【推荐1】Mapping Antarctica

Antarctica was on the map long before anyone ever laid eyes on it. Nearly 2,400 years ago, ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle believed that a great continent must exist at the bottom of the world. They though it was needed to balance out the continents at the top of the world. In the 1500s, mapmakers often included a fanciful continent they referred to as Terra Incognita(Latin for “unknown land”) at the bottom of their maps. But it was not until the 1800s -----after explorers had sighted and set foot on Antarctica----- that mapmakers got down to the business of really mapping the continent, which is one—and—a –half times rhe size of the U.S..

While the coastline could be mapped by ships sailing around the continent, it took airplanes—and later, satellites---to chart Antarctica’s vast interior(内陆). That job continues today. And it is a job that still require a mapmaker, or cartographer, to put on boots and head out into the wild.

Cole Kelleher is familiar with that. He is a cartographer with the Polar Geospatial Center(PGC), which is based at the University of Minnesota and has a staff at McMurdo Station. PGC teamed up with Google to use the company’s Trekker technology to capture images of Antarctica for the Internet giant’s popular feature, Street View. A Trekker camera, which is the size of a basketball, is set about two feet above a backpack. The camera records image in all directions. “It weighs about 50 pounds. I was out for two and a half days, hiking 10 to 12 hours each day,” says Kelleher. It was hard work, but really an incredible experience.” According to Kelleher there are plans to use the technology to create educational apps for museums.

The PGC staff at McMurdo Station provides highly specialized mapmaking services for the U.S. Antarctic Program. For one project, Kelleher used satellite images to map huge cracks in the ice. That helped a team of researchers know whether they could safely approach their field camp on snowmobiles. Another recent project was to help recover a giant, high—tech helium(氦气) balloon used to carry scientific instruments high into the atmosphere. These balloons are launched in Antarctica because there is no danger that they will hurt anyone when they fall back down to Earth. Using satellite images, Kelleher and colleagues created maps of where the balloon could be found.

Antarctica may no longer be Terra Incognita, but it still holds countless mysteries. Cartographers and the maps they make will continue to be essential in helping scientists unlock those secrets.

1. From the passage, we can infer that Antarctica was on the map in the 1500s when________.

A．mapmakers knew it was much larger than the U.S.

B．Aristotle named the continent Terra Incognita

C．no one had ever seen or been to the continent

D．it was such an interesting continent as was often referred to

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．It needs much work for the mapmakers to head out into the wild.

B．The interior can only be mapped by planes and satellites.

C．It is relatively easy to map Antarctica’s coastline by ship.

D．Antarctic is a vast but still mysterious continent.

3. The Polar Geospatial Center (PGC) works with Google initially_________.

A．to capture images of Antarctica for Street View

B．to test the company’s Trekker technology

C．to create educational apps for museums

D．to hike for an incredible experience

4. The fourth paragraph mainly talks about _______.

A．satellite images which are used to map huge cracks in the ice

B．a high-tech helium balloon for carrying scientific instruments

C．how to safely approach the researcher’s field camp and the balloon

D．the specialized mapmaking services provided by the PGC staff

【推荐2】Organic produce has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, "organic" does not mean "pesticide-free"（无农药的）or "chemical-free". In fact, organic farmers are allowed to use a wide variety of chemical sprays and powders on their crops.

    1     It means that these pesticides, if used, must be got from natural sources, not synthetically（人工合成地）manufactured. Also, these pesticides must be applied using equipment that has not been used to apply any synthetic materials for the past three years.     2     What's more, most organic farmers, and even some conventional farmers, employ mechanical and cultural tools to help control pests.

Many people believe organic produce is healthier and safer. Nobody bothered to look at whether natural chemicals are harmful.     3     But when the studies were done, you found that about half of the natural chemicals studied could cause cancer.     4     We assume that "natural" chemicals were better and safer than synthetic materials, but we were wrong.     5    

A．And the land being planted cannot have been-treated with synthetic materials for that period either.

B．Thus, we should be more cautious in our acceptance of "natural" as being harmless.

C．There are many choices and decisions that we, as consumers, are asked to make.

D．It should be noted that we don't know which system is more harmful.

E．This is a case where everyone made the same dangerous mistake.

F．That was because it was assumed that they posed little risk.

G．So what does organic mean?

【推荐1】Turtles have a habit of eating plastic objects floating in the sea, which may kill them. Many believe that it is because floating plastic bags look similar to jellyfish, which many types of turtles love to eat. However, lots of plastic objects that turtles eat do not look like jellyfish at all. Joseph Pfaller of the University of Florida doubts that the smell of sea micro-organisms（微生物） which live on floating plastic objects attract turtles to eat.

The kind of idea first appeared in 2016. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, noticed that certain chemicals, especially dimethyl sulphide（二甲基硫）, which can be found on plastics where micro-organisms live, are those which many seabirds sniff（嗅）to find food. These birds are more likely to eat plastics.

Since turtles usually appear above the sea surface and sniff the air when going to their feeding areas, Dr. Pfaller believed that they are following these same chemicals like those seabirds and mistakenly think that floating plastic objects are edible.

To test that idea, he and his team did an experiment using loggerhead turtles. They exposed 15 turtles to four smells: the smell of clean water; the smell of turtle-feeding food; the smell of a clean plastic bottle; and the smell of a bottle that had been kept in the ocean for five weeks to allow micro-organisms to grow on it. When sniffing both the smell of turtle-feeding food and that of five-week-old bottles, turtles kept their noses out of the water more than three times as long, and took twice as many breaths as they did when sniffing the smell of fresh bottle-plastic or clean water.

Though they have not yet tested whether dimethyl sulphide on the five-week-old bottles cause turtles to eat plastic objects, Dr. Pfaller and his team think it is highly possible.

1. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word "edible"?

A．pleasing the eyes	B．suitable for use as food
C．holding the attention	D．concerned with actual use

2. Why is the research on seabirds mentioned?

A．Seabirds prefer the smell of the plastic bottles.

B．Seabirds feed on the food similar to the turtles'.

C．Seabirds produce a certain micro-organism.

D．Seabirds break up the plastics without difficulty.

3. What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To suggest a new way to study turtles.

B．To stress the importance of sea protection.

C．To introduce the findings on the cause of turtles' death.

D．To discuss the overusę of the plastic bottles.

4. In which section of a newspaper may the passage appear?

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

【推荐2】Nowadays, the most effective way to get power comes from burning fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. They are less costly than other forms of energy. But burning fuels releases carbon dioxide, known as CO₂ gas. Scientists agree that increasing amount of CO₂ in Earth’s atmosphere is partly to blame for the rising temperature. It's clear the change in the atmosphere can have a big effect on the weather condition around the world.

However, keeping extra CO₂ from entering the atmosphere is a difficult process. It’s not enough to advise people to burn the fuels in a clean way. As a result, scientists are looking for the best method for capturing the gas and storing it away from the atmosphere. Some of this research is taking place in Norway. The Technology Center in Mongstad (TCM) is the largest facility in the world for major testing of the CO₂-capturing technology.

Tore Amundsen is its chairman. He says TCM has produced important information since it opened. The center is connected to a nearby electric power plant. It treats the waste gas from the plant using the chemical solvent (溶剂) which attracts the CO₂ molecules. Then researchers take the solvent with the CO₂ molecules and boil it. In this way, they can separate CO₂ from the solvent and use the solvent again to capture more CO₂. TCM can help capture 90 percent of the CO₂ from the waste gas. With the current state of technology, it will increase the cost of electricity between perhaps 30% to 40% when the technology is applied to a power plant.

Experts say the best way to store the captured CO₂ gas is to place it below the surface of the ground. Scientists can use the pumping technology to put it into areas left empty after the removal of oil or natural gas. But TCM does not pump the CO₂ it captures. Instead, it releases the gas into the atmosphere. Tore Amundsen says only highly developed industrial nations can afford the pumping technology. So far, only Canada has a power plant that pumps CO₂ gas. In total, there are just a few similar power plants in the world.

1. What can we learn about the CO₂ gas?

A．It is usually found in coal.

B．It leads to world climate change.

C．It is a new kind of energy.

D．It does good to the atmosphere.

2. Scientists want to deal with CO₂ gas by_________.

A．sending it into the atmosphere

B．finding clean fuels to use

C．collecting it with technology

D．stopping people from burning fuels

3. Which of the following is TRUE about TCM?

A．It works well in treating the waste gas.

B．It’s the only center to study the CO2 gas.

C．It was set up by Tore Amundsen.

D．It helps the power plant save a lot of money.

4. According to experts, the captured CO₂ gas________.

A．can be used with oil or natural gas

B．should be put underground

C．must be allowed to go into the air

D．should stay in the chemical solvent

【推荐2】Many people will be familiar with automated writing through Gmail. Smart Reply provides brief answers to routine emails. If someone asks “Do you want to meet at 3 pm?”, Gmail offers one-click responses such as “Sure!”

The New Yorker’s John Seabrook recently described a more powerful version of this technology, called GPT-2, which can ably mimic (模拟) his magazine’s style. Such systems use a digital network of billions of artificial “neurons” (神经元) with virtual “synapses” — the connections between neurons — that strengthen as the network “learns”, in this case from 40 gigabytes（千兆字节）— worth of online writing. The version Mr. Seabrook tested was polished with back-issues of the New Yorker.

The metaphor of the brain is attractive, but “neurons” and “synapses” deserve those scare-quotes        ( 双引号). The system is merely making some—admittedly very complex—statistical guesses about which words follow which in a New Yorker-style sentence.

What escapes computers is creativity. They cannot create a topic or goal on their own, much less plan how to get there with logic and style. At various points in the online version of his article, readers can see how GPT-2 would have carried on writing Mr. Seabrook’s piece for him. The writing gives the impression of being human. But on closer inspection it is empty, even incoherent.

Meaningless writing is the preserve of artificial intelligence. But to truly write, you must first have something to say. Computers do not. They await instructions. To compose meaningful   essays, the likes of GPT-2 will first have to be integrated with databases of real-world knowledge.

1. Why does the author mention Gmail in the first paragraph?

A．To prepare for the introduction of the topic.	B．To advertise the powerful Gmail.
C．To describe the feature of Gmail.	D．To prove the strength of the Gmail.

2. In what way is GPT-2 more powerful than Gmail?

A．It is creative.	B．It has neurons with synapses.
C．It can offer quick answers.	D．It can follow a certain writing style.

3. What can we learn from the last two paragraphs?

A．GPT-2 is powerful because it is integrated to real-world knowledge.

B．GPT-2 has already been able to write meaningful essays.

C．GPT-2 still has a long way to write like humans.

D．GPT-2 can help Mr. Seabrook with writing very well.

4. Where is the passage taken from?

A．A brochure.	B．An advertisement.
C．A magazine.	D．An essay.

【推荐3】The United Nations predicts worldwide temperatures over the next five years may at times rise to more than 1.5 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels. The U.N.’s World Meteorological(气象的) Organization, WMO, said the prediction suggests continued warming could present a challenge to climate change goals set in the 2015 Paris Agreement,which seeks to limit world temperature rises through major cuts in human-caused greenhouse gases.

The WMO said there was a 20 percent chance that the yearly average temperature will rise above 1.5 Celsius higher than the pre-industrial average levels in at least one year.The report identifies 1850-1900 as the pre-industrial period.That does not mean that the average would be crossing the long-term target of 1.S Celsius that scientists have set as the limit for avoiding catastrophic(灾难性的) climate change.

Temperatures over the last five years have been the warmest on record, the WMO reported. Temperatures over the next five years are very likely to be within the range of 0.91 to 1.59Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it predicted. Southern Africa and Australia, where fires last year destroyed millions of hectares(公顷)，will probably be drier than usual through 2024, the report said. Africa’s Sahel region is likely be wetter, while Europe should see more storms.

Maxx Dilley, the WMO’s director of climate services, told the Associated Press the predictions are worrisome. “It shows how close we’re getting to what the Paris Agreement is trying to prevent,” he said.Still,Dilley added that it would not be impossible for countries to reach the target set in Paris,of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius,by the end of the century. Petteri Taalas, the WMO Secretary-General, added, “While COVID-19 has caused a severe international health and economic crisis, failure to cope with climate change may threaten human well-being, ecosystems and economies for centuries.”

1. According to WMO,the continued warming is

A．in an alarming trend.	B．Out of control.
C．Naturally developing.	D．Far from worry.

2. What does the author try to tell us in Paragraph 3?

A．Temperatures will have a sudden rise.

B．People in Africa should get more help.

C．Fires in Australia will last over 5 years.

D．Our living environment is getting worse.

3. Which word best describes Maxx Dilley’s attitude to continued warming?

A．Carefree.

B．Objective.

C．Indifferent.

D．Scared.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Global impact of Climate change.

B．The most serious challenge we face.

C．UN predicts more rising temperatures.

D．How do we cope with continued warming.