【推荐1】Whether in the home or the workplace, social robots are going to become a lot more common in the next few years. Social robots are about to bring technology to the everyday world in a more humanized way, said Cynthia Breazeal, chief scientist at the robot company Jibo.

While household robots today do the normal housework, social robots will be much mow like companions than mere tools. For example, these robots will be able to distinguish when someone is happy or sad. This allows them to respond more appropriately to the user.

The Jibo robot, arranged to ship later this year, is designed to be a personalized assistant. You can talk to the robot, ask it questions, and make requests for it to perform different tasks. The robot doesn’t just deliver general answers to questions; it responds bawd on what it learns about each individual in the household. It can do things such as reminding an elderly family member to take medicine or taking family photos.

Social robots are not just finding their way into the home. They have potential applications in everything from education to health care and are already finding their way into some of these spaces.

Fellow Robots is one company bringing social robots to the market. The company’s “Oshbot” robot is built to assist customers in a store, which can help the customers find items and help guide them to the product’s location in the store. It can also speak different languages and make recommendations for different items based on what the customer is shopping for.

The more interaction the robot has with humans, the more it learns. But Oshbot, like other social robots, is not intended to replace workers, but to work alongside other employees. “We have technologies to train social robots to do things not for us, but with us,” said Breazeal.

1. How are social robots different from household robots?

A．They can control their emotions.	B．They are more like humans.
C．They do the normal housework.	D．They respond to users more slowly.

2. What can Oshbot work as?

A．A language teacher.	B．A tour guide.
C．A shop assistant.	D．A private nurse.

3. We can learn from the last paragraph that social robots will          .

A．train employees	B．be our workmates
C．improve technologies	D．take the place of workers

4. What does the passage mainly present?

A．A new design idea of household robots.	B．Marketing strategies for social robots.
C．Information on household robots.	D．An introduction to social robots.

【推荐2】A mechanical bicycle lock, like a U-lock, should be attached to a solid and immobile object like a rack (架子) to ensure safety. However, these racks are quite rare and popular, thus often occupied and although a bicycle lock prevents the bike from being carried away, as it fixes single parts like the frame or the wheels, other parts can be dismounted. Therefore an electronic system, consisting of several sensors, can extend the range of protection with only few components and less effort.

The ‘RFID Bikealarm’ is a motion sensitive electronic alarm system that is attached to the rails of a bike saddle (座椅). Featuring omnidirectional (全方位) movement sensing to detect tiny movements or speeding-up and a small whistle emitting >120dB alarm sound to scare off potential thieves by arousing attention.

The internal microcontroller uses a complex computer program to distinguish between a serious theft and harmless shaking movement as it senses and adapts to the environment. The usage is quite simple: identify yourself by holding the RFID tag close to the case to lock or unlock the alarm system signaled by feedback sounds. The RFID-technology is predestined for achieving this simple and secure interaction because it doesn’t require any complex system, interaction or other devices—just a small tag.

The ‘RFID Bikcalarm’ is meant to be a useful add-on to mechanical bicycle locks as it massively extends the range of protection with few components. It is low-cost, durable and easy to use. The internal battery can be charged by USB.

1. What does the underlined word “dismounted” in Paragraph 1 most probably mean?

A．fixed up	B．found out
C．taken away	D．locked up

2. Which of the following shows the right position of the RFID Bikealarm on a bicycle?

A．	B．
C．	D．

3. What will happen when someone steals a bike with the RFID Bikealarm?

A．Noises will be made.	B．The bike will be locked.
C．The thief will be identified.	D．Messages will be sent to the owner.

4. Which of the following is a feature of the RFID Bikealarm?

A．It uses complex parts.	B．It needs a rack to prevent bike theft.
C．Its high price scares away its buyers.	D．It works together with a mechanical lock.

【推荐3】Zhong Lin Wang started playing table tennis only four years ago. But last year, he and other researchers came up with a clever way to up their game: Build a smart table.

Now they’ve just introduced a new sample table to the public. It can measure where a ball lands, how fast the ball’s going and where it’s headed. The table can do that because its innovative wood surface forms the top layer of a novel self-powered sensor. The data it acquires could guide players to perform better, says Wang.

Wang is a materials scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta. He describes the invention as a machine that can learn to “analyze the behavior” of how someone plays. Importantly, the new smart table won’t need a battery to detect the ball. When a ball hits the wood, it sets off a chain of events that can both generate a small electric current and record measurements of the ball’s behavior.

Wang is an expert at inventing devices that provide their own power. In 2012, he invented a triboelectric(摩擦生电的) nano generator. He calls it TENG, for short. Even if you’ve never heard of “triboelectricity,” you know the phenomenon. Most of us call it static electricity(静电). The first TENG that Wang put together in 2012 looked like a sandwich. It had layers of charged materials separated by a small gap. When the sandwich bent or changed shape, its layered materials rubbed against each other. This caused electrons to start building up on one side.

What makes the new game table truly unique is its use of wood as one of the TENG’s layers. As it turns out, Wang explains, “wood is an excellent triboelectric material.” Building a full-size game table would require a large grid(网格) of wood TENGs. Wang says that’s on his drawing board as a project for the future.

1. Why is the new game table really unusual?

A．It can measure the size of the ball.	B．It uses wood as a TENG’s layer.
C．It has a table surface made of steel.	D．It needs a charged battery to function.

2. Which of the following can probably replace the underlined “detect” in Paragraph 3?

A．Stop.	B．Start.
C．Observe.	D．Release.

3. What can we learn about TENG?

A．A TENG had several charged materials connected tightly.

B．A TENG was controlled by rubbing its layered materials.

C．A large grid of TENG can build a full-size game table.

D．A TENG was a nano generator making static electricity.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．A Unique Smart Game Table	B．A Wise Table Tennis Lover
C．Ways to Win in Table Tennis	D．New Rules for Table Tennis

【推荐1】After decades of cat-and-mouse between athletes and the word anti-doping agency (WADA), athletes found what they must have believed to be the ultimate (终极的) doping agent: their own blood. To enhance athletic performance with your own blood, you draw your blood and store it in a freezer. Your body compensates by creating more blood. Then, months later, just before a competition, you can re-inject (注射) the old blood for a boost. As the red-blood-cell count goes up, so does an athlete’s ability to absorb oxygen. The more oxygen you get with each breath, the more energy your body is able to burn and the better you are able to perform.

Although the enhancement is small compared to actual drugs, it can be the difference between a gold medal and a silver medal. Best of all, “extra blood” was never something WADA tested for.

But WADA wasn’t going to sit by and be fooled. What it came up with in response might be a solution to stop doping once and for all: an athlete biological passport (ABP). The idea is to record some biological features of an athlete through testing done at regular intervals. The biological passport’s partial implementation (实施)—recording blood and steroid levels—began in January 2014.

When all necessary biological features are finally combined, WADA will no longer need to worry about finding new methods to detect a drug. It will only have to detect (检测) resulting changes in the body. In the case of blood doping, if the athlete’s normal red-blood-cell count is, say, 47%, but then is found to be 51% after a competition, cheating may have been involved.

WADA is confident that the biological passport could even prevent genetic changes—the ultimate, ever-lasting enhancement—which are surely coming next. If an athlete inserts a performance enhancing gene, it will probably leave detectable changes in the body, that would differ from the athlete’s feature in the biological passport.

1. What does the underlined word “boost” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A．Treatment.	B．Test.
C．Promotion.	D．Recovery.

2. What words can be used to describe the athlete biological passport?

A．Complex and expensive.	B．Simple and thorough.
C．Flexible and popular.	D．Controversial and confusing.

3. What 's the writer’s attitude towards the solution of anti-doping mentioned in the text?

A．Suspicious.	B．Positive.
C．Worried.	D．Unconcerned.

4. What can we infer about the athlete biological passport?

A．It can only be used to test blood doping.

B．It has been completely adopted by WADA.

C．It is the excellent alternative of many athletes.

D．It’s a good choice to ensure fairness in sports

【推荐2】Franklin’s Experiment: How Much Is True?

Benjamin Franklin’s famous lightning experiment has introduced generations of children to science.     1    

The well-known story is that Franklin flew a kite during a storm in 1752. At that time, there was much interest in electricity. People wanted to know if lightning was really produced by electricity.     2     He raised the kite with a piece of string tied to it. A metal key was attached to the string. A flash of lightning hit the kite, and electricity was conducted through the string to the key.     3     This, he said, proved that lightning was a form of electricity.

For years, schools have taught this story and it has inspired us and taught us that scientific experiments are important to establish the truth and to contribute towards later scientific discoveries and inventions.

However, neither the story nor the details of the experiment are entirely true. Although it has been proved that Franklin’s experiment took place, more than one scientist has questioned what really happened.     4     But scientists all agree that if Franklin had actually touched the key, he would certainly have died from the electric shock.

Scientists often question accepted ideas because they want to establish the facts. Some have even questioned the story about the apple that fell on Newton’s head and led him to come up with his theory of gravity.

    5     But in science, facts should be proved by experiments and research, and we should not always believe everything we read or hear — even if it is a great story.

A．Franklin was one of them.

B．The detail about the string and the key is true.

C．It’s true that many discoveries start with an experiment.

D．Admittedly, fiction is often more interesting than the truth.

E．Franklin then touched the key with his finger and got an electric shock.

F．However, new research suggests that the story may be fiction instead of fact.

G．This experiment proves beyond any doubt that lightning is an electric phenomenon.

【推荐3】There was a lot of news related to artificial intelligence, or AI, and machine learning. Among the stories were two dealing with direct competitions between humans and machines.

In one competition, machines that used AI performed better than human beings in a high-level reading test. Two natural language processing tools beat human in the experiment. One of the tools was built by the American technology company Microsoft. The other was created by Chinese online seller Alibaba Group.

In another competition, a computer took on humans in live, public debates.

The event demonstrated how AI-powered computers are increasingly being developed to think ' and sound like humans. The organizer of the debates, U. S. technology company IBM, announced split results. It said a majority of those watching said they felt the machine had done more to improve their knowledge of the subject. But, the human got more praise for communicating their ideas.

This year, we also explored the many ways AI and machine learning are now being used. For example, some U. S. judges use machine learning systems to help them decide when, and for how long, criminals should be jailed. The system uses computers to examine data from thousands of court cases.

One fast-growing area of AI is facial recognition, which is increasingly being used for security purposes. Recently, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport became the first in the U. s. to permit passengers to use facial recognition technology to get on flights. A Chinese company showed off an AI system it developed to recognize individuals by body shape and walking movements. The system is already being used by Chinese police in Beijing and Shanghai.

In addition, machine learning was used during 2018 to predict results of the World Cup soccer competition. The technology also created artwork that sold for a large amount of money. And it is being used to help farmer save time and money, while reducing environment-harming chemicals. Other technology systems are being used to follow farm animals and wildlife to collect information on their activities.

1. Why were the two competitions mentioned in the passage?

A．To show how much better AI and machine learning are than humans.

B．To prove AI and machine Learning got more praise for communication.

C．To show how powerful AI and machine Learning are.

D．To prove AI and machine learning have been used in the work of U. S. judges.

2. What are facial and body recognition systems used for in the passage?

A．Knowledge learning.

B．Safety control.

C．Office automation.

D．Tracking survey.

3. What can we infer from this passage?

A．AI has been widely used in every person's daily life.

B．Human can be replaced by AI in future completely.

C．More attention is being paid to AI in every part of the world.

D．More advanced Al is helping people in more and more areas.

4. Where is the text probably from?

A．A technology report.

B．A natural science magazine.

C．A science fiction.

D．A government document.

【推荐2】Thinking

·Some scientists claim that we humans are the only living things that are conscious (有意识的) — we alone are aware that we are thinking. ·No one knows how consciousness works — it is one of science’s last great mysteries. ·All your thoughts take place in the cerebrum (大脑皮质), which is at the top of your brain, and different kinds of thought are linked to different areas, called association areas. ·Each half of the cerebrum has four rounded ends called lobes (脑叶) — two at the front (frontal and temporal lobes) and two at the back (occipital and parietal lobes). ·The frontal lobe is linked to your personality and it is where you have your bright ideas. ·The temporal lobe is where you hear and understand what people say to you. ·The occipital lobe is where you work out what your eyes see. ·The parietal lobe is where you record touch, heat and cold, and pain. ·The left half of the brain controls the right side of the body. The right half controls the left side. ·One half of the brain is always dominant (in charge). Usually, the left brain is dominant, which is why 90% of people are right-handed.

1. Which part of your cerebrum is most active when you are making a telephone call?

A．The frontal lobe.	B．The temporal lobe.
C．The occipital lobe.	D．The parietal lobe.

2. Which of the following statements is true?

A．One’s personality has something to do with the frontal lobe.

B．Bright ideas come from the parietal lobe.

C．The occipital and temperal lobes are at the back of the cerebrum.

D．The occipital lobe is in charge of sound.

3. From the passage, we know the reason why around 10% of people are left-handed is that_______.

A．their frontal lobe is usually dominant

B．their temporal lobe is usually dominant

C．their right brain is usually dominant

D．their left brain is usually dominant

【推荐3】Unconfident children can improve their performance in math tests simply by saying nice things to themselves, a study suggests.

A total of 212 fourth to sixth graders, aged between 9 to 13 years old, took part in the research. The children completed a math test in two parts. At the end of the first half, researchers asked the first group of kids to talk to themselves about the amount of effort they would put into the second half of the test before carrying on. The children quietly told themselves: ''I will do my very best. '' Another group was told to consider their ability, by repeating the phrase: ''I am very good at this. '' The children were instructed to write down their given phrase, and repeat it to themselves while working on the problems, particularly when they found the work challenging. The rest of the children acted as the control group, and weren't required to say anything. A few days before completing the test, all the kids completed a survey on how they viewed their own and others' abilities.

Compared with kids who didn't do what is known as self-talking, those with low self-confidence who spoke about the effort they'd make did better in the second half of the test. The data led the researchers to conclude children who struggle with negative thoughts about their competence could improve their achievements in school by telling themselves they will put effort into a task.

However, the team said they did not find the same result among children with low self-confidence who spoke to themselves about ability, for self-talk about effort is the key. Meanwhile, they pointed out the findings may not relate to children of other ages, and more research is needed to explore this.

1. How was the research conducted?

A．By telling students to talk about their effort.	B．By comparing three groups of students.
C．By instructing students to repeat phrases.	D．By telling students not to say anything.

2. What conclusion did the researchers draw?

A．Students may benefit from talking about effort.

B．Students should talk about effort in the tests.

C．Students can benefit from talking about ability.

D．Self-talking helps all students do better in tests.

3. We can infer from the last paragraph that the research team is _________.

A．careless	B．cautious
C．stubborn	D．competitive

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Entertainment.	B．Health.
C．Education.	D．Sports.