Could looking through trees be the view to a greener future? Trees replacing the clear glass in your windows is not a work of science fiction. It's happening now.
Forest Products Laboratory researcher Junyong Zhu together with colleagues from the University of Maryland and University of Colorado has developed a transparent wood material that may be the window of tomorrow. Researchers found that transparent wood has the potential to outperform glass currently used in construction in nearly every way.
While glass is the most common material used in window construction, it comes with quite a few bad consequences. Heat easily transfers through glass and amounts to higher energy bills when it escapes during cold weather and pours in when it's warm. Glass production used for construction also comes with a heavy carbon footprint. Manufacturing emissions alone are approximately 25,000 metric tons per year, without considering the heavy footprint of transporting the glass.
The innovation was developed using wood from the balsa tree, which is native to South and Central America. The team treated balsa wood to an oxidizing bath, where the wood is kept in a bleach solution at room temperature to remove the light-absorbing substance from the structure. The wood is then penetrated（注入）with a synthetic polymer called polyvinyl alcohol（PVA）, creating a product that is virtually transparent. So the transparent wood is created, which is far more durable and lighter than glass.
Switching to transparent wood could prove to be cost efficient as well. It is approximately five times more thermally efficient than glass. cutting energy costs. It is made from a sustainable, renewable resource with low carbon emissions.
With all of these potential benefits for consumers, manufacturing and the environment, the case for transparent wood couldn't be clearer.
1. What is the main problem with glass used in window construction?| A．It is inefficient in letting heat out. |
| B．It does not reflect light and heat. |
| C．It cause a high ecological cost |
| D．It is inconvenient to transport. |
| A．A liquid to make objects white. |
| B．A process to solve problems. |
| C．A container to store liquids. |
| D．A way to make colors fade. |
| A．How to make things transparent |
| B．How to produce the new material. |
| C．The benefits of the wood material. |
| D．The great importance of innovation. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Ambiguous. |
| C．Conservative. | D．Appreciative. |
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【推荐1】Pumpkins (南瓜) have all shapes and sizes, and have colors of golden orange, white and green. Cooked in a pie, they are symbols of autumn that are grown in every county of Washington.
U.S. farmers grow more than a billion pounds of pumpkins every year, and many farmers use sheets (膜) of plastic blocking the grass and preventing water loss to make their plants grow well. In the country, farmers use about a billion pounds of plastic every year. Unfortunately, that plastic is thrown away finally, and in some areas, burned in the fields.
For several years, Carol Miles has studied a new product the soil-biodegradable (土壤生物降解的) plastic cover that can be left in the ground after harvest, then broken down by things in the soil. “You don’t need to pull it out of the field and throw it away every autumn, saving time and money,” Miles said.
Most pumpkins grow along vines (藤蔓) that spread through the grass-blocking cover, and Miles wanted to see how pumpkin fruit performed over the plastic cover. That brought a challenge: the soil-biodegradable cover stuck to the bottom of the fruit.
“We have a lot of dew (露水) in the morning, and we found that if we let the fruit dry after harvest, the cover would stick more strongly to the pumpkins,” Miles said. “Nobody wants plastic stuck to pumpkins, even if it's biodegradable. But if you wipe the fruit before the dew dries, the plastic comes right off.”
Farmers who grow plants that don’t set fruit on plastic covers won’t meet this challenge. For those who do, it means an extra step that they”ll have to weigh against advantages and disadvantages for the development.
“Challenges aside, working with this crop can bring on a happy picture,” the farmer Tymon said. “Pumpkins are great. They have bright colors, and are really fun to work with.”
1. What’s the biggest problem of the old pumpkin growing skill?| A．Pumpkins have simple types. | B．Pumpkins have a low output. |
| C．Farmers waste a lot of plastic. | D．Farmers can’t avoid the water loss. |
| A．It’s easy to use. | B．It’s cheap to buy. |
| C．It’s environment-friendly. | D．It’s good for most plants. |
| A．Wait till the plastic is broken down. | B．Wipe the dew from the plastic cover. |
| C．Replace the plastic with other sheets. | D．Clean the pumpkins when they’re wet. |
| A．New growing skills will be created. | B．A new kind of plastic was invented. |
| C．Plastic influences the growth of pumpkins. | D．U.S. farmers develop their favorite pumpkins. |
【推荐2】As aging population gets bigger and dementia(老年痴呆症) more common, more families are struggling with a complex question: How do you support a love done with dementia, especially when you have a full-time job and several kids?
Reg Urbanowski may have an answer to this pressing issue—robots.
He and his team managed to develop a new type of robots named TP robots. Looking like stand-up vacuum cleaners attached to an iPad, they can be activated remotely via a smartphone and guided remotely by a controller app similar to the way a mouse is used on a desktop computer. All possess audio and visual communication capabilities, allowing the operator to be “in the room” to interact with Mom or Dad.
He believes that caregivers and family members can use a TP robot to “look in” on people with mild dementia. He says, “TP robots provide an effective solution for minimizing caregivers’ burden, especially for those who have career or other out-of-home activities.”
Urbanowski and his team have carried out a study that involves providing TP robots for 15 Toronto families. These robots are programmed to provide reminders of necessary daily routine like turning off the gas, taking medicine and having dinner. They will also help ensure patients are getting the exercise they need to maintain their health and well-being.
Erin Crawford, Program Director with the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba, says she has faith that TP robots will prove beneficial, particularly when it comes to reminding people with dementia to do certain things at certain times. “It means that family members that can’t be there, for whatever reason, know that those things are still happening,” she says.
1. What can we infer about TP robots from Paragraph 3?| A．It’s easy to operate. | B．It can clean the room. |
| C．It’s convenient to carry. | D．It can be used on a computer. |
| A．By having dinner with them. | B．By turning off the gas for them. |
| C．By doing activities with them. | D．By reminding them to take pills. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Pessimistic. | C．Indifferent. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．TP robots provide a new solution to dementia. |
| B．TP robots help to take care of dementia patients. |
| C．Caregivers of dementia will be replaced by TP robots. |
| D．Urbanowski and his team are developing a new robot. |
【推荐3】Microsoft has developed a new smartphone app that interprets eye signals and translates them into letters, allowing people with motor neurone disease to communicate with others from a phone.
The GazeSpeak app combines a smartphone’s camera with artificial intelligence to recognize eye movements in real time and convert them into letters, words and sentences.
For people suffering from ALS（渐冻症）, also known as motor neurone disease, eye movement can be the only way they are able to communicate.
“Current eye-tracking input systems for people with ALS are expensive, not robust under sunlight, and require frequent re-calibration（再校准）and relatively steady setups,” said Xiaoyi Zhang, a researcher at Microsoft who developed the technology.
“To reduce the shortcomings…we created GazeSpeak, an eye-gesture communication system that runs on a smartphone, and is designed to be low-cost, robust, portable and easy to learn.”
The app is used by the listener by pointing their smartphone at the speaker. A chart that can be stuck to the back of the smartphone is then used by the speaker to determine which eye movements to make in order to communicate.
The sticker shows four grids of letters, which each correspond to a different eye movement. By looking up, down, left or right, the speaker selects which grids the letters they want belong to. The artificial intelligence algorithm is then able to predict the word or sentence they are trying to say.
Zhang’s research, Smartphone-Based Gaze Gesture Communication for People with Motor Disabilities, is set to be presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in May.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is true about GazeSpeak?| A．The GazeSpeak app can recognize eye movements directly. |
| B．It allows ALS suffers to commucicate with others without a phone |
| C．ALS suffers can use several ways to communicate. |
| D．Smartphone app helps ALS suffers speak with their eyes. |
| A．It’s economical, robust and easy to use. |
| B．It’s expensive, not robust under sunlight. |
| C．It requires frequent re-calibration. |
| D．It combines a smart phone’s camera with artificial intelligence. |
| A．To sell a new smartphone. |
| B．To persuade consumers to buy a new smartphone app. |
| C．To introduce a new smartphone app. |
| D．To develop a new smartphone app. |
【推荐1】The desert tortoise is found in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts in North America. It is listed as an endangered species under the United States federal Endangered Species Act and is considered “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN). Despite the laws that protect them,their numbers are still in the decline.
The desert tortoise in the areas has lived for thousands of years. This animal is able to survive ground temperature over 140 degrees F and is known to 1ive as long as 60 to 80 years. However, ninety-five percent of the life of a desert tortoise is spent in the ground escaping the heat in a hole or passage in the ground. Holes can be easily destroyed by off-highway vehicles that do not stay on built roads. Disasters also occur when they seek shade under parked cars.
Desert tortoises are also harmed by several diseases such as the upper respiratory tract disease often found in adopted (领养) tortoises. Pet owners putting sick tortoises into the wild has resulted in diseases being spread to wild tortoises.
The desert tortoise feeds on a dune primrose (报春花) during spring. Non-native Sahara mustard (芥菜) seen in the background is a weed that competes with the native plants for water and nutrients. In some areas, mustard grows so thickly that it is nearly impossible for desert tortoises to pass through. Vehicles, which do not stay on built roads and do not get washed frequently, contribute to spreading weeds.
Rubbish, such as burst balloon, is a danger to desert tortoises. The balloon can be mistaken for food by desert tortoises and, once eaten, may remain in the stomachs and intestines (肠) giving them a false sense of fullness that may cause them to starve.
1. What does the underlined word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．hardly noticed. | B．well protected. |
| C．easily harmed. | D．very useful. |
| A．To escape cross-country vehicles. | B．To protect them from the heat. |
| C．To save energy for a long life. | D．To shelter them from other animals. |
| A．It lives on native plants. | B．It improves the growth of mustard. |
| C．It can fill itself up with burst balloon. | D．It digests(消化) split balloon easily. |
| A．A Sharp Decline in Tortoise Number | B．A Bad Effect Vehicles Has on Tortoise |
| C．Protection of the Desert Tortoise | D．Dangers the Desert Tortoise Is Facing |
【推荐2】California has been facing a drought(干旱) for many years now, with certain areas even having to pump freshwater hundreds of miles to their distribution system. Luckily, new research has found deep water reserves under the state which could help solve their drought crisis. Previous drilling of wells could only reach depths of 1,000 feet, but due to new pumping practices, water deeper than this can now be extracted(抽 取). The team at Stanford investigated the aquifers(地下蓄水层) below this depth and found that reserves may be three times what was previously thought.
The aquifers range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the ground, which means that pumping will be expensive and there are other concerns. The biggest concern of pumping out water from this deep is the gradual settling down of the land surface. As the water is pumped out, the vacant space left is compacted(压实) by the weight of the earth above.
Even though pumping from these depths is expensive, it is still cheaper than desalinating (脱盐) the ocean water in this coastal state. Some desalination factories exist where possible, but they are costly to run and can need constant repairs. Wells are much more reliable sources of freshwater, and California is hoping that these deep wells may be the answer to their severe water shortage.
One problem with these sources is that the deep water also has a higher level of salt than shallower aquifers. This means that some wells may even need to undergo desalination after extraction, thus increasing the cost. The result of a thorough study of groundwater from over 950 drilling logs has just been published. New estimates of the water reserves in the state now go up to 2,700 billion cubic meters of freshwater.
1. How could California’s drought problem be solved according to some researchers?| A．By building more reserves of groundwater. |
| B．By drawing water from the depths of the earth. |
| C．By developing more advanced drilling machines. |
| D．By improving its water distribution system. |
| A．The sinking of land surface. | B．The harm to the ecosystem. |
| C．The damage to aquifers. | D．The change of the climate. |
| A．They run without any need for repairs. | B．They are the final solution to droughts. |
| C．They are entirely free from pollution. | D．They provide a steady supply of freshwater. |
However, parents often try to choose their children’s friends for them. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. The question of “choice” is an interesting one. Have you ever thought of the following questions?
Who choose your friends?
Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?
Have you got a good friends your parent don’t like?
1. Many teenagers think their _______ know them better than their parents do.
| A．friends | B．teachers | C．brothers and sisters | D．classmates |
| A．go to their friends | B．talk with their parents |
| C．have a discussion with their family | D．talk with their friends on the phone |
| A．Some parents may even not allow their children to meet their good friends. |
| B．Some parents may even ask their children to stay away from their good friends. |
| C．Some parents may even not let their children meet their good friends. |
| D．Some parents may want their children to stop to meet their good friends. |
| A．Parents should like everything their children enjoy. |
| B．In all families, children can choose everything they like. |
| C．Parents should try their best to understand their children better. |
| D．Teenagers can only go to their friends for help. |
| A．Teenagers need friends |
| B．Friends can give good advice |
| C．Parents often choose their children’s friends for them |
| D．Good friends can communicate with each other |
