【推荐1】Why do people lie? Many psychologists agree that lying can start from childhood. There are various reasons why children make false statements. They usually tell untruthful stories to cover up the mistakes that they have done in the past. Lying is also a way to avoid receiving punishments from parents. If parents fail to reprimand their children for making up false stories, then there is a possibility that they will continue to lie during their teenage years.

Teenagers lie because they want to be accepted by their friends. This is the main reason why they create stories that are not true just to become presentable and acceptable to other people. In some instances, teenagers tell untruthful statements to avoid criticisms from their families and friends.

As teenagers grow, lying becomes one of their habits. Their knowledge on making up untruthful stories becomes more developed. People lie in workplaces if they fail to meet the deadlines and if they fail to accomplish and do their tasks efficiently. Some of the common lies made in workplaces are getting sick and having emergencies at home. The danger involved in frequent lying is when it becomes a character. Frequent lying causes the development of the condition known to doctors as pathological(病态的) lying.

Pathological lying is a mental health condition, which is associated with individuals who have the urge to tell untruthful statements. Patients suffering from it make up stories about everything and anything. These individuals pretend to meet the standards of other people who they want to please. These patients cheat other people because it gives them an unexplained pleasure. One of the best ways of treating pathological liars is to help them tell true statements and stories at all times. This may be hard for them, but as they are accustomed to it, they will start to realize that they will be more accepted by their families and other people if they stop themselves from making up false stories.

1. The underlined word “reprimand” in Paragraph 1 means “________”.

A．satisfy

B．criticize

C．discourage

D．praise

2. Teenagers tell lies mainly because they want to ________.

A．avoid being punished	B．fool other people
C．attract others’ attention	D．satisfy others

3. What are patients suffering pathological lying most likely to do?

A．They really want to play jokes on others.

B．They always like making up pleasing stories.

C．They usually want to show off themselves by making some statements.

D．They often suffer from some other diseases.

4. How does the writer explain pathological lying?

A．By showing some typical examples.

B．By predicting the future consequences.

C．By analyzing its causes and development.

D．By listing a group of phenomena.

【推荐2】Curiosity is what drives us to keep learning, keep trying, keep pushing forward. But how does one generate (产生) curiosity, in oneself or others? George Loewenstein, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, offered an answer in the classic1994 paper, “The Psychology of Curiosity.”

Curiosity arises, Loewenstein wrote, “when attention becomes focused on a gap in one's knowledge. Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation (匮乏) labeled curiosity. The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce the feeling of deprivation.” Loewenstein's theory helps explain why curiosity is such a force: it's not only a mental state but also an emotion, a powerful feeling that drives us forward.

Scientist Daniel Willingham notes that teachers are often “so eager to get to the answer that we do not devote enough time to developing the question.” Yet it's the question that stimulates (刺激) curiosity; being told an answer stops curiosity before it can even get going.

In his 1994 paper, George Loewenstein noted that curiosity requires some basic knowledge. We're not curious about something we know absolutely nothing about. But as soon as we know even a little bit, our curiosity is aroused and we want to learn more. In fact, research shows that curiosity increases with knowledge: the more we know, the more we want to know. To get this process started, Loewenstein suggests, take steps with some interesting but incomplete information.

Language teachers have long used communication in exercises that open an information gap and then require learners to communicate with each other in order to fill it. For example, one student might be given a series of pictures for the beginning of the story, while the student's partner is given a series of pictures showing how that same story ends. Only by speaking with each other (in the foreign language they are learning, of course) can the students fill in each others' information gaps.

1. When one notices a gap in his knowledge, he       .

A．desires to fill it

B．tends to be afraid

C．might get tired and sad

D．will become focused on his learning

2. What does Daniel Willingham imply in the article?

A．Answers are more important than questions.

B．Teachers should be eager to get to the answer.

C．Teachers know how to stimulate students’ curiosity.

D．Teachers are partly to blame for students’ hating school.

3. According to George Loewenstein’s paper, curiosity about something occurs only when you       .

A．have read a lot of books	B．know little about something
C．have some related information	D．are given incomplete information

4. What is the article mainly about?

A．Why students hate school.

B．Why curiosity is important.

C．How to stimulate curiosity.

D．What makes people hungry for knowledge.

【推荐3】Have you ever wondered if you see the same colours as other people? Most people know what blue is when they see it. They call it “blue” because they were taught the word and connected it with what they saw. But how do you know what you see as blue isn’t someone else’s red?

The ability to perceive(感知)different colours is up to receptors(接受器)in our eyes. Light waves hit these receptors and they react depending on which colour the light is, sending signals to the brain. The brain then reads these signals to determine which colour light the eyes are receiving.

Some people’s receptors are more developed than others. The inability of the receptor to feel the light waves correctly means that some people cannot tell the differences between similar colours. Those with more developed receptors can see more colours. We sometimes hear people having an argument about whether something is dark blue or black. It might be because one person has stronger receptors to feel the light than another.

In the past, most scientists would argue that everyone saw colours in the same way. However, research was conducted on monkeys, in which their receptors were changed. This enabled them to see more colours than usual. Normally monkeys can only see blue and green,but the change allowed them to see red. Their brains automatically got used to new colours. This suggests that our brains may find new colors of the things we see. Colours could be a very personal experience,unique to everyone.

So, the next time you talk about your favourite colour, just remember if yours is blue and your friend says red, you two might actually be thinking about the same colour. What if everyone in the world has the same favourite colour, but just calls it different names?

1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．How we perceive colours.

B．The inability to see colours.

C．What the brain does with signals.

D．The connection between receptors and light waves.

2. Which of the following might the author agree with?

A．Some people cannot feel colours with their developed receptors.

B．The more light people feel, the weaker receptors they have.

C．People with poor receptors usually have colour weakness.

D．People who have strong receptors can see dark blue.

3. What’s the purpose of conducting the research on monkeys?

A．To test the monkeys with colours.

B．To develop the receptors of humans.

C．To enable monkeys to find more colors.

D．To prove everyone sees colours in a different way.

4. Where does the text probably come from?

A．A film review.	B．A science magazine.
C．An art journal.	D．A science fiction

【推荐2】Are you likely to suffer from loss of memory from time to time? Smart cameras can now remind you.

Khai Truong at the University of Toronto in Canada and his colleagues have created a smartphone app that records interactions with household objects. The system involves barcode-like markers that the user sticks to objects whose use they would like to track.

With the smartphone worn around your neck, the app automatically records a short video clip when a marked object comes into view. “The user is able to look through the application and see the last time they interacted with it,” says Truong. The app can help people track the state of objects-such as whether they locked a door or switched a light off-as well as routine actions. At present, it successfully records about 75 percent of interactions, but only works for fixed objects.

A similar but separate system can solve the problem. E. Akin Sisbot and Jonathan Connell at IBM Research in New York have invented a ceiling-mounted camera that monitors objects and people. It continuously watches an area, such as a tabletop in your home, tracking the placement of objects in relation to one another. It also remembers who first brought an object into the field of view as well as if anyone moved it afterwards. When asked, “Where is my wallet?” the system might respond, “It is next to the vase, under the magazines.”

The camera could also be used in factories or operating theatres to track vital tools, says Sisbot. For now, the camera uses a depth sensor to spot things. It is limited to detecting objects thicker than 3 centimetres, meaning that it has trouble with thin objects such as a closed laptop placed flat on a table.

The accuracy of such smart camera systems may need to improve before they are widely adopted. “You’ve got to trust the technology for it to be of any comfort or reassurance.” says Geoffrey Ward at the University of Essex in the UK.

1. How does the smartphone app mentioned in paragraph 2-3 work?

A．By recording the movement of marked objects.	B．By informing owners of potential dangers.
C．By scanning barcodes of household objects.	D．By turning off electricity automatically.

2. What is the limitation of the ceiling-mounted camera?

A．It is unable to recognize movable objects.	B．It is unlikely that it will make a sound.
C．It fails to find objects thinner than 3 centimeters.	D．It can’t sense objects without barcode-like makers.

3. What’s Geoffrey Ward’s attitude towards the smart camera systems?

A．Sceptical.

B．Ambiguous.

C．Concerned.

D．Supportive.

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A．New Smartphones Make Life Easier	B．New Systems Help People with Memory Problems
C．Smart Cameras Help Increase Home Security	D．Camera Designers Face New Challenges

【推荐1】In 2016, China released guidelines forbidding weird(古怪的) construction, shifting their focus to the “economic, green and beautiful”. Now a new plan certainly fits the bill—Liuzhou Forest City, designed by the Italian firm Stefano Boeri Architetti, will be under construction in southern China.

The 175­hectare, self­contained neighborhood will contain more than 70 buildings—including homes, hospitals, hotels, schools and offices—all of which will be covered with 40, 000 trees and almost a million plants.This is the first experiment of the urban environment that's really trying to find a balance with nature.

The idea behind the project is to combine as many plants with the architecture as possible. The plants are expected to absorb almost 10, 000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tons of pollutants per year, and produce 900 tons of oxygen a year, while also decreasing the air temperature and providing a new habitat for displaced wildlife. Solar panels(控制板) on the roofs will collect renewable energy to power the buildings.

The project comes on the heels of Stefano Boeri Architetti's Vertical Forest, two residential towers in Milan covered in the equivalent(等同物) of five acres of forest.

“We started to imagine if it was possible to create an urban environment by planting many trees in the city, ”Boeri said. China, in his eyes, provided the perfect background for such an ambitious project.

But the project's completion is a long way off.Construction is set to begin in 2020.Boeri said there is still a lot of planning and research required before a projected completion date can be set. He remains, however, optimistic about the project, and confident about its aim. “I really think that bringing forests into the city is a way to reduce climate change, ”he said.

1. What can be concluded from the first two paragraphs?

A．A ban will be stopped quickly.

B．An Italian company will pay for the new plan.

C．A new neighborhood will satisfy the guidelines.

D．All strange buildings in China have been torn down.

2. What benefit will this project bring about?

A．Purifying the air around.	B．Controlling the climate of the area.
C．Providing habitats for all the wildlife.	D．Supplying solar energy to the world.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined part in Paragraph 4?

A．Looks like.

B．Follows.

C．Differs from.

D．Equals.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．A future forest city.	B．Liuzhou's development.
C．China's city­building policy.	D．How to change a city's climate.

【推荐2】Jason Barnes is a young musician who lives in Georgia. Eight years ago, Jason lost his right arm just below his elbow in an accident. Jason got a prosthetic (假体的) arm. But this arm could only do a few things. Jason still wanted to play music. So he went to see Gil Weinberg, who makes musical robots. To play the piano, Jason needed five fingers that could move just the way he wanted. This was a big challenge.

Living arms move when muscles respond to commands from the brain. When you think “open fingers”, your brain sends electrical signals along nerves. Some prosthetic arms use sensors (传感器) to try to read these nerve signals. But they don’t work very well. Nerves are tiny, and their signals are faint. Sensors might be able to tell that you want to move a finger. But they aren’t very good at telling which finger you want to move.

Jason doesn’t have his hand anymore, but he still has the arm muscles that move his fingers. When Jason thinks about moving his fingers, those muscles still move. To read the muscles inside Jason’s arm, the team used ultrasound (超声波). The roboticists taught a computer to read the ultrasound sensor as Jason thought about moving his fingers. The computer learned which muscles moved when Jason wanted his fingers to move in a certain way. Thinking about moving his fingers makes the muscles in his upper arm move. The computer sees the moving muscles and tells the motors in Jason’s robotic fingers to move the right way.

The team hopes the “Skywalker hand”, their prosthesis, will someday work as well as a real hand. The sensors, motors, and computers inside the hand are not complex. But they need to get smaller and cheaper before lots of these hands can be made. Weinberg and his team are working on this right now. Soon, they hope that anyone who loses a hand will be able to get a new robotic one with five fingers that they can move just by thinking.

1. Why did Jason visit Weinberg?

A．To save his own life.

B．To learn to play music.

C．To study musical robots.

D．To replace his prosthetic arm.

2. What does the underlined word “faint” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Specific.

B．Weak.

C．Stable.

D．Predictable.

3. What makes the invention of the robotic hand possible?

A．Moving muscles are simpler to spot than nerves.	B．Nerve searching techniques have developed fast.
C．Ultrasound sensors vary from finger to finger.	D．Motors are much quicker to operate.

4. What do Weinberg and his team expect of the Skywalker hand?

A．It’ll be easy to make.	B．It’ll be customer-friendly.
C．It’ll be better than real hands.	D．It’ll be controlled by computers.

【推荐3】In the United States and several other countries, 2.5 million children play baseball in an organization called Little League. They play on teams in their hometowns. Their parents and other adults in the community coach or instruct them and serve as umpires to make sure that everyone follows the rules. Local businesses give money for the ball fields and the uniforms. Local teams compete against each other and the winners get to play teams that are more distant. Eventually, the top teams go to the Little League World Series.
One hundred years after Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839, Little League got started in Pennsylvania. Three men started the game for neighborhood boys with a smaller playing field and fewer innings than adult baseball. Little League became popular after World War Ⅱ when the game spread across the United States. By 1955 it was played throughout North America and within five years it had spread to Europe. Children's baseball really caught on in Japan and Taiwan of China and teams from those areas won the World Series seven out of eight years. After this, the organization tried banning foreign teams from the World Series, but the ban came to an end after one year.
At first, Little League was only for boys aged nine to twelve. However, in 1974, the parents of girl baseball players brought a law suit. The courts ruled that Little League had to include both boys and girls. Later Little League added on softball and other games for teenagers up to age eighteen. Occasionally, a Little Leaguer becomes a professional player. For example, Gary Carter went from Little League to play nineteen seasons in the Major Leagues, ten of them as an All-Star player. By and large, youngsters play baseball for fun, but their parents are proud of them.
1. The mothers and fathers of Little League players ________.

A．play in the World Series

B．travel with coaches

C．give the teams money

D．help run the games

2. In what year did baseball come into being?

A．1739.

B．1939.

C．1955.

D．1839.

3. Why do most players take part in Little League?

A．To play in the Major League.

B．To have fun.

C．They expect a profit from All－Star games.

D．They want to learn how to serve as umpires.

4. What is TRUE about players today?

A．Little League is only for neighborhood boys.

B．Girl players have to buy their suits.

C．Girls and boys can participate up to age eighteen.

D．Children can only play until age twelve.