【推荐2】Our brain is a wonderful and complicated organ.     1    

In recent years, scientists have discovered new ways to study the brain. They can now watch the activities of different parts of our brain while it is at work. We can think of these techniques as new windows on our minds.

    2     It can take pictures of your brain in much the same way as an X-ray machine can take pictures of your bones. This method makes use of the fact that whenever a part of your brain becomes more active, it uses more oxygen.

If someone were to use this technique to study your brain, your head would be surrounded by a machine that includes a big magnet (磁铁).     3     With the help of a computer, it turns these signals into pictures. By taking pictures every few seconds, scientists can tell which parts of your brain become active when you think of something, such as multiplying ten three times.

    4     Without stored memories, we would not be able to remember words we have learned or find our way home.

Everything we learn must be stored as memories in our brain.     5     Once a change is made, it must remain, even after the effort to learn has stopped.

A．One new research method is called FMRI.

B．This device can discover tiny signals coming from oxygen.

C．Most of our memories are stored away out of our awareness.

D．Storing memories is one of the most important jobs our brain does.

E．Keeping that information in our brain means our brain changes.

F．When we need them, they can be “copied” and placed for immediate use.

G．Scientists have been working for centuries to understand how it works.

【推荐3】“Hello Mother, Dad, and Blanche,” a quiet voice, has clearly been played many times over. “How’s everything at home? I’m recording this from Dallas…” The disc is small, seven inches across, dated October 1954. The old label shows that the speaker’s name is “Gene”. Gene suggests in his minute-long message that he is traveling and tells his family not to worry about him.

This forgotten sound is one of the world’s early “voice mails”. During the first half of the 20th century, these “voice mails” and other messages were recorded largely, pressed onto metal discs and vinyl records (黑胶唱片) and mailed in places all over the world. When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph (留声机) in 1877, he expected a device that could reproduce music and even store languages.

The gramophone, a later form of the phonograph developed by Emile Berliner in 1887, provided a first possibility for recorded sound being used for long distance communication. The practice of sending “voice mails” really got going across the world in the 1930s and 1940s. Back then, families could listen to the messages on repeat — gathering together around the record player whenever one arrived. They could play it proudly again anytime there were guests, but with each play, the needle would scrape away at the grooves (凹槽) until the message could hardly be heard any longer.

Today at Princeton University, professor Thomas Levin is trying to store these sounds of the past. Linguists (语言学家) are particularly interested in “voice mails” because it provides some of the earliest-ever recorded samples of how regular people spoke — their conversational vocabulary, their pronunciation and accents, their sentence structure and their intonation (语调).

1. Why did Gene record his voice in the disc?

A．To let his family know he was OK.	B．To prepare for his experiment.
C．To test an old vinyl record.	D．To keep a memory.

2. Which of the following is the disadvantage of gramophone?

A．People couldn’t listen to the music in it.

B．It couldn’t keep voice in the records very clear.

C．The recorded sound would be damaged by the needle.

D．The needle of the gramophone must be changed often.

3. For what do linguists study “voice mails”?

A．To research the earliest-ever recorded voice.

B．To prove recorded samples are true.

C．To learn from famous historical linguists.

D．To reproduce the sound of the past.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Early Days of Recorded Sound	B．The Importance of “Voice Mails”
C．The Development of Our Language	D．The History of “Voice Mails”

【推荐1】Bees are a big part of the life cycle of plants, carrying pollen from one flower to another and allowing plants to produce their frequently yummy output. But with bee populations on the decline, what can take their place? How about soap bubbles(肥皂泡)?

It may sound fantastical. But Eijiro Miyako and his colleague at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have used battery—powered bubble makers to pollinate(授粉)a pear orchard. The details of their magical approach to agriculture are in the journal Science.

A few years back, Miyako and his team tried to copy the pollinating of honeybees by adopting a two—inch-long toy drone with brushes made of horsehair. But the tiny flyer was tough to control. And its hairy little brushes ended up damaging the delicate targets.

After spending some time blowing bubbles with his son, Miyako started thinking more seriously about these soapy little wonders. He figured bubbles would be sticky enough to carry and deliver a pollen load but soft and flexible, so they shouldn’t hurt a blossom when they land. The researchers chemically bettered their soapy solution to make bubbles that were mechanically stable and actually enhanced the pollination process. Out in the orchard, they aimed their soap bubbles at row after row of pear trees. And they found the bubble system worked just as well as the more labor—intensive pollination by hand: pear trees pollinated by bubble eventually yielded fruit—a sweet sign of success. Miyako has also upgraded the drone—this time using a larger model—equipped with a machine that lets out a huge number of bubbles in a short time. And it has a big advantage over the hand—held model. Because it’s fully autonomously controllable by GPS with Google Map. So the drones can make a beeline to where farmers need them, you know, to be.

1. Why do people try other ways to help pollinate plants?

A．Because raising bees needs much labor.

B．Because the number of bees is decreasing.

C．Because bees work inefficiently.

D．Because bees produce less honey now.

2. What was the problem with the toy drone?

A．It was hard to operate.	B．It couldn’t work from a distance.
C．It produced few bubbles.	D．It needed to be recharged often.

3. What can we learn about the upgraded drone?

A．It is a hand—held model.	B．It is much more efficient.
C．It hurts blossoms sometimes.	D．It is too large to be controllable.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Pear trees bear less fruit recently	B．The population of bees is decreasing
C．Drones benefit modern agriculture	D．Soap bubbles help pollinate plants

【推荐1】Zou Yi, an environmentalist who lives in Beijing, has been filming the air quality near his home using his cellphone since 2013. For almost a decade till now, he has taken more than two million photos to chronic Beijing’s major environmental changes. The main purpose of taking these photos is to objectively record the changes of Beijing’s air quality every day.

After two months, Zou Yi juxtaposed (并列) 64 photos he took and posted them online. His move generated extensive discussion.

The fact that China is the first major developing country to fight against PM2.5 may sound unfamiliar to many, but most people have probably heard about the country’s action plan for preventing and controlling air pollution, or its critical battle against pollution. China has also demonstrated firm resolution in carbon reduction. As a result, clear skies and fresh air are returning to major cities.

Air quality has improved notably. Days with good air quality accounted for 87.5 percent of 2021, up 6.3 percentage points from 2015, making China the nation with the greatest air-quality improvement worldwide, according to official reports. The number of the people who follow the daily air quality photos is probably less than 10% of what it used to be. The less attention means that air pollution is not an issue anymore.

1. Why has Zou Yi been taking photos of Beijing’s sky?

A．To collect photos for his WeChat Friend Circle.

B．To make remarks on Beijing’s unique scenes.

C．To chart the changes of Beijing’s air quality.

D．To track the changes of Beijing’s temperature.

2. What’s Beijing’s current sky like?

A．Totally clean.	B．Remarkably improved.
C．Misty and cloudy.	D．Smoggy and dusty.

3. What does the underlined part mean in the fourth paragraph?

A．put up

B．wind up

C．make up

D．show up

4. From the last passage, we can infer that ______.

A．air pollution is still a key concern for Beijing’s residents

B．more and more people are concerned about air pollution now

C．there used to be fewer people taking photos of climate changes in Beijing

D．China has set a good example for the world in dealing with air pollution

【推荐3】At a conference on self-driving cars, Mike Harp, a government official, asked a seemingly simple question about what happens when his own car meets a driver-less vehicle. “If I honk(按喇叭), will it do any good?” Harp wanted to know. Unfortunately, manufacturers didn't have an answer. “We haven’t reached that point of deciding how and whether it would be appropriate for vehicles to react and in which way to honking,” said one of them. The brief exchange highlights a thorn in the side of automakers and policymakers alike: Self-driving cars will have to share the road with human drivers, likely for decades to come. Those vehicles must therefore respond and adapt to the peculiarities and mistakes of humans behind wheel.

Self-driving technology has already come a long way. Cars being tested on the road today use cameras and radar, for example, to detect the movements of nearby cyclists and pedestrians. There are already driver-assist technologies built into some cars that monitor the speed of vehicles around you, detect potential accidents before they occur, and automatically slow or stop the car to avoid a wreck. In a world where all cars drive themselves, the technology could operate at peak efficiency. Supporters of self-driving cars say that speed limits could be raised and fatal crashes largely avoided as no traffic laws are broken and poor drivers become a thing of the past.

But the change to driver-less vehicles is expected to be gradual, and will likely start with ride-sharing services, as the costs of personally owning a self-driving car remain extremely high. That means man and machine will have to play nice on roadways. “There are so many interesting situations,” such as honking a horn, Harp said. When “another car with a driver meets a self-driving car without a driver in there and they realize that, it will frighten some people. How that’s going to be dealt with will be part of the fun part of this process.

Any driver can tell you that driving involves a lot of social interaction, particularly the hand gestures and eye contact of fellow drivers. Much of that interaction between drivers will eventually be digital as cars increasingly collect data and share it with the vehicles around them. If a car speeds up, slows down or prepares for a stop, for example, that would be communicated immediately and electronically to the other vehicles on the road. Like self-driving technology however, it will be years before the vehicle-to-vehicle communication is common.

That challenge is being taken into account as driver-less vehicles are tested on public roads. But the honking issue is particularly tricky because it’s subject to interpretation. It’s going to be really hard for a driver-less vehicle, even if it hears the honk, to figure out what that honk means.

1. In paragraph 1, “a thorn” refers to ____________.

A．the issue that human drivers have peculiarities and make mistakes

B．the prediction that self-driving cars will be common in the future

C．the fact that driver-less cars co-exist with cars driven by humans

D．the technology that ensures driver-less cars are safe on the road

2. Which of the following can be inferred from the last two paragraph?

A．Most people don’t advocate self-driving technology

B．Inter-vehicle communication is superior to inter-personal interaction

C．Social interaction will decrease among drivers behind the wheel

D．More data is needed to make self-driving technology a reality much sooner

3. Which example is used to illustrate that self-driving technology is not something new?

A．A car communicates its speed to the other vehicles

B．A driver-less ear is likely to frighten human drivers

C．Speed limits are raised in a world of self-driving cars

D．Car cameras and radar are used to detect moving people.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．The simple question about self-driving cars we still can’t answer

B．A golden opportunity for driver-less cars we can’t afford to miss

C．Hidden secrets of self-driving cars we can’t reveal

D．Potential risks of driver-less cars we can’t ignore