organized physical activities at a young age are less likely to have emotional difficulties by the time they turn 12.

“The primary school years are a critical time in child development,” said Frédéric N. Brière, a professor of psycho-education who led the study“. And every parent wants to raise a well-adjusted child.” Besides keeping children from sitting for long, physical activities, such as structured sports, have the potential physical and mental   benefits,   Brière   believes,   something   parents   seem to know instinctively (直觉地) .

“We followed a large representative population of typically developing Canadian children over time to examine whether consistent participation in organized sports from ages   6 to 10   would lessen risks associated with emotional distress, anxiety, shyness, social withdrawal at age12,”said Brière.“Our goal was to test this question as critically as possible by excluding pre-existing child or family conditions that could offer a different explanation.” To do this, Brière and his team examined data from children born in 1997 or 1998. From ages 6 to 10, mothers reported whether their child participated in organized physical activities. At age 12, teachers reported on the child’s levels of emotional distress, anxiety, shyness, and social withdrawal at school.

“ The results revealed that children who participated in sports consistently from ages   6   to 10 showed fewer cases of those factors at age 12 than their peers who did not engage in   physical activities in a consistent way,” said Brière.“ We found these benefits above and beyond pre-existing individual and family characteristic.”

Brière concluded, “Getting kids actively involved in organized sports seems to promote global development. This involvement appears to be good on a socio-emotional level apart from the physical benefits it brings. Being less emotionally troubled   between   primary   and   high   school is a priceless benefit for children, as they are about to enter a much larger universe with bigger academic challenges.”

1. What does Brière’s study show about doing organized sports?

A．It helps children improve study efficiency.

B．It improves children’s personality development.

C．It strengthens children’s relationship with their parents.

D．It helps prevent children from having emotional problems.

2. What can we know about the study process?

A．It investigates children from similar backgrounds.

B．It requires cooperation from children’s parents and teachers.

C．It focuses on how children fit in with the   environment.

D．It takes children’s personal habits into consideration.

3. What does the underlined phrase “those factors” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Children’s personal characteristics.

B．Children’s performances in the study.

C．Children’s emotional problems.

D．Children’s daily activities.

4. Why is emotional health important to children between age 6 and 12?

A．They will soon face great academic stress.

B．They go through a quick development.

C．They are too busy to participate in sports.

D．They are more likely to have mental problems.

【推荐3】Tony Williams, 75 from Alton, East Hampshire, lost his wife Jo back in May, when, tragically, Jo, passed away from cancer just nine days after she was diagnosed.

And ever since, Tony has been completely alone, explaining the continuous loneliness is “like torture, with no family nearby”. Tony took finding a friend into his own hands, even putting two adverts in his local newspaper and handing out cards. Heartbreakingly, he received no responses.

But after a poster he placed in his window made headlines this week, the retired physicist has been overwhelmed with responses from people wanting to be his friend. In just a couple of days, he's had between 50 and 70 phone calls with strangers, and meanwhile he's received thousands of emails.

Tony said: “I just regret it's impossible for me to answer even a small part of calls and emails. If I could meet them all I would tell them how much I care for them and how much I'd like to reach out to them as they did to me. The love, kindness and compassion they've shown actually brought tears to my eyes.”

He has even had phone calls from as far as America and Canada!

Tony met his late wife Jo, who he describes as his “best friend and soul mate,” in a bar more than 35 years ago, and describes their marriage as a “perfect harmony”. The couple, who lived in Gloucestershire for 25 years, were unable to have any children, and so depended on each other heavily for company and support.

“For weeks and weeks, it looked as if I was pushing doors open and they were immediately slammed in my face. And then I was isolated and almost totally abandoned. And I thought, I've got to do something about that,"   he recalled.

Tony's determination has paid off, getting hundreds of people queuing up to be his friend. We're so pleased for you, Tony!

1. Why did Tony advertise in the local newspaper?

A．To inform people of his wife's death.	B．To draw attention to the old's loneliness.
C．To seek a second marriage.	D．To find someone as a friend.

2. What do we know about Tony?

A．He is working as a physicist.	B．He is now in a sweet trouble.
C．He has a complete family.	D．He lives in Gloucestershire.

3. How did Tony feel when receiving people's responses?

A．Disappointed.

B．Sympathetic.

C．Moved.

D．Surprised,

4. We can infer from the text that.

A．Tony loves his wife very much	B．Tony's children live far from him
C．Tony has become world-famous	D．Tony used to have many friends