【推荐1】Some years ago a young man applied to a large United States optical (光学的) firm for a job as a lens designer. He apologized for his lack of training. However, on announcing that he owned two copies of the classic Applied Optics and Optical Design, he was hired on the spot. Perhaps the story will be repeated someday with Buchdahl’s Introduction to Hamiltonian Optics as a similar certificate of qualification.

Hamiltonian theory describes the overall properties of optical systems considered as “black boxes,” although it does not describe the detailed structure needed to construct the systems and achieve these properties. Buchdahl’s book is therefore on the subject of geometrical optics, but it is not about how to design lenses. It is, however, a comprehensive account of the fundamentals of the theory written with the lens designer’s needs very much in mind. Every lens designer worth his salt (称职的) has, at some point in his career, attempted to apply the broad concepts of Hamiltonian optics to the solutions of practical problems. Success has been rare. Therefore, the theory has made little direct contribution to techniques for optical instrument design. The failures have been frustrating because of the obvious fundamental power of the theory and because of its conceptual elegance. The indirect effects have been large, however, both in contributing to an understanding of fundamental principles that govern how optical systems work and in pointing the way to other, more practical, theoretical approaches.

Buchdahl approaches the subject not only as a capable physicist, but as one who, with a knowledge of practical optics, has made a significant contribution to geometrical optical theory. Buchdahl’s approach has, over the last decade, had a major impact on modern lens design with computers. Thus, he brings to this exposition of Hamiltonian optics a familiarity with practical optics not usually found in authors on this subject.

The author claims his book to be nonmathematical, and indeed it might be so viewed by a professional mathematician. From the point of view of many physicists and engineers, it will appear to be quite mathematical. Moreover, this is a tightly written book. The subject matter is developed with precision, and the author expects the reader, at every point, to be master of the preceding exposition.

1. Hamiltonian theory has been met with failure as a result of ______.

A．newer finding related to the wave particle nature of light

B．concepts too difficult for most lens designers to understand

C．too much mathematical detail in the theory

D．not enough practical information offered by the theory to allow for use by lens crafters

2. The author of this passage implies that Introduction to Hamiltonian Optics is ______.

A．valuable only to those beginning to study optics

B．necessary to those interested in developing new optical systems

C．useless to those interested in practical optics

D．valuable to any student of optics

3. The article points out that the great benefits of Hamiltonian optics have been found in ______.

A．indirect ways

B．a fundamental power within the theory

C．the conceptual elegance of the theory

D．the practical applications of the theory in finding new approaches to old problems

4. This passage is probably taken from ______.

A．a book review	B．a chemistry textbook
C．an optician’s journal	D．a general science text

【推荐2】Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.
Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting（收缩）and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.
Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: “Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart.”
The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, “The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don’t see and guide whether we see fear.”
To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner（扫描仪）to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person’s feeling of fear.
“We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear,” Dr Garfinkel said.
“We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder.”
1. What is the finding of the study?

A．Fear is a result of one’s relaxed heartbeat.

B．One’s heart affects how he feels fear.

C．Fear has something to do with one’s heart health.

D．One’s fast heartbeats are likely to cause fear.

2. The conclusion was drawn by analyzing           .

A．volunteers’ heartbeats when they saw terrible pictures

B．the time volunteers saw fearful pictures and their health conditions

C．volunteers’ reactions to horrible pictures and data from their brain scans

D．different pictures shown to volunteers and their heart-brain communication

3. Which of the following is closest in meaning to “mechanism” in Paragraph 6?

A．Order	B．Treatment
C．Machine	D．System

【推荐3】It's common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting seems to look back at observers, following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.

A new study finds that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle that’s 15. 4 degrees off to the observer's right-well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. In other words, said the study author, Horstmann, "She’s not looking at you. " This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person's gaze( 凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the "Mona Lisa effect". That effect is absolutely real, Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person's gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.

Horstmann and his co-author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial-intelligence avatars (虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long look at the ”Mona Lisa" and realized she wasn't looking at him. To make sure it wasn't just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the “ Mona Lisa" on a computer screen They set a ruler between the viewer and the screen and asked the participants to note which number on the ruler intersected Mona Lisa’s gaze. To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze as she looked at the viewer, they moved the ruler farther from or closer to the screen during the study. Consistently, the researchers found, participants judged that?the woman in the “Mona Lisa” portrait was not looking straight at them, but slightly off to their right.

So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn’t sure. It’s possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first coined the term “Mona Lisa effect” just thought it was a cool name..

1. What is generally believed about the woman in the painting “Mona Lisa”?

A．She attracts the viewers to look back.

B．She seems mysterious because of her eyes.

C．She fixes her eyes on the back of the viewers.

D．She looks at the viewers wherever they stand.

2. What gaze range in a painting will cause the Mona Lisa effect?

A．	B．
C．	D．

3. Why was the experiment involving 24 people conducted?

A．To confirm Horstmann's belief

B．To create artificial-intelligence avatars

C．To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze

D．To explain how the Mona Lisa effect can be applied

4. What can we learn from the text?

A．Horstmann thinks it’s cool to coin the term "Mona Lisa effect”

B．The Mona Lisa effect contributes to the creation of artificial intelligence.

C．Feeling being gazed at by Mona Lisa may be caused by the desire for attention

D．The position of the ruler in the experiment will influence the viewers' judgment

【推荐1】Johannes Gutenberg-The pioneer of the printing press

Johannes Gutenberg was chosen to be the most important figure of the past millennium by the media. You may not be familiar with him.       1     Gutenberg is praised for having invented the printing press and therefore preparing the way for printing books.

He was born into a wealthy family in the city of Mainz, Germany. His early training was in goldsmithing. In 1428， he moved to Strasbourg and lived there for almost 20 years.    2    

Gutenberg used his skills in metalwork for the mass production of books.    3     That means that each copy of the Catholic bible and all of its 73 books were painstakingly handwritten by 10 penmen. Gutenberg fashioned a font（ K）of over 300 characters, far larger than the fonts of today. To make this possible, He invented the variable-width mode and perfected the mixture of materials used by type factories up to the present century.

    4     Between 1450 and 1455， while preparing to produce a large Latin bible, Gutenberg thought to have printed a number of smaller books, a Calendar and a paper Letter of Indulgence The Bible or 42 lines, the oldest surviving printed book in the Western world, was completed by August 15， 1456.

The discovery of the modern printing press changed the way information was delivered     5     Even today in the computer age, we rely heavily on the printed word or text for instruction, information and for the pleasure of reading literature.

A．In fact, this invention was responsible for educating the masses worldwide

B．Before the spread of his idea, literature was primarily handwritten

C．Gutenberg made the world a much richer place

D．It was in Strasburg that he probably met his first experiments with moveable type

E．Gutenberg s idea was one of the greatest of all human being

F．But he has certainly influenced your life in some ways

G．By 1450. Gutenberg was back in Mainz at work on printing press.

【推荐1】Filmmaker Jennifer Nelson had to pay $1,500 to have “Happy Birthday to You” sung in the movie she’s making. The money went to Warner Music Group, a company that claims to own the copyright on the song. A copyright is the legal right to use or sell a creative product such as a song, a TV show, a book, or a work of art. Warner has claimed the copyright for “Happy Birthday to You” since 1988.

“I never thought the song was owned by anyone,” Nelson said in an e-mail to The New York Times. “I thought it belonged to everyone.”

Nelson’s movie is a documentary — a film that uses pictures and/or interviews with people to create a factual report of real-life events — and is actually about the history of the “Happy Birthday” song itself.

Two sisters named Mildred and Patty Hill wrote a song called “Good Morning to All” in 1893. Over a short period of time, people began to sing the words “happy birthday to you” in place of the original lyrics to the tune of the Hill sisters’ song.

A number of history experts say that there is no record of who actually wrote the “Happy Birthday to You” lyrics. Historians also say there is no way to know when the general public began singing the “Happy Birthday” song, but they believe it was being sung by the public long before it was printed and owned by a company.

Nelson’s lawyers say this piece of music’s history proves that “Happy Birthday to You” belongs to everyone in the general public. That would mean Warner Music Group has no right to charge anyone a fee to sing the song in any setting.

Experts estimate that Warner/ Chappell, the publishing division of the Warner Music Group, has made about $2 million a year from licensing fees for “Happy Birthday to You.”

Nelson’s lawyers are asking a court in New York City to order Warner/Chappell to return fees they have collected over the past four years for use of the “Happy Birthday” song.

1. Jennifer Nelson had to pay Warner Music Group to ____________.

A．own the copyright on a song	B．have a song sung in her movie
C．have it play a song in her movie	D．have it write a song for her movie

2. The history experts’ statement can prove that the “Happy Birthday” song ____________.

A．has always been very popular

B．has more than 200 years’ history

C．does not belong to Warner Music Group

D．was initially owned by another company

3. According to Nelson’s lawyers, to sing the “Happy Birthday” song, people ____________.

A．should pay the Hill sisters

B．need not pay for any purpose

C．should pay Warner Music Group

D．need not pay except for commercial use

4. If the court supports Nelson’s lawyers’ claim, ____________.

A．Warner will return about $8 million

B．she can obtain the copyright on the song

C．Warner will have to pay her for her damages

D．she only needs to pay a little money to use the song

【推荐2】Building on the success of the digital series of One World: Together at Home, Global Citizen and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are partnering for a special one-night event of the same name, which will screen across BET/Comedy Central/MTV/MTV base on Sunday, April 19. On MTV Base, DStv channel 322 and GOtv channel 72, it would air by 1am. (WAT), with a repeat broadcast same day by 8pm. (WAT).

Launched with Chris Martin of Coldplay on March 16, 2020, Together at Home has become an outlet for artistes to share music with their fans for a purpose to educate and inform millions around WHO’s critical effort to prevent, detect and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, One World: Together at Home is not a charity event, but a broad global entertainment special to support the World Health Organisation and the global fight to end COVID-19. The show will feature A-list superstars such as Lady Gaga, John Legend, Billie Eilish, and more.

The two-hour program will be hosted by marquee personalities from each of the major networks. It will include both live and pre-taped performances from the world’s most prominent artists with multimillion-naira pledges to the WHO’s Solidarity Response Fund.

The show will lift viewer’s spirits in these trying times with exclusive and unique cameos from the worlds of music and arts, sports superstars, and comedic sketches, while always drawing back to its core purpose to educate and inform on COVID-19 risks, prevention and response. The broadcast will also feature interviews with experts from WHO as well as stories of frontline healthcare workers from around the world.

With the confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States rising each day, the rich and famous aren’t staying quiet about their diagnoses. Instead, celebrities are speaking out on social media not only to keep fans informed but in some cases, to urge followers to stay home in order to help reduce the risk of transmission.

1. What will you see at this concert?

A．Covid-19 treatment method	B．Marquee production method
C．Anti-epidemic stories of medical staff	D．Music interview

2. What is the purpose of this event?

A．Let the audience understand the music

B．Show the charm of superstars

C．Call on the public to raise awareness of health protection

D．Introducing Covid-19

3. What can we infer from the text?

A．The stars participating in this activity have a sense of social responsibility

B．The performances are all live

C．World Health Organization donates to this event

D．American people are unaware of Covid-19

4. Where is the text most likely from?

A．The Medical Magazine	B．The Music Magazine
C．The Adevertisment	D．The Newspaper

【推荐1】At the 4th Street Photo Gallery on the comer of the Bowery, many photos are strung together like clothes on a laundry line. There are portraits of Muhammad Ali and Jean-Michel Basquiat, plus a series of cityscapes detailedly captured over 60 years by Alex Harsley, a neglected but talented New York photographer.

The city has been Mr Harsley’s home since 1948, when, aged ten, he moved there from South Carolina. He took his first photograph ten years later, and became the first black photographer to work for the city’s district attorney’s office. His vivid pictures freeze moments in New York’s evolution from the 1950s to the present. “It could start with the smell of something burning.” he says of his method. “And then you see a family sitting on the steps of a funeral home sadly looking at the firemen going through their routine.”

Some of the scenes in the collection were captured from the window of his old apartment in Harlem; they include images of black activists, streets submerged in snow and shots of the Crown Heights riots of 1991. A.D. Coleman, a photography critic, says Mr. Harsley has been able to capture the lives of minority groups by making himself “invisible”. His aim has been to assemble these fragments (片段) into an extended history of the city.

Mr. Harsley’s gallery is a time capsule. For decades, it is also a hub for the city’s artistic underworld. In the 1970s New York’s photography scene was flourishing, but exclusive. As Mr. Harsley puts it, “a number of great artists were swept aside” because they lacked connections. Helping talent became part of his mission. In 1971 he established The Minority Photographers, an organization that helps up-and-coming artists exhibit their work. He opened his gallery two years later; many photographers have had their first shows there.

1. How does the author describe Alex Harsley in the first paragraph?

A．Undervalued but expert.	B．Gifted but exclusive.
C．Unknown but devoted.	D．Gifted but awkward.

2. What does the underlined sentence mean?

A．His pictures show freezing weather in New York from the 1950s to the present.

B．His pictures capture the cheerful moments in New York since the 1950s.

C．His pictures record some historic occasions of New York over the past decades.

D．His pictures illustrate the vivid lives of minority groups in New York over the past decades.

3. Why does Mr. Harsley make himself “invisible”?

A．To assemble the minority groups of the city.

B．To highlight the lives of minority groups.

C．To help promising artists attract more public attention.

D．To build connections between the minority groups and himself.

4. How did Mr. Harsley help the other artists?

A．He excluded those who looked down upon the unknown artists.

B．He set an organization displaying their works.

C．He established the connections between up-and-coming artists and famous ones.

D．He reduced the rents of the gallery where their photography works were shown.

【推荐2】The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Later the Ancient Romans and Greeks wrote their names and protest poems on buildings. Modern graffiti seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties it had reached New York. The new art form really took off in the 1970s, when people began writing their names, or “tags”, on buildings all over the city. In the mid-seventies it was sometimes hard to see out of a subway car window, because the trains were completely covered in spray paintings known as masterpieces.

In the early days, the “taggers” were part of street crowds who were concerned with marking their territory(领地). They worked in groups called “crews” and called what they did “writing” — the term “graffiti” was first used by The New York Times and the novelist Norman Mailer. Art galleries in New York began buying graffiti in the early seventies. But at the same time that it began to be regarded as an art form, John Lindsay, the then mayor of New York, declared the first war on graffiti. By the 1980s it became much harder to write on subway trains without being caught, and instead many of the more established graffiti artists began using roofs of buildings.

The debate over whether graffiti is art or deliberate damage is still going on. Peter Vallone, a New York city councilor, thinks that graffiti done with permission can be art, but if it is on someone else’s property it becomes a crime. “I have a message for the graffiti destroyers out there,” he said recently, “and your freedom of expression ends where my property begins.” On the other hand, Felix, a member of the Berlin-based group Reclaim Your City, says that artists are reclaiming cities for the public from advertisers, and that graffiti represents freedom and makes cities livelier.

For decades graffiti has been a springboard to international fame for a few. Jean-Michel Basquiat began spraying on the street in the 1970s before becoming a respected artist in the 80s. The Frenchman Blek le Rat and the British artist Banksy have achieved international fame by producing complex works with stencils(模板), often making political or humorous points. Works by Banksy have been sold for over £ 100,000. Graffiti is now sometimes big business.

1. Why was the seventies an important decade in the history of graffiti?

A．That was when modern graffiti first became really popular.

B．That was when modern graffiti first appeared.

C．That was when graffiti first reached New York.

D．That was when graffiti first appeared on subway car windows

2. What does the underlined word “taggers” in the second paragraph mean?

A．Names of people who graffitied.

B．Building where paints were sprayed.

C．People who marked surface with graffiti.

D．People who were interested in graffiti.

3. What can we know from the third paragraph?

A．New Yorkers think graffiti is art.

B．Graffiti was accepted by officials completely.

C．Buildings can be covered with graffiti freely.

D．There were once advertisements on city surface.

4. What is the author’s final opinion about graffiti?

A．Graffiti has now become mainstream and can benefit artists.

B．Graffiti is not a good way to become a respected artist.

C．Some popular graffiti artists end up being ignored by the art world.

D．Some graffiti caused inconvenience to the local environment.

【推荐3】Recently, as the British doctor Robert Winston took a train from London to Manchester, he found himself becoming steadily angry. A woman had picked up her phone and begun a loud conversation, which would last an unbelievable hour. Furious, Winston began to tweet about the woman. He took her picture and sent it to his more than 40,000 followers.

When the train arrived at its destination, Winston rushed out. He’d had enough of the woman’s rudeness. But the press were now waiting for her on the platform. And when they showed her Winston’s messages, she used just one word to describe Winston’s actions: rude.

Winston’s tale is something of a microcosm(缩影) of our age of increasing rudeness, fueled by social media. What can we do to fix this?

Studies have shown that rudeness spreads quickly, almost like the common cold. Just witnessing rudeness makes it far more likely that we, in turn, will be rude later on. The only way to avoid it is to deal with it face to face. We must say, “Just stop.” For Winston, that would have meant approaching the woman, telling her that her conversation was frustrating other passengers and politely asking her to speak more quietly or make the call at another time.

The rage and injustice we feel at the rude behavior of a stranger can drive us to do odd things. In my own research, surveying 2,000 adults, I discovered that the acts of revenge people had taken ranged from the ridiculous to the disturbing. Winston did shine a spotlight on the woman’s behavior — but from afar, in a way that shamed her.

We must instead combat rudeness head on. When we see it occur in a store, we must step up and say something. If it happens to a colleague, we must point it out. We must defend strangers in the same way we’d defend our best friends. But we can do it with grace, by handling it without a trace of aggression and without being rude ourselves. Because once rude people can see their actions through the eyes of others, they are far more likely to end that strain themselves. As this tide of rudeness rises, civilization needs civility.

1. What can you learn about Robert Winston from the passage?

A．He knows how to speak to rude people.

B．He behaved improperly and spoke loudly on the train.

C．He lost his temper due to other people’s rudeness.

D．He reacted to a woman’s rude behavior wrongly.

2. What does “fueled by social media” mean in Paragraph 3?

A．Rude behavior is common on social media.

B．Rudeness can be avoided through social media.

C．People can easily get away through social media.

D．Social media may spread and cause rudeness.

3. According to the writer, how should you respond when you meet rude people?

A．Record them and post it on the Internet.

B．Point it out in a polite and skillful way.

C．Do nothing but wait for other people to fix it.

D．Pay them back by doing equally disturbing things.

4. Which of the following statement is true about the last paragraph?

A．We can only point out rudeness from familiar people.

B．Rudeness and manners can hardly coexist in civilized society.

C．Both strangers and acquaintances deserve our friendly warning.

D．Rude people can’t see their rudeness through others’ eyes.