On January 22, 2022, the British-Belgian 19-year-old, Zara Rutherford, successfully landed her two-seat microlight aircraft back at the Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport, from where she had departed 155 days ago, fulfilling her dream to be the youngest woman to fly around the world solo.
“I feel excited not only to break the Guinness World Record, but also to diminish the gender gap by 11 years between the current youngest male record holder Travis Ludlow 18 at the time of his record, and the previous female record holder Shaesta Waez, who was 30 when she completed her ‘Dreams Soar’ around-the-world flight.” Rutherford wrote on her blog.
Rutherford's journey crossing five continents and 52 countries began on August 18, 2021. She encountered numerous unexpected delays along the way. They included an unscheduled stop in Redding, California, due to wildfires and a month-long stop in Nome, Alaska, to renew her Russian visa. She also faced several challenges in the air. When flying from Iceland to Greenland, Rutherford lost radio contact with her ground team for much of the 3-hour flight. The incidents also resulted in her having to cross over Russia in sub-zero temperatures. The hardest part was flying over Siberia—it was extremely cold and if the engine broke down, she'd be hours away from rescue. Despite the severe difficulties, the determined young pilot never gave up on her dream.
Rutherford grew up around airplanes. Her British father flies commercially, while her Belgian mother is a recreational pilot. The young girl began learning how to fly at age 14 and obtained her aviators license in 2020. With her goal of flying around the world accomplished, Rutherford now has her sights set even higher. She wants to become an astronaut and explore space.
She hopes that her journey will encourage more young women to pursue careers in aviation. Currently the number of female pilots is just 5 percent. Rutherford says, “It's an easy thing to say, but just go for it. If you don't try and see how high you can fly, then you'll never know.”
1. What does the underlined word “diminish" in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Narrow. | B．Divide. | C．Fill. | D．Cause. |
| A．The wildfires were too fierce. | B．Her Russian visa was due. |
| C．The weather was too severe. | D．Her engine broke down. |
| A．To switch to a new topic. | B．To summarize her achievements. |
| C．To illustrate her admirable talents. | D．To add some background information. |
| A．Life is not all roses. | B．Dream big, aim high. |
| C．Not to advance is to go back. | D．The greatest talkers, the least doers. |
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【推荐1】Felix Ruppert and Alexander Badri-Sprowitz at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, designed a half-metre-high robot called Morti and gave it the capacity to teach itself how to walk, rather than to perform a pre-programmed step. The four-legged robot took only an hour to learn how to walk steadily, roughly the same amount of time as newborn horses need. And it’s the first time that a machine learning technique has been so successfully applied to four-legged robots.
Morti is controlled by an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm (算法) that doesn’t have much information about the robot’s legs, such as the exact shape of each element. “The AI, working like the central nervous system, gives walking instructions for Morti to follow. It then adjusts them on the basis of readings from foot sentences that signal when the robot falls and loses contact with the ground. Initially, Morti falls down, but after about an hour the AI finds the best way to make it walk,” said RUppert.
Because the AI learns rather than calculating details of each leg’s movement in advance, which can use a lot of energy, Morti walks using 42 percent less energy than when it first starts at the end of an hour-long learning process. Morti’s process copies the way baby animals learn to move, as they also find the most efficient way to use their muscles by trying and initially tripping.
Dhireesha Kudithipudi at the University of Texas at San Antonio said that AI robots can often learn a specific task very well but can’t make readjustments when the environment changes and that Morti’s design, which relies on continually adjusting the robot’s movement, may perform better in that regard. Ruppert said he and the team are working on adding more sensors and range of motion to Morti in a gesture to make it a more animal-like robot.
1. What is special about Morti?| A．It is pre-programmed to walk. |
| B．It can learn to walk by itself. |
| C．It is the first four-legged robot. |
| D．It can help teach the newborns. |
| A．Its body structure. | B．Its design concept. |
| C．Its learning process. | D．Its working conditions. |
| A．By predicting Morti’s leg movement. |
| B．By training Morti’s muscles to the best. |
| C．By lowering Morti’s energy consumption. |
| D．By strengthening Morti’s bond with others. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Cautious. | C．Subjective. | D．Favorable. |
【推荐2】Nehal is a student with a physical disability. In his free time, Nehal loves playing outdoors with his neighbourhood friends. He also attends Chol, one of the few mainstream schools in Suva, Fiji, which offers suitable learning for children with disabilities. The school has adapted some of its facilities since Nehal joined to create an accessible and more inclusive learning environment for students with disabilities.
This began with placing his classroom closer to the bathroom so that Nehal could more readily access the facility. As he and his classmates progress in their academic studies each year, their classroom doesn’t move like other classrooms to ensure Nehal consistently has a comfortable access to the facility every year.
Within the classroom, students typically sit on desks with benches. To adapt to Nehal’s physical impairment (障碍), he has a special and lower desk positioned against a wall that he can lean (倚靠) on for additional back support.
His teachers work closely with him on his literacy and numeracy (算术) skills while he has continued to stand out in languages—Hindi, English and Fijian.
Being in an inclusive learning environment is important to Nehal’s development. The support of his classmates both in and outside of the classroom has also been key to Nehal’s learning experience. From being a shoulder to lean on as he walks around the school to making sure he joins in class projects, his classmates are always on hand to ensure Nehal is included in the day-to-day activities at school.
At the end of the school day, Nehal is picked up by his mother and his sister. Once home, they are joined by Nitin, Nehal’s father. “He is like a gift God gives us,” his father speaks of Nehal.
1. What’s Nehal’s classroom in Chol like?| A．It has a bathroom. | B．It moves every year. |
| C．It is on the top floor. | D．It remains in one place. |
| A．To take care of his physical condition. | B．To let him listen to the teachers carefully. |
| C．To prevent him talking with other students. | D．To help him go out of the classroom more easily. |
| A．They ignore him. | B．They talk behind his back. |
| C．They offer him much help. | D．They challenge him constantly. |
| A．Ambitious. | B．Lucky. | C．Selfish. | D．Lazy. |
【推荐3】Discoveries in science and technology are thought by “untaught minds” to come in blinding flashes or as the result of dramatic accidents. Sir Alexander Fleming did not, as legend would have it, look at the mold (霉) on a piece of cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then. He experimented with antibacterial substances for nine years before he made his discovery. Inventions and innovations almost always come out of tough trial and error. Innovation is like soccer; even the best players miss the goal and have their shots blocked much more frequently than they score.
The point is that the players who score most are the ones who take most shots at the goal—and so it goes with innovation in any field of activity. The prime difference between innovation and others is one of approach. Everybody gets ideas, but innovators work consciously on theirs, and they follow them through until they prove practicable or otherwise. What ordinary people see as fanciful abstractions, professional innovators see as solid possibilities.
“Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular goodness in doing things the way they have always been done.” Wrote Rudolph Flesch, a language authority. This accounts for our reaction to seemingly simple innovations like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels that make life more convenient: “How come nobody thought of that before?”
The creative approach begins with the proposal that nothing be as it appears. Innovators will not accept that there is only one way to do anything. Faced with getting from A to B, the average person will automatically set out on the best-known and apparently simplest route. The innovator will search for alternate courses, which may prove easier in the long run and are sure to be more interesting and challenging even if they lead to dead ends. Highly creative individuals really do march to a different drummer.
1. What does the author probably mean by “untaught mind” in the first paragraph?| A．An individual who often comes up with new ideas by accident. |
| B．A person who has had no education. |
| C．A citizen of a society that restricts personal creativity. |
| D．A person ignorant of the hard work involved in experimentation. |
| A．The way they present their findings. | B．The way they deal with problems. |
| C．The intelligence they possess. | D．The variety of ideas they have. |
| A．unwilling to follow common ways of doing things |
| B．diligent in pursuing their goals |
| C．concerned about the advance of society |
| D．devoted to the progress of science |
| A．The Relation Between Creation and Diligence |
| B．To Be a Creative Expert in the Study of Human Creativity |
| C．What Are So Special about Creative Individuals |
| D．Discoveries and Innovation |
【推荐1】Somewhere near the North Pole, in a small tent on a floating ice, Borge Ousland’s satellite phone buzzed. It was November 20, 2019, and Ousland, the leading polar explorer of his generation, and adventurer Mike Horn had set out two months earlier with an great goal: to ski across the top of the world. They’d been in total isolation (孤立) ever since, making their way, step by step, along the increasingly fragile (易碎的) ice floating over the Arctic Ocean. It was one of the most daring polar journeys in history—and the men were in trouble. The ice was breaking around them, opening in gaping cracks (裂缝), the most critical challenge. Not a single ship or fishing boat was around there. Slowed by the poor conditions, the sleds they pulled were nearly empty of food. Horn’s frostbitten hands, virtually useless in the cold, were dangerously infected.
Now their expedition (探险) manager, Lars Ebbesen, was on the phone from Norway with a lifeline. A passing Norwegian icebreaker happened to be in the sea north of Svalbard and would briefly be in position to serve as a refueling platform for a helicopter (直升机) to reach them. For one day only, they could be rescued. Should he give the OK to start the rescue? Ebbesen, who had worked with Ousland for years, had never heard him so exhausted and “into his resources”. Yet the legendary Arctic strongman, speaking in a weary tone, did not hesitate or consult his partner, “No, we will continue.”
Newspapers actively covered the men’s daring journey across front pages and TV news broadcast regular updates. Ousland’s son was having trouble sleeping and told reporters that at 57 his father was “not as young as he was before”. Ousland’s mother, who had never before felt the need to call Ebbesen and check on her son during expeditions, rang over and over.
But the two chose to continue and luckily enough they finally arrived at north pole and attained enormous precious photos there. After 87 days in Arctic isolation, the two men came back and delivered a television interview. People honoured them as national heroes.
1. What is a key trouble facing the two men?| A．They run out of food and energy. | B．Horn’s hands were totally useless. |
| C．Their health was in poor condition. | D．Floating ice kept cracking around them. |
| A．A helicopter. | B．A rescue team. | C．An icebreaker. | D．A fishing boat. |
| A．Inspired. | B．Satisfied. | C．Concerned. | D．Interested. |
| A．People Have Great Interest in North Pole Expedition |
| B．The Exploration Conditions of North Pole Are Tough |
| C．Two Brave Men Made an Exciting Trip to the North Pole |
| D．Two Famous Explorers Were Saved During Their Exploration |
【推荐2】Karen Darke was paralyzed (瘫痪的) from the chest down in a climbing accident about 30 years ago, but it hasn’t stopped her from continuing her life as an extreme adventurer.
Darke was 21 when she fell 10 meters off a sea cliff (悬崖) while climbing in Scotland. She woke up three days later and was told she was paralyzed from the chest down. She’s been in a wheelchair ever since.
She had a really hard time. However, what opened her eyes was seeing other patients around her with even less muscle function, and the news of a close friend dying while climbing, only a few months after her own accident. “It just kind of made me realize that I was still here, and I had to make the most of the situation,” she says.
Her first adventure after her accident was a handbike ride along the Silk Route from Kazakhstan to Pakistan in the Himalayas in 1996, which she still thinks is her most significant one so far. Other adventures followed, including more Himalayan rides, sit-skiing across Greenland in 2007 and climbing the 3,000-foot cliff El Capitan in Yosemite in 2008.
Darke joined the British Para-cycling team in 2010 and won silver at the London Paralympics two years later. At the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, she won the gold medal for hand cycling. But the real prize, she says, was the “inner gold” — “a discovery of what is possible when the power of thought, clear intention and good people come together.”
Her latest adventure is Quest 79, a project to undertake a total of nine handbike rides on seven continents while raising money for charity and encouraging others to take on their own challenges. Darke believes the biggest barrier to living and achieving our dreams isn’t our bodies, but our minds. “Even if in our darkest days when we think we can’t do it anymore, anything is possible.”
1. What did Darke face at the age of 21?| A．The failure at the London Paralympics. | B．The separation from her friends. |
| C．A terrible traffic accident. | D．A physical disability. |
| A．The handbike ride along the Silk Route. | B．Nine handbike rides on seven continents. |
| C．Climbing the cliff El Capitan. | D．Sit-skiing across Greenland. |
| A．Behind bad luck comes good luck. | B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．He that travels far knows much. | D．Life is not all roses. |
| A．Imaginative and talkative. | B．Traditional and generous. |
| C．Positive and courageous. | D．Wise and scholarly. |
【推荐3】Budha Magar, a double above-the-knee amputee (被截肢者), is working with an all-Nepali team to attempt to conquer the world’s highest mountain in May. Though he will be kitted out (装备) with special climbing legs, he will essentially be crawling up Everest using his hands.
He estimates it will take him three times longer than able-bodied climbers to reach the summit (顶峰), though he is confident he will be faster than average on the ladder sections because of his superior upper body strength. Two climbers with below-knee amputations have reached Everest’s summit before. But making the climb without knees is significantly harder. “In Nepali we say that being disabled is ‘like a burden of the earth’,” he explains. Magar hopes that he can raise awareness of just what is possible for a disabled person in the country of his birth, and hopefully inspire others further afield.
He was born in a village of Nepal, and he left there at the age of 19. In April 2021, he had an accident. Suddenly legless, he spent at least 18 months depressed before a charity offered him the chance to go skydiving. “That was a big turning point for me, especially for my confidence. And when we landed on the ground I realized that even without legs we are able to do lots of things,” he says.
He began doing sports — golf, rock climbing, table tennis — before setting his sights on mountaineering. Before long, a childhood dream to climb Everest resurfaced, and he began training in earnest to make the climb in 2018.
Now living in Canterbury, Budha Magar has raised more than £200,000 towards his attempt. If he can find another £100,000 of sponsorship, he will travel to Nepal in spring with his expedition leader Krishna Thapa. Success on the world’s highest mountain can never be guaranteed, but his expedition credo (信条) illustrates his mindset: no legs, no limits.
1. What may enable Magar to perform better than average on the ladder sections?| A．His optimism. | B．Unique equipment. |
| C．His stronger upper body. | D．Help from an all-Nepali team. |
| A．He lived in his birth place all the time. |
| B．He recovered from the accident in 2021. |
| C．He was a member of a charity. |
| D．He gained confidence through skydiving. |
| A．He hasn’t raised enough money for the summit attempt. |
| B．He needs a new expedition leader. |
| C．He can ensure the success of reaching the summit. |
| D．He will go to Canterbury in spring. |
| A．Caring and courageous. | B．Determined and adventurous. |
| C．Hard-working and cooperative. | D．Enthusiastic and intelligent. |
