【推荐1】A technology company is developing a lie detector app for smartphones that could be used by parents, teachers—and even Internet daters.

The app measures blood flow in the face to assess whether or not you are telling the truth. Its developers say that it could be used for daters wanting to see if somebody really is interested in them. Parents could use it on their children to see if they are lying and teachers could work out which of their pupils are honest.

The app is being developed by Toronto startup NuraLogix and the software is called Transdermal Optical Imaging. The idea is that different human emotions create different facial blood flow patterns that we have no control over. These patterns change if we are telling the truth or telling a lie.

Using the footage(拍摄的片段) from the smartphone camera, the software will see the changes in skin colors and compare them to standardized results. A study found last year found that anger was associated with more blood flow and redness while sadness was associated with less of both.

Developmental neuroscientist(神经病学家)Kang Lee, who has been researching the field for 20 years, said, “It could be very useful, for example, for teachers. A lot of our students have math anxiety but they do not want to tell us, because that’s embarrassing.” Lee added that the technology would not replace lie detectors used in a court of law. He said: “They want the accuracy to be extremely high, like genetic tests, so a one-in-a-million error rate. Our technique won’t be able to achieve an extremely high accuracy level, so because of that I don’t think it’s useful for the courts.” He added that it will be a few years before the app is available to consumers.

1. How does the app work to identify whether the person is lying or not?

A．By controlling the blood flow patterns in our face when people are speaking

B．By measuring blood flow patterns and comparing changes in skin colors

C．By taking footage to replace lie detectors used in a court of law

D．By creating different facial blood flow patterns people needed

2. Why Transdermal Optical Imaging cannot be applied in courts at present?

A．It is too complicated to standardize results in courts

B．It hasn’t reached the required accuracy yet

C．Genetic tests are enough for situations like this

D．Its use is forbidden by law

3. What can be inferred from Kang Lee’s remarks in the last paragraph?

A．Students with math anxiety rarely ashamed of themselves

B．Lie detectors and Transdermal Optical Imaging are of the same function

C．The result of genetic tests is far more accurate than that of Transdermal Optical Imaging

D．Consumers will be able to download the app in the near future

【推荐2】We live in the age of the algorithm (算法). Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives— where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insurance— are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models.

One application that has become particularly common is the use of algorithms to evaluate job performance. Sarah, a teacher who, despite being widely respected by her students, their parents and her colleagues, was fired because she performed poorly according to an algorithm. When an algorithm rates you poorly, you are immediately branded as an underperformer and there is rarely an opportunity to appeal against those judgments. In many cases, methods are considered secrets and no details are shared. And data often seems convincing.

As a matter of fact, the belief that school performance in America is declining is based on a data mistake. A Nation at Risk is the report that rang the initial alarm bells about declining SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) scores. Yet if they had taken a closer look, they would have noticed that the scores in each smaller group were increasing. The reason for the decline in the average score was that more disadvantaged kids were taking the test. However, due to the data mistake, teachers as a whole were judged to be failing.

Wall Street is famous for its mathematicians who build complex models to predict market movements and develop business plans. These are really smart people. Even so, it is not at all uncommon for their models to fail. The key difference between those models and many of the ones being used these days is that Wall Street traders lose money when their data models go wrong. However, as CV Neil points out in her book, the effects of widely —used machine — driven judgments are often not borne by those who design the algorithms, but by everyone else.

As we increasingly rely on machines to make decisions, we need to ask these questions: What assumptions are there in your model? What hasn’t been taken into account? How are we going to test the effectiveness of the conclusions? Clearly, something has gone terribly wrong. When machines replace humans to make a judgment, we should hold them to a high standard. We should know how the data was collected. And when numbers lie, we should stop listening to them.

1. Why school performance in America is believed to be declining?

A．Teachers perform poorly.

B．Big data is popular.

C．The data is wrong.

D．There is misunderstanding about algorithms.

2. What should we do when making decisions by machines?

A．Follow the machines.	B．Make a judgment by tests.
C．Stop listening to machines.	D．Make the data convincing.

3. What is the structure of the passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The drawbacks of algorithm.

B．The application of algorithm in business.

C．The popularity of algorithm to employers.

D．The advantages and disadvantages of algorithm.

【推荐3】With technology entering almost every aspect of our lives, the demand for computer programmers can only increase. To train the workforce of the future, companies around the world are wildly developing computing languages to introduce children to the appealing world of programming both in and out of school.

The only drawback is that to learn or observe the results of their programming efforts, children have to be able to see. As a result, kids with limited or no vision (视觉) are prevented from participating in this exciting trend. To change that, researchers at Microsoft’s Cambridge, UK Lab have developed a new physical programming language that can be learned by all children.

Project Torino allows visually damaged kids aged 7 to 11 to create code (编码) that plays music, stories, or poetry by connecting physical pods (检测装置) together. Once done, an accompanying app changes the physical code into digital code. The smart system covers all the major concepts and is ready to adapt to the needs of each student and set challenges based on the individual’s skill. Most importantly, it provides instant feedback, enabling educators to assess students’ progress and provide assistance as needed.

The Microsoft team is currently developing the system further. Among the changes is adding color to the previously all-white pods because it helps children with limited vision to learn better. The size of the pods is also being increased since kids working in pairs were more engaged when they could both physically hold the pods and touch hands.

The program will be expanded to 100 elementary school children in the UK this fall, and, once perfected, to kids across the world. While the system was created with visually damaged children in mind, Cecily Morrison, one of the researchers working on the project, hopes that it will appeal to everyone.

1. Why do companies introduce children to the programming world?

A．To satisfy children’s curiosity.

B．To develop children’s potential.

C．To foster the future programmers.

D．To make children more competitive.

2. What does the underlined word “that” probably refer to?

A．The exciting trend.

B．The drawback.

C．Limited and poor sight.

D．A physical language.

3. What is the advantage of the new smart system?

A．It can help judge children’s progress.

B．It bases the challenges on kids’ vision.

C．Children with poor sight can see the code.

D．It gives children guidance and instructions.

4. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 4?

A．The size of the pods.

B．The color of the pods.

C．The Microsoft team’s hard work.

D．The improvement to the new system.

【推荐2】When it comes to finding the best college for you, there are more things for people to consider.    1    Big schools are often seen as factories that pump out (批量生产) graduates, not places that are equipped to offer personalized educational experiences. There are good sides to going big, however. Here are some reasons:

    2    

Large colleges can offer depth and width in their majors that are usually unavailable at smaller schools. Leighton Stamps, a retired professor from both a large school and a small one in the US, said, “Students at a large university are more likely to take highly specialized majors, some of which are typically not available at smaller schools.”

Larger and better-known professors

    3     “At large ones, especially during the senior years, students are often taught by nationally-known experts…doing advanced research,” Stamps said. This is not to say that small schools don't have well-regarded faculty, but their size can influence the nature of the research being conducted.

Resources

Everything is big at big schools, including the availability of resources.    4    At a large school, you'll be able to find a wider range of research sources.

Endless opportunities

Big schools offer more experiences that can supply what you can't learn in class.    5    

One last piece of advice: It's much easier to make a big school smaller than to make a small school bigger. That means if you choose a larger school, find your people and make it your best school.

A．Abundant activities

B．More choices

C．Large schools often have faculty who are leaders in their fields.

D．There are also more events, clubs and other organizations.

E．One important factor is the size of the school.

F．Different people hold different attitudes towards learning.

G．For example, Harvard has more than 60 libraries.

【推荐3】Smart TVs and other Internet-connected household devices will be made to carry labels setting out how secure they are, under proposals being put forward by the government.

Ministers want the labels introduced on a voluntary basis at first, but propose that they are eventually made compulsory. The labels will help consumers identify which products are more and which are less secure. Under the plans, announced by the digital minister Margot James on Wednesday, merchants will only be able to sell products that carry the label, which will indicate to consumers whether the device observes the principal three security standards set out by the government practice in February.

The move is designed to deal with the problems caused by insecure connected household devices, such as TVs, doorbells and locks, which can be hijacked by malicious (恶意的) actors. There have also been warnings that governments could use them to spy on people in their homes. James said, “Many consumer products that are connected to the Internet are often found to be insecure, putting consumers’ privacy and security at risk. Our code of practice was the first step towards making sure that products have safety features built in from the design stage.”

Prof Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey, said the proposals represented a good start, but added, “The problem is what happens to those who don’t follow the guidelines. Or, more importantly, who is going to check that a device does follow whatever the eventual guidelines are. “

Woodward said the government would need to “put some teeth behind whatever standards they set out”, suggesting a watchdog along the lines of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The plan will form part of a wider government consultation into improving general cybersecurity in the UK, with three key requirements in a code of practice for device manufacturers. The requirements include ensuring passwords of devices are not resettable to a universal factory setting, and ensuring they provide a public point of contact as part of a policy for disclosing any discovered weaknesses. It also calls for device makers to explicitly state the minimum length of time a device will receive security updates, never making users puzzled.

1. How does the government expect the labels to be introduced at the beginning?

A．On a compulsory basis.	B．On a voluntary principle.
C．By making laws.	D．By educating consumers.

2. What does the author mainly want to tell us in the third paragraph?

A．The potential risks of smart household devices.

B．The responsibilities of the government.

C．The popularity of illegal Internet access.

D．The measures of avoiding being attacked.

3. What can we infer from what Woodward said?

A．Smart devices need strict and clear guidelines.

B．Related departments are necessary to be set.

C．The government should take tough measures.

D．Some people are strongly against the proposal.

4. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “explicitly” in the last paragraph?

A．Happily.	B．Roughly.
C．Confidently.	D．Clearly.

【推荐1】Scientists have discovered an underwater coral tower near the Great Barrier Reef(大堡礁) that’s taller than New York’s Empire State Building. It’s the tallest underwater structure discovered in over 120 years.

The researchers who discovered the reef were on a year-long trip aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research ship Falkor, where they were working to map the sea floor around Australia.

The scientists used a special underwater robot called SuBastian to help them explore and develop 3D maps. In late October, as part of their exploration, the team came across the tower. It’s known as a “detached reef”, since its structure isn’t attached to the Great Barrier Reef, but rises on its own from the sea floor.

At the bottom, the tower is nearly a mile wide. But from there, it becomes much more narrow, rising 1,640 feet and stopping just 130 feet below the surface of the ocean. The lower is one o£ eight similar towers near Northern Australia’s Cape York Peninsula. The other seven towers were discovered in the 1880’s.

“It’s a big reef not to have known about,” said Tom Bridge, “What it highlights is how little we know about the ocean, even the Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is bigger than many European countries and that only a small part of it is made of the shallow water reefs it’s famous for.”

Overall, the Great Barrier Reef is struggling. Recent studies have shown that about half of its corals have died in the last 25 years, in part because of rising ocean temperatures due to the climate crisis. Over the last year, the Falkor’s scientific team has discovered 30 new kinds of sea creatures. In March, they discovered what they believe is the longest sea creature ever recorded. The animal is called a “siphonophore” and it’s 150 feet long.

1. What did researchers do by Falkor around Australia?

A．Seek for coral lowers.	B．Make a map of sea floor.
C．Research unknown species.	D．Film the Great Barrier Reef.

2. What do we know about SuBastian?

A．It’s the most advanced underwater robot.

B．It contributes to the discovery of the tower.

C．It is suitable to detect building structures.

D．It reports important discoveries under water.

3. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The shape of the tower.	B．The history of the tower.
C．The position of the tower.	D．The information of the tower.

4. What can we infer from the text?

A．Europe used to ignore the Great Barrier Reef.

B．Climate crisis is ruining the Great Barrier Reef.

C．Tom Bridge has been researching the Great Barrier Reef.

D．More research should be done on the Great Barrier Reef.

【推荐2】Seeds on Ice

Close to the North Pole，remote and rocky Plateau Mountain in the Norwegian archipelago of

Svalbard seems an unlikely spot for any global effort to safeguard agriculture. In this cold and deserted environment，no grains，no gardens，no trees can grow. Yet at the end of a 130-meter-long tunnel cut out of solid stone is a room filled with humanity’s most precious treasure, the largest and most diverse seed collection—more than a half-billion seeds.

A quiet rescue mission is under way. With growing evidence that unchecked climate change-will seriously affect food production and threaten the diversity （多样性） of crops around the world，the Svalbard Global Seed Vault （地窖） represents a major step towards ensuring the preservation （贮藏） of hundreds of thousands of crop varieties. This is a seed collection, but more importantly, it is a collection of the traits found within the seeds：the genes that give one variety resistance to a particular pest and another variety tolerance for hot，dry weather.

Few people will ever see or come into contact with the contents of this vault. In sealed boxes，behind multiple locked doors，monitored by electronic security systems, enveloped in below—zero temperatures, and surrounded by tons of rock, hundreds of millions of seeds are protected in their mountain fortress. Frozen in such conditions inside the mountain, seeds of most major crops will remain viable for hundreds of years, or longer. Seeds of some are capable of retaining （保留） their ability to grow for thousands of years.

Everyone can look back now and say that the Seed Vault was a good and obvious idea, and that of course the Norwegian government should have approved and funded it. But back in 2004, when the Seed Vault was proposed, it was viewed as a crazy，impractical, and expensive idea.

We knew that nothing would provide a definite guarantee. But we were tired，fed up，and frankly scared of the steady, greater losses of crop diversity. The Seed Vault was built by optimists who wanted to do something to preserve options so that humanity and its crops might be better prepared for change. If it simply resupplied seed gene banks with samples those gene banks had lost, this would repay our efforts.

The Seed Vault is about hope and commitrnent - about what can be done if countries come together and work cooperatively to accomplish something significant，long-lasting，and worthy of who we are and wish to be.

1. According to the passage, the Seed Vault is ___________.

A．a tunnel where the collected seeds are displayed

B．a stone room that contains the seeds of endangered crops

C．a seed gene bank that stores diverse seeds for future agriculture

D．a lab where researchers study how to maintain the diversity of crops

2. The underlined word“viable”in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.

A．mature	B．clean
C．alive	D．valuable

3. Paragraph 3 mainly tells us __________.

A．how the seeds are preserved	B．where people keep the seeds
C．why the seeds are protected	D．what people do to study the seeds

4. We can know from the passage that _________.

A．the Seed Vault offers a solution to climate change

B．most countries took part in rescuing the seed varieties

C．the Seed Vault guarantees to prevent the loss of crop diversity

D．many people originally considered building the Seed Vault unwise

【推荐3】Athletes who can run several marathons in just months might seem unstoppable.The biggest obstacle，it turns out，is their own bodies.A new study find out for the first time a “ceiling” for endurance activities such as long­distance running and biking.

“Physiologists and athletes alike have long been interested in just how far the human body can push itself.When exercising over a few hours，a wealth of evidence suggests most people max out at about five times their basal metabolic(代谢的)rate(BMR)．How humans use energy during longer endurance activities is another question entirely，”says Herman Pontzer，an evolutionary theorist at Duke University，North Carolina.

Pontzer saw an opportunity to answer that question when Bryce Carlson，an endurance athlete and former biochemist at Purdue University，organized the Race Across the USA in 2015.Runners covered 4，957 kilometers over the course of 20 weeks in a series of marathons stretching from Los Angeles，California，to Washington，D.C.

To find out how many calories the athletes in the study burned，Pontzer，Carlson，and colleagues replaced the normal hydrogen and oxygen in their drinking water with harmless，uncommon isotopes(同位素)of those elements.By chemically tracing how these isotopes flush out in urine，sweat，and breath，scientists can calculate how much carbon dioxide an athlete produces — a measure that directly relates to how many calories they burn.

Pontzer's team then collected energy consumption data over the course of the race to see how many calories they burned per day.They found that whatever the event is，energy consumption leveled off after about 20 days，eventually staying at a steady level at about 2.5 times an athlete's BMR.At that point，the body is burning calories more quickly than it can absorb food and turn it into energy，representing a biologically determined ceiling on human performance.

“It was just one of those moments of discovery that as a scientist you just live for，” Pontzer said.“We ended up plotting out the very limits of human endurance，the envelope for what humans can do.”

1. What does the underlined word “ceiling” in the first paragraph refer to?

A．The weakness of human bodies.

B．The effect of lasting exercise.

C．The way humans use energy.

D．The limit of human endurance.

2. Which of the following is a direct measure of an athlete's energy consumption?

A．The hydrogen and oxygen in their drinking water.

B．The carbon dioxide their bodies create.

C．The amount of their urine，sweat and breath.

D．The remaining isotopes in their body.

3. What is the purpose of Pontzer's study?

A．To confirm that an athlete's physical extreme is mainly determined by his BMR.

B．To compare human limits in common exercise with those in endurance activities.

C．To find out where the highest energy consumption of an athlete lies.

D．To set a reasonable standard for researches concerned with human body

4. How did Pontzer feel when their study results came out?

A．Excited.	B．Regretful.
C．Surprised.	D．Hopeful.

【推荐1】Most online fraud （诈骗）involves identity theft. Passwords help. But many can be guessed. Newer phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers often have strengthened security with fingerprint and facial recognition. But these can be imitated. That is why a new approach, behavioural biometrics （生物统计学），is gaining ground.

It relies on the wealth of measurements made by today's devices. These include data from sensors that reveal how people hold their phones when using them, how they carry them and even the way they walk. Touchscreens, keyboards and mice can be monitored to show the distinctive ways in which someone's fingers and hands move. These features can then be used to determine whether someone attempting to make a transaction （交易）is likely to be the device's habitual user.

Behavioural biometrics make it possible to identify an individual's unique motion fingerprint"，says John Whaley, head of Unifyid, a firm in Silicon Valley that is involved in the field. When coupled with information about a user's finger pressure and speed on the touchscreen, as well as a device's regular places of use—as revealed by its GPS unit一that user's identity can be pretty well determined.

Used wisely, behavioural biometrics could be a great benefit. In fact, Unifyid and an unnamed car company are even developing a system that unlocks the doors of a vehicle once the pace of the driver, as measured by his phone, is recognised. Used unwisely, however, the system would become yet another electronic spy on people's privacy, permitting complete strangers to monitor your every action, from the moment you reach for your phone in the morning, to when you throw it on the floor at night.

1. What is behavioural biometrics for?

A．To ensure network security.	B．To identify network crime.
C．To track online fraud.	D．To gather online data.

2. How does behavioural biometrics work?

A．By restricting and detecting the access to an account of users.

B．By spotting and revealing a device's regular places of use.

C．By monitoring and comparing the ways users interact with devices.

D．By offering and analyzing the operating system of devices.

3. What's the author's attitude towards behavioural biometrics?

A．Doubtful.

B．Concerned.

C．Objective.

D．Favorable.

4. From which section of a magazine can this passage possibly be taken?

A．Health and wealth.	B．Science and technology.
C．Finance and economics.	D．Books and arts.

【推荐2】If you're looking for a reason to care about tree loss, this summer's record-breaking heat waves might be it. Trees can lower summer daytime temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit(华氏度), according to a recent study. But tree cover in US cities is shrinking. A study published last year by the US Forest Service found that we lost 36 million trees annually from urban and rural communities over a five-year period. If we continue on this path, "cities will become warmer, more polluted and generally more unhealthy for inhabitants," said David Nowak, a senior US Forest Service scientist and co-author of the study. Nowak says there are many reasons our tree cover is declining, including hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, insects and disease. But the one reason for tree loss that humans can control is sensible development.

"We see the tree cover being changed, which means when we look at the photographs, what was there is now replaced with a parking lot or a building," Nowak said. "Every time we put a road down, we put a building and we cut a tree or add a tree, it not only affects that site, it affects the region." The study placed a value on tree loss based on trees' role in air pollution removal and energy conservation.

Nowak says there's a downside to trees too, such as pollen allergies or large falling branches in storms, "and people don't like sweeping leaves." But, he says, there are ways cities and counties can manage trees to help communities thrive. Urban forests especially need our help to replace fallen trees. Unlike rural areas, it is very difficult for trees to repopulate themselves in a city environment with so much pavement and asphalt(沥青). "A lot of our native trees can't actually find a place to drop a seed so they can regenerate," explains Greg Levine, co-executive director for Trees Atlanta. "That's why the community has to go in and actually plant a tree because the areas just aren't natural anymore."

Nowak says the first step is caring for the trees on your own property. "We think we pay for our house, and so we must maintain it. But because we don't pay for nature, we don't need to. And that's not necessarily true."

1. Why does the author mention “trees can lower summer daytime temperatures” ?

A．To tell the temperatures in summer are high.

B．To introduce the topic.

C．To tell trees are helpful.

D．To explain the reason of tree loss.

2. How can humans control tree loss according to Nowak ?

A．Improve climate to let trees grow.

B．Prevent fires form damaging trees.

C．Develop cities in reasonable ways.

D．Decrease insects in citites.

3. Why forests in cities need our help ?

A．Because trees in urban areas can’t regenerate naturally.

B．Because native trees don’t drop seeds any more.

C．Because trees don’t grow in a city environment.

D．Because humans want to plant more trees.

4. What is the purpose of this passage ?

A．Describe the importance of trees in cities.

B．Show the number of trees in the US is declining.

C．Ask people to plant trees with the author.

D．Appeal people to protect trees in their surroundings.

【推荐3】Bombardier beetles are known for their skillful response to predators (捕食性动物).If they are about to be eaten, the insects spray their predators with boiling-hot chemicals. If they get swallowed anyway, they have plan B: Blast (爆炸) their way out from the inside.

In an experiment, scientists watched as a Japanese stream toad readily swallowed an Asian bombardier beetle. But 44 minutes later, the toad vomited (呕吐) the contents of its stomach. The insect ran away, physically unharmed.

“The vomited beetle was alive and active,” study authors Shinji Sugiura and Takuya Sato of Kobe University in Japan reported in the journal Biology Letters. Why, the researchers wondered, does luck always favor the escape artists? To find out, they needed more of them, and they needed to feed them to more toads. Scientists gathered 15 species of ground beetles, including the bombardier beetle. They also collected Japanese common toads, which are natural bombardier beetle predators, and Japanese stream toads, which do not live in the same place as the insect.

Sugiura and Sato hypothesized (假设) that over years of exposure, the common toad species developed a greater tolerance to the bombardier beetle's poisonous chemicals than the stream toads had. The bombardier beetles were divided into two groups. Some were poked (戳) with special tools, which caused them to release all their poisonous chemical spray. Other beetles were left alone. Then they were fed to the toads.

The toads that swallowed a fully loaded bombardier beetle were in for a surprise. “An explosion was heard inside each toad, which indicates that the bombardier beetle sent up a chemical spray after being swallowed, the authors wrote. The common toads vomited their prey 35 percent of the time. The stream toads vomited their prey 57 percent of the time. That confirmed their hypothesis about the toads' evolutionary adaptation. All 16 of the vomited insects were “alive and active” 20 minutes later. Almost all the beetles that released their defensive chemicals before meeting the toads were “successfully digested”. The test told the researchers that the beetles' boiling chemical spray was indeed their ticket to freedom.

1. When Bombardier beetles are in danger, they can ______.

A．have relevant ways to escape	B．bring up the content of stomach
C．cause damage to their enemies	D．make no response to outside attack

2. What was the scientists’ assumption before the experiment?

A．Bombardier beetles were always lucky to escape.

B．Japanese common toads were natural predators.

C．Common toads had the ability to resist the poison.

D．Bombardier beetles could release poison constantly.

3. What do we know about Sugiura and Sato’s test?

A．It showed the process of the insects’ evolution.

B．It demonstrated the harm of explosion in the toads.

C．It stressed the importance of a balanced ecosystem.

D．It provided convincing evidence for their assumption.