Can animals be artistic? Some experts think so. Painting and music are part of efforts to keep animals happy at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Zookeepers there believe that animals need enrichment just like people do.
A sloth bear (长毛熊) called Francois is one of the National Zoo’s artists. He began his artistic career two years ago. Francois has a very unusual way to paint. He uses his breath to paint. His zookeeper, Stacey Tabellario, says that although the technique may look strange, it is actually a very natural behavior for sloth bears. They have got big lungs and they can breathe out a huge amount of air. The zookeepers fill one of those tubes fill of paint and ask them to breathe through it And they blow all of the paint onto the canvas (画布), making the really cool paintings.
Animal artists come in all shapes and sizes at the Zoo. They use many kinds of techniques to create their works of art. Apes use paintbrushes. Many use their paws or claws — much like a human painter would use his or her hands.
Stacey Tabellario says Francois seems to enjoy expressing himself through his art. “When I set up the materials for painting activity, he comes and sits next to them and waits until we are ready to start painting. He does that every time. I also see where his eyes go. He dose see the paints come out of the tube and land on the canvas.” But not every animal wants to paint.
Music is another part of the arts enrichment program. Physically and mentally interesting (有趣味的) activities are an important part of the daily care of the animals. Trainers have a set of tools, from tablet computers to small toys.
Kenton Kerns says the program helps the animals and the zookeepers in many ways. Every interaction between keepers and their animals creates some sort of connections. The one-of-a-kind works of art created by the animals are popular with zoo visitors. Many are sold at the zoo’s fundraising events.
1. What is the best title for the text?| A．Art Works in the Zoo |
| B．Zoo Animals Show Artistic Side |
| C．Animals can Earn Money |
| D．Animals Enjoy Painting |
| A．Francois is a two-year-old artist at the National Zoo. |
| B．Francois’ way to paint is unusual for sloth bears. |
| C．Francois’ big lungs determine the way it paints. |
| D．Francois paints with the help of his feet. |
| A．is fond of painting |
| B．likes to stay with other animals |
| C．often shows the painting to the audience |
| D．wants to get attention from the zookeepers by painting |
| A．It enriches the keepers’ life. |
| B．It makes the animals clever. |
| C．It intends to collect money for the zoo. |
| D．It deepens the relationship between animals and keepers. |
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【推荐1】The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins of Shark Bay in Western Australia have an unusual way of obtaining food.
They drive fish into a large, empty marine gastropod shell. Then they carry the shell and captured(捕捉)fish up to the surface, and shake it upside down. Then, the fish go straight down into the dolphins' stomachs. It's called shelling, only the second tool use recorded among dolphins, and the first that dolphins have been seen learning from their friends, just like great apes.
The dolphins were first observed using tools over 20 years ago, slipping sea sponges over their beaks(喙)to protect them as they searched for food. This behaviour is called sponging, and it allows the dolphins to access food in deeper water channels than non-sponging dolphins.
Sponging is a skill passed down from mothers to daughters-a type of learning called vertical transmission. But there is another kind of learning, horizontal social transition, in which individuals pick up skills from their social peers-their friends.
There are similarities between dolphin and great ape societies that have led scientists to believe that dolphins should be capable of horizontal leaning.
Now a team of researchers led by behavioural ecologist Sonja Wild of the University of Konstanz in Germany has finally identified it.
Their data comes from over a decade's worth of observations. Between 2007 and 2018, the researchers documented over 1.000 individual dolphins across nearly 5,300 encounters with the animals.
They used genetic, behavioural and environment data to model the likely transmission pathways, and found that shelling was likely spread among friends, rather than passed down from parents.
This opens the door to a new understanding of how dolphins may be able to behaviourally adapt to changing environments.
In 2011, a large marine heatwave destroyed the seagrass habitat of Shark Bay, in which the dolphins search for food. This resulted in a die-off of both fish and the invertebrates that live in the giant shells that the dolphins use for their fishing, and, afterwards there was an immediate increase in the dolphin's shelling behaviour. It's possible that both the decrease in fish and the increase in shells could have played a role in this uptick.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The process of shelling. | B．The importance of tool use. |
| C．The eating habits of dolphins. | D．The similarity between dolphins and apes. |
| A．It is used by most dolphins. | B．It is a skill newer than shelling. |
| C．It is passed down from mothers. | D．It is helpful in searching for food. |
| A．It is easier than sponging. | B．It is a tradition among them. |
| C．Their food has become less. | D．Their fishing tools are fewer. |
| A．Shelling or Sponging, Dolphins Have the Final Say |
| B．Dolphins Are Learning Tool Use from Their Friends |
| C．Changing Environments Are Affecting Dolphins' Life |
| D．The Second Tool Use Among Sea Animals Was Recorded |
【推荐2】I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, a rescue and education organization at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley. Trying to help injured, displaced or sick creatures can be heartbreaking; survival is never certain. However, when it works, it is simply beautiful.
I got a rescue call from a woman in Muttontown. She had found a young owl(猫头鹰) on the ground. When I arrived, I saw a 2-to 3-week-old owl. It had already been placed in a carrier for safety.
I examined the chick(雏鸟) and it seemed fine. If I could locate the nest, I might have been able to put it back, but no luck. My next work was to construct a nest and anchor it in a tree.
The homeowner was very helpful. A wire basket was found. I put some pine branches into the basket to make this nest safe and comfortable. I placed the chick in the nest, and it quickly calmed down.
Now all that was needed were the parents, but they were absent. I gave the homeowner a recording of the hunger screams of owl chicks. These advertise the presence of chicks to adults; they might also encourage our chick to start calling as well. I gave the owner as much information as possible and headed home to see what news the night might bring.
A nervous night to be sure, but sometimes the spirits of nature smile on us all! The homeowner called to say that the parents had responded to the recordings. I drove over and saw the chick in the nest looking healthy and active. And it was accompanied in the nest by the greatest sight of all-LUNCH! The parents had done their duty and would probably continue to do so.
1. What is unavoidable in the author's rescue work according to paragraph 1?| A．Efforts made in vain. |
| B．Getting injured in his work. |
| C．Feeling uncertain about his future. |
| D．Creatures forced out of their homes. |
| A．To rescue a woman. |
| B．To take care of a woman. |
| C．To look at a baby owl. |
| D．To cure a young owl. |
| A．A new nest. | B．Some food. |
| C．A recording. | D．Its parents. |
【推荐3】Box jellyfish (箱型水母) are the most poisonous marine animals known to man. They measure 3 meters long and weigh up to 2 kilograms. They are pale blue and transparent in color, and get their name from the cube-like shape of their body. Box jellyfish have 6 eyes on all 4 sides of their body, although it is uncertain how they process what they see as they do not have a central nervous system. They also have up to 15 tentacles (触须) growing from each corner of their body that have about 5,000 stinging (带刺的) cells each.
Box jellyfish can be found primarily in the coastal waters off Northern Australia as well as throughout the Indo-Pacific. They prefer to live at river mouths. They do not have any organs to breathe, and will sleep on the ocean floor from 3 p.m. to dawn. Unlike other jellyfish that merely move along with the current, box jellyfish have developed a way to travel wherever they want to go. They will shoot themselves in a jet-like fashion, reaching speeds of up to 7.4 kilometers per hour.
The diet of box jellyfish consists of thing like fish, small animals, and even other jellyfish. They use their venom, a chemical which causes heart, skin, and breath failure, to kill their prey. Since box jellyfish have eyes, some scientists believe that they actively hunt their prey, holding the belief that box jellyfish have developed a special set of eyes similar to humans that help them skillfully avoid obstacles in the ocean, while others insist that they are just passive opportunists that will wait and catch anything that wanders into their tentacles.
Box jellyfish are responsible for more human deaths in Australia than snakes, sharks, and salt-water crocodiles combined. It is best to avoid them as most stings will result in death. Hopefully, humans and box jellyfish can find a way to live with one another while keeping conflicts to a bare minimum. After all, such a unique species of jellyfish deserves to live and grow just as humans do.
1. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about box jellyfish from the first paragraph?| A．Its size. | B．Its poisonousness. | C．Its color. | D．Its hardness. |
| A．They live in the deep sea in groups. |
| B．They can breathe on the ocean floor. |
| C．They can decide the direction in which they move. |
| D．They usually move along with the current. |
| A．box jellyfish | B．scientists |
| C．box jellyfish’s prey | D．box jellyfish’s tentacles |
| A．To introduce some poisonous animals. |
| B．To describe a kind of animal under the sea. |
| C．To illustrate scientists’ research into box jellyfish. |
| D．To show the relationship between humans and jellyfish. |
【推荐1】Do astronauts get space sick when they travel from Earth to the International Space Station (ISS)? Yes, astronauts can get space sick travelling to the ISS. It is less likely travelling in the cramped (拥挤的) Russian Soyuz spacecraft used to transport astronauts there now, than the old Space Shuttle that was used until 2011. The ability to move around in the Space Shuttle increased the chance of space sickness happening.
As you probably know, gravity is lower inside the ISS. The low gravity in space allows astronauts to float around, which looks like fun, but it can help cause space sickness.
Recent experiments show that space sickness is related to our inner ear. Two separate parts of the inner ear respond to sudden changes in direction. If you shake or move your head very quickly, you can get dizzy. However, this normally passes very quickly. This normal response is upset under low gravity: your inner ear thinks you are constantly moving. It takes some time to adapt to the new condition of weightlessness. It is made worse if you move your head while your body is still adapting. This is why previous astronauts travelling in the larger Space Shuttle were likely to suffer from space sickness more than the current astronauts travelling in the cramped Soyuz spacecraft. The astronauts were less likely to move their heads around very much in a narrow space.
Space sickness was not talked about in the early space missions (任务).The original Mercury and Gemini spacecraft were, like the current Soyuz, cramped. The astronauts were less likely to get sick, so space sickness no longer became a concern of NASA.
In 1983 the first detailed study was carried out aboard a Space Shuttle flight (STS-7) by astronaut-doctor Norm Thagard. His and all later studies were hampered by the astronauts themselves. None of them wanted admit to being space sick. They were worried that mission control might remove them from space walking opportunities, or even worse, that they might not get included on later space missions.
1. What was the problem with the Space Shuttle?| A．It was too slow. |
| B．It was too small. |
| C．It broke down often. |
| D．It had too much space. |
| A．It fools their inner ear. |
| B．It causes pain in their head. |
| C．It stops them shaking their head. |
| D．It prevents them measuring their weight. |
| A．The condition had been kept secret to the public. |
| B．There were few detailed studies on it. |
| C．The old spacecraft were better equipped. |
| D．The astronauts were less likely to get sick. |
| A．Changed. | B．Improved. |
| C．Blocked. | D．Compared. |
【推荐2】All day, every day, we are hit by images promoting food of every type: television commercials for pizza, online ads for cheeseburgers, billboards for fried chicken, ad nauseam. This might evoke our potential appetite to eat, but a new research shows these images, if viewed often enough, actually satisfy our cravings and diminish (降低) our desire to eat. This discovery may come as a shock to snack-makers and food manufacturers, who invest heavily in ads that are supposed to stimulate our hunger.
The research, conducted at Aarhus University in Denmark, examined the different ways our perceptions of food affect our cravings. More than 1,100 people participated in a series of online studies led by Tjark Andersen, a Ph.D. candidate at Aarhus’ Department of Food Science. In one experiment, people were exposed to an online photo of orange M&M candies either three times or 30 times. Participants who saw the image 30 times had less desire to eat M&Ms than those who saw only three images of the candies. Additionally, people who saw 30 images stated they would choose a smaller portion of M&Ms than the group that saw just three images.
“Your appetite is more closely linked with your cognitive perception than most of us think,” Andersen said in a statement. “How we think about our food is very important. You will receive a physiological response to something you have only thought about. That’s why we can feel fully satisfied without eating anything,” he added.
The researchers, who published their results in the Journal Appetite, also looked at how the food’s color affected desire for it, by providing M&Ms in a variety of hues. The results didn’t change — people still wanted less of the food after viewing images of it 30 times. Even when colorful Skittles — candies that have a different flavor for each color — were introduced, the results of the experiment were largely the same. “If color did not have a significant impact, it implies that the perceived taste must be a contributing factor. However, our findings indicated that even the imagined taste did not have a major effect on satiety,” Andersen said.
The study may be of particular interest to advertisers, who have repeatedly come under fire for promoting foods that contribute to the obesity epidemic. “There are plenty of experimental studies showing these ads are affecting people and actually causing people to consume more unhealthy food,” Brennan Davis, a marketing professor at California Polytechnic State University’s Orfalea College of Business, said in a statement. “And we know that eating unhealthy food leads to higher rates of overweight and obesity,” Davis added.
1. What is the purpose of the research introduced by the author in the first paragraph?| A．To attract reader’s interest. | B．To illustrate a new concept. |
| C．To lead to the topic. | D．To deny a conventional opinion. |
| A．By drawing a parallel. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By studying statistics. | D．By doing different experiments. |
| A．It is an insignificant factor in influencing appetite. |
| B．It determines the physiological response to food. |
| C．It triggers overeating when viewing images of unhealthy foods. |
| D．It is more closely associated with appetite than previously thought. |
| A．Frequent exposure to food images does not affect our desire to eat. |
| B．Food manufacturers unintentionally suppress our appetite with their ads. |
| C．Our cognitive perception plays a significant role in controlling our appetite. |
| D．Colorful food images stimulate our appetite more than monochrome ones. |
【推荐3】Amazon wants to be able to answer the troublesome question: Did I leave the stove on? The latest home security tool by Ring,a home security company owned by Amazon, is the Always Home Cam, a flying drone that can help homeowners check their apartments whenever they’re not in.
The Always Home Cam is a lightweight, self-docking, flying indoor camera that can take a predetermined path set by its user.When used with Ring’s proprietary home alarms systems like the Ring Alarm, the Always Home Cam will take flight and check the house for any potential disturbances. The drone unit can also be controlled remotely and manually. After a flight, the Always Home Cam automatically returns to its station itself for charging. It only records while in flight, too.
You can ask it to fly to check the stove while you’re out, or to see if you left the windows open. It’s also great for checking on naughty pets. The drone has obstacle avoidance technology built-in, and hidden propellers(螺旋桨) to mitigate any damage to household furnishing in the event of a collision. Amazon says the drone will automatically take flight if there’s movement in the house to show you what’s going on.
The device was one of several that Amazon unveiled Thursday as part of its annual appliance event. Due to the pandemic, this year’s version was held online instead of at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters.
The indoor flying camera, called the Ring Always Home Cam, still needs approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, but Amazon said it expects to sell it next year at $250. It will also launch a camera and alarm system for cars next year under its Ring brand.
Critics have raised privacy concerns about Ring, which is best known for its doorbell cameras, citing the company’s close relationship with police departments. Amazon said the drone only records when it is in the air, and that it makes a sound when it flies so any people in the house knows its recording.
1. What’s the main idea of the text?| A．Amazon’s camera can check whether your stove is on. |
| B．New devices were unveiled on Amazon’ annual appliance event. |
| C．Critics raised privacy concerns about the Always Home Cam. |
| D．The Always Home Cam can ensure your safety. |
| A．It can take a path set by computer. |
| B．It can record when you are out. |
| C．It can get charged by itself. |
| D．It can take flight at any time. |
| A．It was unveiled at Amazon's Seattle headquarters. |
| B．It will be sold at $250 next year. |
| C．It can lessen damage to furniture for its obstacle avoidance technology. |
| D．It records in the air,not found by anyone. |
| A．favorable | B．critical | C．doubtful | D．objective |
【推荐1】National Treasure has Chinese audiences fired up. But don't confuse it with the Hollywood action film of the same name, in which the hidden history of the United States going back around 250 years is discovered. In the Chinese show producers are lucky –China has a much longer history, and their plan to introduce relics is welcomed by the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City, and eight key province-level museums.
Yu Lei, director of the show, explained how items are chosen, "Our standard is not to choose the most precious items. We want the ones with most attractive stories. These cultural relics are like aged people. They have so much to tell us. If people are bored, there is something wrong with our methods," she said.
In each 100-minute period, three key exhibits from a museum are introduced by entertainment stars, called the "guardians of the national treasure", through short stage dramas, telling the history of the legends behind the items. Some lesser-known stories on how the items were unearthed are featured in the show. In the periods, people are also invited on stage to share their stories linked to such relics. Knowledge, entertainment, taste and an accessible approach have been put together in one show. When people see cultural relics in this lively way, they feel history.
The aim of the show is not to create a hit program but to attract more people to museums. More seasons of National Treasure are planned, and some treasures from the show are to be featured in a touring exhibition soon after the first season ends. A show like this fuels people's pride in their country.
1. We can learn that National Treasure is a(n) _______.| A．historical program aimed at creating a hot topic |
| B．Hollywood action film telling the whole American history |
| C．Chinese show introducing relics through short dramas |
| D．exhibition welcomed by nine province-level museums |
| A．like cultural relics whose stories can be told by aged people |
| B．choose some valuable items with most attractive stories behind |
| C．think something is wrong with their methods of choosing relics |
| D．don’t like the most precious items because they’re not attractive |
| A．Film experts. | B．Ordinary people. | C．Museum guides. | D．Entertainment stars. |
| A．Science | B．Health | C．Economy | D．Culture |
【推荐2】Ray Tokuda, a 54-year-old Japanese American, is proud of the title his school has given him. He is a shifu, a Chinese word meaning a master of martial arts.
He has been involved with Chinese martial arts for over four decades. After leaning them at the martial arts school in US New Mexico State, today he is among the most experienced kung fu teachers of the school.
Founded by a Chinese American in 1974, the training center accepts only those with stunning kung fu skills and a profound understanding of martial arts as its masters according to Shanti Thomas, general manager of the school.
Practicing martial arts two to three hours and helping students improve their skills have become Tokuda’s daily routine. Tokuda is teaching and learning at the same time now. He spends around 15 to 20 hours a week honing his skills and is also working on standardizing the Tai Chi curriculum for the training center.
He was sent to the martial arts school at 10, but he was unwilling in the beginning. His father had always wanted to learn Chinese martial arts but never got the chance, so he put him in.
He was afraid at that time because he thought kung fu was all about punching and kicking. But things changed after he learned that martial arts were more than that. “One of the things martial arts teach you is overcoming adversity (逆境),” Tokuda said. “As a little kid, my first lesson was that I could overcome it by diligence, perseverance and dedication.”
Learning Chinese martial arts was also an eye-opening experience because he could hear many ancient Chinese kung fu-related stories to better understand the essence of martial arts, Tokuda joined a China tour organized by his school in 2002. He described it as a martial arts pilgrimage (朝圣). “We went to Shaolin and Wudang and exchanged views and skills with kung fu masters there,” he said, fired by excitement while talking about the experience.
1. According to Shanti Thomas, who can be a master of the martial arts school?| A．One experienced in wushu and understanding its essence. |
| B．Those gifted and interested in martial arts. |
| C．Those having a good knowledge of martial arts. |
| D．One who knows many ancient martial arts stories. |
| A．Introducing. | B．Improving. |
| C．Advertising. | D．Displaying |
| A．The martial arts school was founded by Shanti Thomas in 1974. |
| B．Tokuda paid a visit to Shaolin and Wudang by himself in 2002. |
| C．Tokuda spends about 15 to 20 hours a week training students. |
| D．Martial arts can teach one to overcome challenges. |
| A．Because he was crazy about Chinese culture. |
| B．Because he wanted to be a martial arts master. |
| C．Because his father had wanted to learn but could not. |
| D．Because his parents wanted to better understand Chinese culture. |
【推荐3】In 2019, more than 125,000 organs, mostly kidneys, were transplanted (移植) from one human being to another in the United States. But a lack of suitable donors means the supply of organs is limited. That has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from the very beginning.
One promising approach is to print them. Bio-printing originated in the early 2000s, when it was discovered that living cells could be sprayed through the nozzles (喷嘴) of printers without being damaged.
Sichuan Revotek, a biotechnology company based in Chengdu, China, has successfully transplanted a printed section of artery (动脉) into a monkey. This is the first step in trials of a technique intended for use in humans. Similarly, Organovo, a firm in San Diego, California, announced that it had transplanted printed human-liver tissue into mice and that this tissue had survived and worked.
Bio-printing can help with the development of other treatments. Organovo already offers its printed kidney and liver tissue for use in testing new drugs for effectiveness and safety. That should please animal rights activists, as such tests cut down on the number of animal trials. It should please drug companies, too——because the tissue being tested is human, the results obtained should be more reliable than those from tests on other species. With similar purpose in mind, L’Oreal, a French cosmetics firm, together with its team, is working on printing human skin. They intend to use it to test their products for side effects. Compared with older and slower technology, bio-printing will permit L’Oreal to grow much more, and also allow different skin types to be printed.
The real prize of all this effort would be to print entire organs. For kidneys, Roots Analysis, a medical-technology consulting company, thinks that should be possible in about six years. Livers, which have a natural tendency to grow again, should also arrive a little bit soon. Hearts, with their complex inner shape, will take longer.
1. Why do people start to consider printing organs?| A．Because of poor quality of the organs. | B．Because of shortage of donors. |
| C．Because of lack of research. | D．Because of limited technology. |
| A．By testing bio-printed organs on patients. |
| B．By developing liver tissue into a monkey. |
| C．By transplanting a section of artery into mice. |
| D．By transplanting a bio-printed organ into an animal. |
| A．Animal rights activists hate bio-printing. |
| B．Entire printed organs will be available soon. |
| C．Bio-printing could be well received in society. |
| D．L’Oreal prints human skin to improve the bio-technology. |
| A．Organ transplantation is difficult to achieve. |
| B．Medical progress improves people’s life quality. |
| C．Bio-printing tech contributes to building organs. |
| D．Many countries are cooperating to develop bio-printing. |
【推荐1】It's easy to understand why early humans domesticated dogs as their new best friends. Domesticated dogs can guard against fierce animals and provide warmth during cold nights. But those benefits only come following domestication. Despite more than a century of study, scientists have struggled to understand what it was that caused the domestication process in the first place.
A new theory given by Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher, might be able to explain this puzzle. She made this theory when studying the diet of late Pleistocene hunter gatherers in Arctic and sub-Arctic Eurasia. At that time, around 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, the world was in the coldest period of the last ice age.
In cold environments then, as today, humans tended to gain the majority of their food from animals. Nutritional deficiencies came from the absence of fat and carbohydrates, not necessary protein. Indeed, if humans eat too much meat, they can develop protein poisoning and even die. “Because we humans are not fully adapted to a diet that is carnivorous, we simply cannot digest protein very well,” Lahtinen says.
During that time, animals that humans killed for food would have been struggling to live, barely having fat and composed mostly of lean muscle. Using previously published early fossil records, Lahtinen and her colleagues calculated that the animals killed by people in the Arctic and sub-Arctic during this time would have provided much more protein than they could have safely consumed.
Under the tough circumstances of the Arctic and sub-Arctic ice age winter, sharing excess meat with dogs would have cost people nothing. The descendants of wolves that took advantage of such handouts would have become more gentle toward humans over time, and they likely went on to become the first domesticated dogs.
1. What has been confusing scientists in the past century?| A．How domesticated dogs benefited humans. | B．When humans began to domesticate dogs. |
| C．What led to dog domestication originally. | D．Why early humans made friends with dogs. |
| A．All-meat | B．Low-fats | C．Fast-changing. | D．Over-cooked. |
| A．They struggled with wolves. |
| B．They shared meat with dogs. |
| C．They existed on the earth for about 5,000 years. |
| D．They had trouble adapting to the cold environment. |
| A．were al dangerous animals. | B．provided enough fat for humans. |
| C．became a food source for some dogs. | D．lacked protein needed for a healthy diet. |
【推荐2】Living gratefully has a huge transforming power, not just when something wonderful or special happens, but every day no matter what is happening.
I’ve recently been involved with two people whose lives were challenged by bad luck. I have seen how grateful living had the power to keep one of them going and how it’s beginning to lift the other. One was a friend and the other is my sister.
My friend seemed to be in good health when she received a deadly diagnosis: a disease with no effective treatment. She had all the emotions that a tragedy brings, but she also had a powerful response to despair (绝望) that gave her “the happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” She wrote online daily, honestly sharing the details of her situation.
She wrote that even though it was difficult to move, this gave her more time to notice small things. She was grateful not only for the love and help of family and friends, but also for time to see the sun rise and watch the birds in her yard. No opportunity for gratefulness was wasted.
She taught that gratefulness is not a false cheerfulness. It’s taking every opportunity to celebrate the blessings of small things. We can be grateful for the challenges that help us develop sympathy for each other. Life is a precious gift.
She repeatedly blogged that she was happier than she had ever been.
When she wrote about “the worst day”, she ended with “life is still a lovely gift.” She died later that day.
Her message, however, changed my sister’s life. My sister’s health was getting worse and worse, though nothing life-threatening. She did have a very painful knee. Her life was in danger from her defeated spirit. She was bed-bound (卧床不起), getting weaker and weaker. Fearful, angry and depressed, she felt out of options for recovery.
I read my sister a few of my friend’s messages. I was careful not to say, “Why can’t you be more like her?” Instead, I let the words do their work. I’m grateful to say that an attitude of gratitude began to replace her anger and fear. I believe this helped her to heal.
We can’t be grateful for all that happens, but we can practice gratefulness for life itself, for all we can learn to deal with, for all the ways we can help each other grow and heal.
1. What happened when the author’s friend found she had an incurable disease?| A．She complained that life was unfair to her. |
| B．She started to appreciate and enjoy the small things in life. |
| C．She tried her best to look for treatment. |
| D．She repeatedly blogged about how painful it was. |
| A．Calm. | B．Lonely. | C．Sad. | D．Confused. |
| A．Writing a blog. | B．Eating healthy food. |
| C．Talking with family. | D．Being grateful for life. |
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| B．Gratitude has the power of lifting people’s spirits. |
| C．Health is the most important thing for people. |
| D．Families will always be there no matter what happens. |
【推荐3】After walking miles of expo hall carpeting, watching countless live demos, and sitting through God knows how many press announcements, we’re ready to declare these ten products to be the best things we saw at CES (国际消费电子展) 2017. Of all the amazing and beautiful gadgets on display here in Las Vegas, these are the products which exhibit the strong sense of innovation and vision within their categories. They achieve this through exquisite industrial design, innovative engineering, and simply seeing the future and realizing it in a product you can touch and hold. The following are three of the ten.
CES is full of toys that promise to turn your kid into a coding wiz (编码奇才). The issue? Not all of them are fun to play with. This week Lego introduced Boost, a new kit that lets kids bring their existing bricks to life with three different modules. You can program Lego to walk, roll, flash, and make noise via an app that uses drag and drop code. Kids probably won’t notice they’re building logic skills when they program their hot (自动程序；网上机器人) to shoot a dart at their sister when she walks by, and that’s the point. It’s a sneaky way to get kids to learn, which is exactly why they’ll love it.
The Hub robot is adorable, but LG’s animated voice assistant also provides a clear peak at the future of in-home interfaces. These devices run Alexa, but they do more than your average Echo. A screen on the front doesn’t just surface visual info like weather forecast, it provides personality: blinking eyes patiently await your commands. Ask for your favorite tunes, and the little robot busts a move as it plays them. You can customize the wake word to anything you’d like, and the big and mini versions of the robots have the exact same features. The only difference is the size of the screen and the power of their built-in speakers.
Good speakers are furniture. They add to a room’s decor, and they begged to be touched. The cylindrical Beoplay M5 is a wireless speaker that fits those criteria—its wool covering is soft and gorgeous, and it’s topped by an aluminum disc that functions as a satisfyingly tactile volume knob. The sound is excellent, with impressive volume and gobs of bass. Audio streams in over Bluetooth. AirPlay, or Spotify, and it has Chromecast built in, so you can command the jams by talking to your Google Home. It’s not a portable speaker (it plugs into the wall and has no battery) but is made for multi-room setups—-group a few M5s together, or pair them with other Beoplay multi-room speakers like the A6 and A9.
1. Which of the following describes the common traits of these products?| A．They represent the edge-cutting industrial design. |
| B．They are all for entertainment and recreation. |
| C．They are targeted at young people. |
| D．They are available on the market now. |
| A．Because they fit well in criteria. |
| B．Because they plug into the wall without battery and make up for multi-room setups. |
| C．Because they fit in with the decoration of the room and feel comfortable. |
| D．Because they have excellent sound, impressive volume and gobs of bass. |
| A．It is painstaking to select the top ten gadgets among so many ingenious inventions. |
| B．Beoplay M5 features wonderful looking, excellent sound quality and portability. |
| C．The screen on the Hub robot provides visible information and personality. |
| D．The new Lego kit Boost motivates kids to learn programming without their realization. |
