【推荐1】Eradajere Oleita thinks she may have a partial solution for two of American’s persistent problems: garbage and poverty. It’s called the Chip Bag Project. The 26-year-old student and environmentalist from Detroit is asking a favor of local snack lovers: Rather than toss your empty chip bags into the trash, donate them so she can turn them into sleeping bags for the homeless.

Chip eaters drop off their empty bags from Doritos, Lay’s, and other favorites at two locations in Detroit: a print shop and a clothing store, where Oleita and her volunteer helpers collect them. After they sanitize the chip bags in soapy hot water, they slice them open, lay them flat, and iron them together. They use padding and liners from old coats to line the insides.

It takes about four hours to sew a sleeping bag, and each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, depending on whether they’re single-serve or family size. The result is a sleeping bag that is “waterproof, lightweight, and easy to carry around,” Oleita told the Detroit News.

Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected more than 800,000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags. Sure, it would be simpler to raise the money to buy new sleeping bags. But that’s only half the goal for Oleita — whose family moved to the United States from Nigeria a decade ago with the hope of attaining a better life — and her fellow volunteers. “They are dedicated to making an impact not only socially, but environmentally,” she says.

And, of course, there’s the symbolism of salvaging bags that would otherwise land in the trash and using them to help the homeless. It’s a powerful reminder that environmental injustice and poverty often go hand in hand. As Oleita told the media: “I think it’s time to show connections between all of these issues.”

1. What does the Chip Bag Project call on people to do?

A．To throw empty chip bags into dustbins

B．To bring empty chip bags to appointed locations

C．To donate them to those homeless

D．To sanitize empty chip bags for recycle

2. The underlined word “line” in the 2^nd paragraph probably means _________?

A．charge

B．protect

C．load

D．fill

3. What is the motivation of Oleita to carry out the Chip Bag Project?

A．To lead a better life with her immigrated family in U.S.A

B．To launch a charity project with other volunteers in school time.

C．To make a difference both socially and environmentally.

D．To help those homeless by giving them handmade sleeping bags.

4. According to the passage, what is Oleita like?

A．adaptable and extroverted

B．creative and warm-hearted

C．aggressive and capable

D．modest and generous

【推荐2】The National Trust in Britain plays an increasingly important part in the preservation for public enjoyment of the best that is left unspoiled of the British countryside. Although the Trust has received practical and moral support from the Government, it is not a rich government department. It is a voluntary association of people who care for the unspoiled countryside and historic buildings of Britain. It is a charity which depends for its existence on voluntary support from members of the public. Its primary duty is to protect places of great natural beauty and places of historical interest.
The attention of the public was the first drawn to the dangers threatening the great old houses and the castles of Britain by the death of the Lord Lothian, who left his great seventeenth-century house to the Trust together with the 4500-acre park and estate surrounding it. This gift attracted wide publicity and started the Trust’s “Country House Scheme”. Under this scheme, with the help of the Government and the general public, the Trust has been able to save and make accessible to the public about 150 of these old houses.   Last year, about 1.75 million people paid to visit these historic houses, usually at a very small charge.
In addition to country houses and open spaces, the Trust now owns some examples of ancient wind and water mills, nature reserves, 540 farms and nearly 2500 cottages or small village houses, as well as some complete villages. In these villages no one is allowed to build, develop or disturb the old village environment in any way and all the houses are maintained in their original 16th century style. Over 4,000 acres of coastline, woodland, and hill country are protected by the Trust and no development or disturbances of any kind are permitted. The public has free access to these areas and is only asked to respect the peace, beauty and wildlife.
Over the past 80 years the Trust has become a big and important organization and an essential and respected part of national life. It helps to preserve all that is of great natural beauty and of historical significance not only for future generations of Britons but also for the millions of tourists who each year invade Britain in search of a great historic and cultural heritage.
1. The National Trust is a ______.

A．government agency depending on voluntary services

B．non-profit organization depending on voluntary services

C．government department but is not rich

D．private organization supported by the government

2. The National Trust is devoted to ______.

A．preserving the best public enjoyment

B．providing the public with free access to historic buildings

C．offering better services to visitors home and abroad

D．protecting the unspoiled countryside and historic buildings

3. We can infer from Paragraph 2 that Lord Lothian ______.

A．donated all his money to the Trust

B．started the “Country House Scheme”

C．saved many old country houses in Britain

D．was influential in his time

4. All the following can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT ______.

A．the Trust is more interested in protecting the 16th century houses

B．many people came to visit the historic houses saved by the Trust

C．visitors can get free access to some places owned by the Trust

D．the Trust has a story which is longer than 80 years

5. The underlined word “invade” in the last Paragraph is closest in meaning to _____.

A．come in without permission

B．enter with invitation

C．visit in large numbers

D．appear all of a sudden

【推荐3】According to the National Federation of the Blind, fewer than l0 percent of the l. 3 million people who are legally blind in the Us are braille readers. But one woman has made a difference in their lives and my son’s life, too.

35 years ago, my son, Jared , was born blind. Fortunately , I learned about her life-changing organization when Jared’s teacher of the visually-impaired( 视力受损) introduced us to seedlings Braille Books for Children. It was founded by Debra Bonde, and although she did not plan to start a nonprofit back in l984, she ended up helping blind children all over the world.

A shy woman, Debra just wanted to find a volunteer job she could do without having to talk to anyone. So , she signed up for a braille transcription(转录)   class in the hope of translating books into braille in the basement of her Detroit home.

Debra began transcribing popular children’s books, like “Oh, The Thinks you Can Think” , printing them on a braille printer and selling them for just the cost of the paper.

Word spread among parents and teachers of blind children, and demand grew for more of her books. Friends helped her to form a nonprofit so she could start getting grants(拨款) and donations to help with production costs. She named it seedlings Braille Books for Children because she believes that if you give a child a book, the love for reading will grow.   That first year, she printed 22l books. Seedlings has produced and distributed more than 600 ,000 books across the world so far. They give half of their books away for free. The other half are sold for an average price of only 10 dollars each, about half the cost of producing them.

As a mother, I appreciated that seedlings provided “ typical ” experiences for Jared in school. Seedlings supplied braille books to the libraries of the school Jared attended so he could check out books just like his sighted classmates. Since books from seedlings were affordable, it was possible to have a home library. Without the childhood skills seedlings provided to Jared, he would not have a job as a software engineer now.

1. How did the author get to know the organization seedlings Braille Books for Children?

A．From Jared’ s teacher.

B．From the library.

C．From her friend.

D．From other parents.

2. Why did Debra sign up for a braille transcription class?

A．To make a living.	B．To read more braille books.
C．To do volunteer work alone.	D．To start anon-profit organization.

3. Which of the following can best describe Debra Bonde?

A．Talented and social.	B．shy and generous.
C．Helpful and brave.	D．Mild and neat.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A． The author lived an easy and rich life.

B．Jared got along well with all his classmates.

C．The author attached importance to her son’s reading.

D．Jared will spread the skills he learned during his childhood.

【推荐1】Forecasting the technological future is difficult. Back in the 1980s, the thought of carrying around a small, portable phone seemed to belong in the world of science fiction. Then in the 1990s, imagining a phone that would allow you to surf the Internet something that didn’t even exist until 1990 was unheard-of. Today, smartphones can surf the Web, run applications and play games,and those with a near field communication (NFC) chip can act as a way to make purchases. And they can still make phone calls, too.

So what will phones look like in 2050? Based upon phone customer behavior, I imagine the future phones will rely more on combiningour physical lives with our digital lives. They probably won’t be similar to the ones we’re reusing now. They’ll be built into other devices and products. Imagine a pair of glasses that can display a digital overlay on top of your physical surroundings.

I don’t think video chat is taking off despite services like Skype and FaceTime. Rather, the trend seems to be toward asynchronous (非同步的) communication. That means the two or more people in a conversation complete a discussion over time.

We might even see the phone part of phones disappear. Recent phone customer behavior suggests that texting is a more popular way to communicate than telephone calls. Future phones will need a way to display messages but don’t necessarily include voice communication.

Since we’re talking about 2050 here, there’s even the possibility that research into brain-computer interfaces (脑机接口) will have reached a point in which we won’t need a physical screen or microphone at all. Electronics could be built into clothing. You’d link the devices to an interface connected to your brain and post messages just through thought. I’d be a form of telepathy (心灵感应).

But what do you think? Will we be wearing devices that let us communicate easily? Or will we be carrying around the iPhone 47 and answering texts between games of Angry Birds? Let us know your predictions.

1. What will future phones be like according to the author?

A．Texting may disappear.

B．NFC chips can be used for purchasing.

C．Phones will combine our lives with our work.

D．Phones may be built into other products.

2. With the development of brain-computer interfaces,                      .

A．we may send messages just through thought

B．phones can be connected directly to your brain

C．clothing may be made into the screen of phones

D．telepathy between people and animals may come true

3. From the text, we know that          .

A．people started surfing the Internet in the 1980s

B．we will be carrying around the iPhone 47 in 2050

C．the author’s prediction about phones is based on phone customer behavior

D．the author is negative about the development of brain-computer interfaces

4. Which column of the newspaper does the passage come from?

A．Economy.	B．Science.
C．Health.	D．Entertainment.

【推荐2】No one is sure how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near Cairo．But a new study suggests they used a little rock’n’roll. Long ago builders could have attached wooden poles to the stones and rolled them across the sand, the scientists say．

“Technically, I think what they’re proposing is possible. ”physicist Daniel Bonn said．

People have long puzzled over how the Egyptians moved such huge rocks. And there’s no obvious answer．On average, each of the two million big stones weighed about as much as a large pickup truck．The Egyptians somehow moved the stone blocks to the pyramid site from about one kilometer away．

The most popular view is that Egyptian workers slid the blocks along smooth paths．Many scientists suspect workers first would have put the blocks on sleds. Then they would have dragged them along paths．To make the work easier, workers may have lubricated the paths either with wet clay or with the fat from cattle．Bonn has now tested this idea by building small sleds and dragging heavy objects over sand．

Evidence from the sand supports this idea．Researchers found small amounts of fat, as well as a large amount of stone and the remains of paths．

However, hyficmt Josepn West thought there might have been a simpler way, who led the new study. West said, “I was inspired while watching a television program showing how sleds might have helped with pyramid construction．I thought, “Why don’t they just try rolling the things?”A square could be turned into a rough sort of wheel by attaching wooden poles to its sides, he realized. That, he noted, should make a block of stone“a lot easier to roll than a square”．

So he tried it．

He and his students tied some poles to each of four sides of a 30-kilogram stone block．That action turned the block into somewhat a wheel. Then they placed the block on the ground．

They wrapped one end of a rope around the block and pulled．The researchers found they could easily roll the block along different kinds of paths．They calculated that rolling the block required about as much force as moving it along a slippery path．

West hasn’t tested his idea on larger blocks, but he thinks rolling has clear advantages over sliding. At least, workers wouldn’t have needed to carry cattle fat or water to smooth the paths．

1. It’s widely believed that the stone blocks were moved to the pyramid site by______．

A．rolling them on roads	B．pushing them over the sand
C．sliding them on smooth paths	D．dragging them on some poles、

2. The underlined part“lubricated the paths”in Paragraph 4 means“_______”．

A．made the paths wet	B．made the paths slippery
C．made the paths wide	D．made the paths hard

3. Why is rolling better than sliding according to West?

A．Because more force is needed for sliding．

B．Because less preparation on paths is needed for rolling．

C．Because sliding on smooth roads is more dangerous．

D．Because rolling work can be done by fewer cattle．

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．An experiment on ways of moving blocks to the pyramid site．

B．An application of the method of moving blocks to the pyramid site．

C．An argument about different methods of moving blocks to the pyramid site．

D．An introduction to a possible new way of moving blocks to the pyramid site．

【推荐3】A scientist goes to a forest to study monkeys. He or she wants to study their habits and behavior. But the problem is: how to know who’s who?

In the past, scientists had to make marks on each of the animals to distinguish them. But in the future, they may have a much easier way to tell them apart thanks to facial recognition technology.

A research team from China’s Northwest University is using facial recognition technology to identify thousands of snub-nosed monkeys (金丝猴) that live on Qinling Mountain in Shaanxi province.

Similar to human facial recognition, the technology that is used to identify monkeys uses their facial features to create a database that includes every monkey, Xinhua reported.

“When the system is fully developed, we can connect it with cameras set up in the mountains. The system will automatically recognize the monkeys, name them and analyze their behavior,” said Zhang He, a member of the research team.

“For each snub-nosed monkey, we have 700 to 800 image samples, and the recognition success rate is 94 percent,” Zhang added.

Compared with facial recognition technology for humans, facial recognition technology for monkeys is more complicated because monkeys have hairier faces. The color of their hair causes them to blend into their environment. These factors make it harder for computers to do the job.

“Monkeys do not cooperate with researchers in the same way humans do. It is difficult to take high-quality pictures and videos of them, which are needed to improve the system,” said Li Baoguo, leader of the research team.

Currently, there are about 4,000 snub-nosed monkeys living on Qinling Mountain. The team’s goal is to successfully identify every monkey that lives there.

1. What problem do scientists face while studying monkeys?

A．How to mark them.	B．How to tell them apart.
C．How to understand their behavior.	D．How to use facial recognition technology.

2. Which of the following is TRUE about facial recognition technology for monkeys?

A．It needs to be connected to cameras to work.

B．It works better than human facial recognition.

C．It was developed by a research team in Shanxi province.

D．It requires a database of about 700 to 800 pictures of monkeys.

3. What does “These factors” in Paragraph 7 refer to ________.
a. image samples       b. hairy faces       c. hair color       d. the environment

A．ab

B．ac

C．bc

D．bd

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．A scientific study of snub-nosed monkeys on Qinling Mountain.

B．The use of facial recognition technology for studying monkeys.

C．The difficulties of using facial recognition technology for monkeys.

D．Different ways to identify snub-nosed monkeys on Qinling Mountain.