【推荐1】Whether you’re traveling to the next town over or to the other side of the word, careful planning goes a long way toward ensuring your trip is a success. The right preparation helps you avoid potential disasters, such as having your credit card declined or running out of clean clothes to wear.     1    

Make your reservations for fights and accommodations.

    2    , where you want to stay and how you want to get around, make your reservations. For flights, book around two months out. And don’t wait till the last minute for your hotels either. You don’t want them to be booked or almost-booked because then prices skyrocket.

Set a travel budget.

Before you do anything, you need to know how much money you will have for this trip.     3    , so start your planning by breaking down how much you want to spend on transportation, food, accommodation, sightseeing and any other activities you hope to include in your trip.

    4    

If you’re going abroad, you may be required to get a visa. Besides, check the website of your intended country’s consulate or embassy to see what is required for you to enter the country. Visas may take weeks or even months to finalize, so check early in the planning process.

Pack appropriate clothing for your destination and trip.

Check the weather at your destination 2-3 days before you depart. This will let you know what type of clothes you need to bring.     5    . Will you be expected to wear a suit for a conference, or will you be able to bathe in a bathing suit on the beach?

A．In addition, consider the nature of your trip

B．Obtain a visa for international destinations if necessary

C．Once you’re sure of where you want to go and when you want to go

D．All trips are meant for adventure, relaxation, and enjoyment

E．Travel agents simply must charge booking fees, or they cannot stay in business

F．Here are some tips on how to plan your travel well to ensure a great travel experience

G．It’s easy to overspend when you’re traveling if you don’t plan ahead

【推荐1】With intelligence systems and New Age networks, life in the big cities will likely be happier and more efficient (有效率的). After all, more than 60 percent of the world’s population is expected to live in cities by 2050, according to a UN report. The answer to making these cities more livable for so many people lies in creating “smart” cities. They will use 5G networks and the Internet of Things (LOT) to make everyday life safer and more convenient. Some cities are already using smart technology to improve the lives of their people.

But what exactly does a smart city do? Let’s s look at a few examples. In United States cities of Boston and Baltimore, sensors (传感器) in smart rubbish cans can tell cleaning workers how full they are and when they need to be emptied. In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, traffic flow and energy usage are kept track of and adjusted (调节) according to real-time data collected from sensors around the city. And in Copenhagen, Denmark, a smart bike system allows riders to check on air quality and traffic jams as they ride.

Smart cities will be interactive (互动的), allowing their people to fed like they’re truly shaping their environment, instead of only living in it. It’s very important that we can actually communicate with our environment in a way that we never had in the past. Smart cities will also allow us to save resources. By using sensors and 5G networks to watch over the use of water, gas and electricity, city managers can figure out how to share and save these resources more efficiently.

Of course, it will take time and money to turn our present cities into the smart cities of the future. But as we’ve already seen, more cities around the world are already using smart technology in small ways. It won’t be long before more cities start to develop their own smart systems.

1. What makes it necessary to create smart cities?

A．The development of present cities.

B．The increasing population in cities.

C．The wide use of 5G networks and IOT.

D．The growing number of present cities.

2. How do smart rubbish cans help?

A．By adjusting the cans’ position.

B．By keeping track of the air quality.

C．By emptying the rubbish by themselves.

D．By reminding the workers to clean them.

3. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．How smart cities work.

B．The future of smart cities.

C．The influence of 5G on smart cities.

D．How smart cities communicate with us.

4. What is the authors attitude to smart cities?

A．Supportive.	B．Worried.
C．Uninterested.	D．Doubtful.

【推荐2】The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group supported by companies that insure owners of motor vehicles, says U. S. crashes involving large trucks rose by nearly one-third since hitting a record low in 2009. A total of 4,136 people died in such crashes in 2018, with 119 deaths resulting from large trucks rear-ending other vehicles.

However, a new study has found that when the rear-end crashes happened, safety systems were able to slow down the vehicles by over 50 percent, resulting in fewer injuries and less damage. The institute’s Eric Teoh did the study. He examined crash records from 62 trucking companies that operate tractor-trailers or other large trucks. He found about 2,000 crashes. Those accidents involved vehicles that traveled more than 3.2 billion kilometers from 2017 to 2019.

The safety systems use cameras, radar and other sensors to watch the roadway. Some are designed to warn drivers of dangers, while more complex systems will stop the truck. Trucks with crash warning systems reduced rear(后面的) crashes by 44 percent, while automatic emergency braking systems cut rear crashes by 41 percent, the study found.

The institute called on the federal government to require such systems on new large trucks. It noted that many truck operators are already adding emergency braking on their own.

“Rear-end crashes with trucks and other vehicles happen a lot, often with horrible consequences,” said Teoh. “This is an important countermeasure to that. ”

The study found that trucks equipped with a crash warning system had 22 percent fewer crashes than those without the technology. Trucks with emergency braking systems had 12 percent fewer crashes.

Teoh said the findings could be valuable for trucking companies and drivers who are considering whether to get safety devices on their next vehicles.

In the United States, there are currently no requirements for either system. In Europe, automatic emergency braking with forward collision warning has been required by the European Union on most new large trucks since late 2013, the institute said.

1. What does the author want to tell us about U.S. traffic accidents in Paragraph 1?

A．The seriousness.	B．The consequence.
C．The unpredictability.	D．The causes.

2. How can safety systems help achieve fewer injuries and less damage while crashing?

A．By sending alerts.	B．By cutting speed.
C．By making noises.	D．By turning off the engine.

3. What is Teoh’s attitude towards the safety systems?

A．Indifferent.	B．Ambiguous.
C．Approving.	D．Negative.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Safety Devices Can be Hard to Ease Your Worries

B．Safety Devices Can Reduce Big Truck Rear Crashes

C．Making Yourself a Perfect Driver

D．Driving Well for Less Damage

【推荐1】Noah Higgs hated learning Irish in school. He hated the way it was taught, overly formal and disconnected from ordinary people’s lives. Most of all he hated the effect the lessons had on his fellow students’ willingness to speak the language. But the Dublin native never lost his love for Irish, nor his opinion that more people should be learning the language.

Today, almost 40% of the 7,000 languages spoken worldwide are endangered, according to the United Nations. More are going extinct every year. It was once widely feared that the Internet revolution would accelerate this decline. If developers and smartphone manufacturers aren’t willing to invest in supporting minority languages, that would cut off people who speak them from an important way to communicate and trap those languages in the past.

Higgs, 23, though, is one of a small group of educators and activists reinventing how minority languages are taught and preserved online by using cutting-edge technology.

When he was 17, Higgs had a “crazy teenage idea”. He had begun using Duolingo, a mobile language-learning app, to study French, and wondered if the creators had considered adding support for Irish.

At the time in early 2013, there were five languages on Duolingo, the smallest of which, Italian, has an estimated 67.9 million speakers worldwide. By comparison, at its height in the 18^th century, there were an estimated four million Irish speakers. Today the figure is closer to 1.2 million.

“I didn’t get a reply,” Higgs said.

But his email wasn’t ignored. Inside Duolingo’s open-plan, Silicon Valley-style headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, change was going on. Within five years, the language startup would build a library of over 30 languages, including some of the most endangered on the planet.

1. What was the public concern over the Internet revolution?

A．People’s less contact in real life.	B．The negative effect on the lessons.
C．Fewer ways of learning languages.	D．The decline of endangered languages.

2. What was Higgs’ “crazy teenage idea”?

A．Turning to Duolingo to study French.

B．Teaching minority languages on the Internet.

C．Asking Duolingo developers to support Irish.

D．Using cutting-edge technology to preserve Irish.

3. What can be learned from the last three paragraphs?

A．Higgs’ email went unnoticed.	B．Duolingo improved its service.
C．Duolingo’s headquarters changed.	D．Irish was on the point of dying out.

【推荐2】There was a time when the major concern with AI safety had been the one evil super intelligence, reflected in the movie “The Terminator”. However, the game “Tacoma” takes a different approach. It assumes that there will be numerous AGI (artificial general intelligence) in the world and that any AGI, even a safely designed one, in the wrong hands at the wrong time could cause live« to be lost. That's the future that a growing number of AI safety experts are worried about.

This is not a new idea. In the book “Engineering a Safer World,” MIT professor Nancy G. Leveson addresses common misunderstandings about safety-critical systems engineering: engineering systems whose failure could lead to human loss. Such safety-critical technologies include aviation, nuclear power, automobiles, heavy chemicals, biotechnology, and, of course, AGI.

So what can be done?

Technology isn’t always the solution. A famous example is the invention of sonic radars (声波雷达) that were supposed to help ships detect nearby obstacles, but which only increased the rate of accidents. Why? Captains sailed faster, thinking they could get away with it thanks to the new safety technology.

Instead of technologies, Leveson's book suggests, we should be making organizational changes. Additionally, Leveson suggests, among many complicated guidelines, organizations should be aware that safety guidelines will inevitably become lax over time. As a consequence, measures should be carried out to prevent potential disasters.

What lessons can we draw from concern with AI safety? The answer may lie in recent disaster narratives (叙述), which remind us that, especially in limes like this, we shouldn't forget the potential for other disasters. Public conscience really does matter. And if we're all better at thinking about safety we citizens, maybe we really can prevent disasters.

1. Why does the author mentioned “The Terminator” in the first paragraph?

A．To arouse readers' interest in The Terminator.

B．To introduce the topic of concern with AI safely.

C．To mention the similarity between “The Terminator” and “Tacoma”.

D．To make readers recall the evil super intelligence reflected in the movie.

2. Why did the rate of ship accidents still increase after the invention of sonic radars?

A．Because captains seldom used them.

B．Because the radars failed to work properly.

C．Because captains depended on them too much.

D．Because the ships couldn't detect nearby obstacles.

3. What does the underlined word “lax” in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Safe.	B．Important.
C．Unreliable.	D．Unnecessary.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Disaster prevention Lessons from AI.

B．Safety problems in modern society.

C．Engineering development in modern days.

D．Future applications of artificial intelligence.

【推荐3】Until the 1990s coffee was rarely served in China except at luxury hotels aimed at foreigners. When Starbucks opened its first outlet there in 1999, it was far from clear that the country’s avid tea-drinkers would take to such a different-and usually more costly- source of caffeine. Starbucks tried to attract customers unused to coffee’s bitter taste by promoting milk and sugar-heavy concoctions(调和) such as Frappuccinos.

But coffee has become fashionable among the middle class in China. Starbucks now has about 3, 800 outlets in China- more than in any other country outside America. Statista, a business-intelligence portal(门户网站), says the roast coffee market in China is growing by more than 10 % a year. Starbucks and its rivals see big opportunities for expanding there.

So too, however, do home-grown competitors. A major new presence is Luckin Coffee, Beijing- based chain. Since its founding less than two years ago, it has opened more than 2,300 outlets. On May 17th Luckin’s initial public offering on the Nasdaq stockmarket raised more than $570m, giving it a value of about $4bn.

Luckin’s remarkable growth is sign of change. No longer do Chinese consumers see coffee as such a luxury. Most of Luckin’s outlets are merely kiosks where busy white-collar workers pick up their drinks, having ordered them online. Super-fast delivery can also be arranged through the company’s app. Independent coffee shops are springing up. The growth is striking given the country’s reputation for its tea-drinking culture where many residents like to relax in teahouses sipping tea served gracefully.

But the two markets are different. The teahouses tend to cater to older people who like to spend long hours playing mahjong and gossiping. At the coffee shops it is rare to see anyone over 40. Young people use them for socialising, but much of their interaction is online -sharing photos of their drinks and of the coffee-making equipment. An option on the Chinese rating app Dianping allows users to search for wanghong ("internet viral") coffee houses: ones with particularly photogenic decor(照片装饰) where better to sip and We Chat?

1. How did Starbucks try to appeal to Chinese consumers?

A．By reducing the price slightly.	B．By introducing the benefits of coffee.
C．By making coffee taste not so bitter.	D．By promoting its products effectively.

2. What does Luckin Coffee’s growth suggest?

A．People tend to like coffee’s bitter taste.

B．People’s views on coffee-drinking have changed.

C．People in China can afford coffee now.

D．Tea is no longer part of Chinese culture.

3. What does the underlined word “kiosks” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Places where people can drink beer.

B．Restaurants where food can be taken away.

C．Shops aimed at people who like drinking coffee.

D．Small shops or stores where newspapers and drinks are sold.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Coffee is taking off in China.

B．Tea-drinking is not popular.

C．Coffee or tea, which do you prefer?

D．Coffee has become people’s favorite in China.

【推荐1】When Zhangzijun was a little kid. He was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything: tutors, cards, special learning….. everything they could think of. Finally they took him to a catholic（天主教的）school.

After the first day, Zhangzijun came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread out all over the room and Zhangzijun was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

Finally, Zhangzijun brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His mom looked at it and to her surprise, Zhangzijun got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity.

She went to his room and asked, ”Son, what was it? Was it the nuns (修女)?”

Zhangzijun looked at her and shook his head, “No. ”

“Well then,” she asked again. “What was it?”

Zhangzijun looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed (钉)to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t joking. ”

1. Why did Zhangzijun’s parents send him to a catholic school?

A．Because he could eat well there.

B．Because he could learn more about nuns.

C．Because his parents wanted him to do better in his math.

D．Because his parents didn’t want him to learn math any more.

2. Zhangzijun’s mother felt surprised that his son _______.

A．was still the same as usual	B．ate so much at dinner
C．didn’t kiss her hello after school	D．worked hard but said little

3. The last sentence in the passage shows that _______.

A．Zhangzijun felt sorry for the mail

B．Zhangzijun was afraid of being nailed

C．Zhangzijun didn’t like the plus sign

D．Zhangzijun liked playing jokes on others

4. From the passage, we can infer that _______.

A．mistaking might do good sometimes

B．teachers should be strict with their students

C．a catholic school is much better than other ones

D．nuns are good at helping children with their math

【推荐2】Jake Meyers, a graduate student in Northwestern University, has won the Best Sharable   Video award in Planet Forward's national Storyfest 2020 competition. The project teaches, celebrates and rewards environmental storytelling by students from across the county.

As a master’s student, Meyers works at the intersection of climate adaptation and food security. During the summer of 2019, Meyers worked with the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, to investigate climate adaptation solutions to food insecurity in the rapidly urbanizing nation.

Meyers´ video, "Can urban farming feed the future?", shares the story of Francis Wachira, a leading advocate for urban facing in Nairobi.

Millions of people are moving from rural to urban areas as large-scale farming, coupled with climate change, forces small-scale farmers to abandon their livelihoods and pursue economic opportunity in urban areas, "Meyers said.

As food security concerns grow for the people of Nairobi, farmers like Francis are transforming urban lots into highly productive green spaces to raise livestock ( 牲 畜 ), grow vegetables and fight climate change.

" Francis has an incredible urban farming system in Nairobi that features over 600 head of livestock and 150 species of plants, "Meyers said. " I wanted to highlight Francis and his innovative approach to urban farming through storytelling with the goal of inspiring change."

"I have become so inspired by many incredible people like Francis Wachira. So many around the world are re-imagining solutions to poverty and climate change, yet their stories remain untold. I hope to continue using storytelling as a means of highlighting different perspectives that can create impact and advocate for transformational change, "Meyers said.

1. Where did Meyers make his video?

A．In different countries.	B．In an urban area in Kenya.
C．In rural areas in Kenya.	D．In Northwestern University.

2. Which of the following can replace the underlined part "abandon their livelihoods"?

A．work harder	B．give up farming
C．leave their farmland	D．expand their farm

3. What can be inferred about Meyers video?

A．It introduces the benefits of rural farming.

B．It introduces the benefits of urban farming.

C．It's mainly about the difficulties with urban farming.

D．It's mainly about the potential risks in rural farming.

4. What sort of person does Meyers describe Francis as?

A．A person who introduces changes and new ideas.

B．A person who shows great interest in farming.

C．A person who is intelligent and hard-working.

D．A person who realizes the danger of climate change.

【推荐3】The BBC Documentary is divided into three categories: BBC Nature, BBC History and BBC Technology. For documentary lovers, it^’s a great pleasure in life to enjoy the BBC Documentary with a wide range of subjects and excellent productions, whose super wonderful pictures are also a masterpiece of photography.

Nile 2004

The Nile, the longest river on the earth, spreads through jungles, and finally into the desert. Ancient Egyptians believed that the river had magic power. This documentary will uncover its mystery—a magnificent territory, which is full of rare animals and extends to the most desolate corners of Africa.

Hiroshima 2005

It was an important moment in the 20th century when an atomic bomb was launched into Hiroshima, Japan and it was also a scientific, technological, military and political adventure. This documentary, where we can see the Hiroshima street at the moment of disaster, tries to show us the real history and what life is like for the Japanese people who have experienced the atomic bombing.

Time Machine 2006

Some creatures have to make long-term evolutionary plans in order to survive, but can any creatures live forever? People shorten the growth period of rice regardless of the weather condition, and the modern transportation enables us to reach further areas at a faster speed. But can humans really turn around time? The time machine will introduce scientists' current research on a bug and find out the key to long life.

Super Volcano 2005

Yellowstone National Park, in fact, where the underground magma is ready to move, is one of the largest craters in the United States. With scientific evidence, reliable prediction and solid research by top geologists, the super volcano eruption is presented to the audience in a dramatic way.

1. If you are interested in history, which documentary will suit you well?

A．Nile	B．Hiroshima
C．Time Machine	D．Super Volcano

2. What can we learn from Time Machine?

A．People can turn around time by a time machine.

B．People have found a bug which can live a long life.

C．People now can travel faster and further in the world.

D．Rice now needs less time to grow according to the climate.

3. Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Hiroshima suffered from a disaster caused by atomic bombing.

B．The Nile spreads into the desert with magic power.

C．Yellowstone National Park is about to erupt.

D．The BBC Documentary is popular only because of its wide range of subjects.