【推荐1】Earthquake rescue robots have experienced their final tests in Beijing. Their designers say that with these robots, rescue workers will be able to have more time to save more lives during an earthquake.

This robot looking like a helicopter, is called the detector­bot. It’s about 4 meters long, and it took about 4 years to develop the model.   Its main functions (作用) are to collect information from the air, and send goods of up to 30 kilos to people stuck in an earthquake.

This robot has a high quality 360 degree panoramic (全景的) camera. It can work day and night and will also be able to send the latest pictures from the quake area. Dr. Qi Juntong, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “Unlike other automatic machines, the most important feature of this robot is that it doesn’t need a distant control. We just input the information of the earthquake­struck area to it, and then it   takes off, and lands by itself. It flies as high as 3,000 meters,   and as fast as 100 kilometers per hour.”

This robot has a different function — it can change as the   environment changes. Its main job is to search for any signs of   life in places where human rescuers are unable to go.

As well as a detector (探测器) that finds victims (遇难者) and detects poisonous gas, a camera is placed in the 4­meter­long robot, which can work in the dark.

Another use for the rescuers is the supply device, with its 10­meter­long pipe. People who are caught in the ruins will be able to get supplies including oxygen and liquids.

Experts have said that the robots will go into production,   and serve as part of the national earthquake rescue team as soon as next year.

1. What can we learn about the robot according to the passage?

A．It hasn’t been put into production so far.

B．It is a machine with a length of 10 meters.

C．It is a machine carried by a helicopter.

D．It weighs about 30 kilos.

2. Why did Dr. Qi Juntong think this robot is different from the others?

A．It has more functions.

B．It has a more advanced camera.

C．It can change as the environment changes.

D．It can work by itself once given the information.

3. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The appearance of the robot.

B．An introduction to the robot.

C．The reason for making the robot.

D．Some information about earthquakes.

【推荐2】There are billions of people on this planet, and many of us love to eat meat. Can the demand be filled in a sustainable and affordable way? A bunch of businessmen are not only optimistic but are working to make this happen sooner than you may think.

The environmental effects caused by meat consumption — waste, animal treatment, health problems and even the greenhouse gas effects that are potentially caused by methane gas produced by cows — have given rise to a number of startups (新兴公司) looking to develop meats in different ways.

For example, San Francisco-based Memphis Meats is developing cell-based meats in its labs without requiring any animals. Israel’s Future Meat Technologies is doing the same by producing fat and muscle cells that are being tested by chefs in Jerusalem. All of these companies use special processes to harvest cells from animals and grow them in a lab.

But don’t worry if you’re not a meat lover, Startups such as Jet Eat, which is also based in Israel, are working on food products grown in labs that are plant-based and replicate (复制) meats using natural elements while still keeping flavor, consistency and the “overall sensory experience”, according to a report on NoCamels, Jet Eat, which was founded in early 2018, aims to 3D-print their lab-grown products by 2020.

As you can imagine, there are plenty of barriers facing the industry. Educating the public is a big one. Another controversial issue is the labeling of the products. Recently both the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that they will begin jointly controlling the new “cell-based meat” category.

Many of us have concerns about the challenges facing future generations as our global population increases and the earth’s natural resources decreases. The good news is that there are plenty of businessmen around the world — like those producing lab-grown meats — who are working to solve some of these problems and make a little money in the process. Nothing wrong with that.

1. Why do some companies begin to develop new kinds of meats?

A．To analyse the causes of air pollution.

B．To stress the importance of protecting wild animals.

C．To make people less interested in eating meat and more healthy.

D．To meet people’s demand for meat in environmentally friendly ways.

2. What’s special about the lab-grown meats of Jet Eat?

A．They cost less.	B．They are plant-based.
C．They are more delicious.	D．They are available on the market now.

3. Which of the following is a barrier lab-grown meat industries must deal with?

A．How to let people accept the meat.

B．How to give the meat an elegant name.

C．How to produce the meat in large amounts.

D．How to reduce the cost of making the meat.

4. Which of the following is not the environmental effects caused by meat consumption?

A．The loss of natural resources.

B．Animal treatment

C．Health problems

D．The greenhouse gas

【推荐3】The computer mouse is familiar to everyone because it is a most useful device used by people to communicate with a desktop computer. It gave way to the touch pad（触摸板）for laptops but some people still use it for their laptops.

The man who invented the computer mouse, Douglas Engelbart died at home on July 2, 2013.Engelbart’s daughter Christina notified his death to the state’s Computer History Museum in an email. She said that her father had kidney failure and died peacefully on Tuesday night in his sleep.

Engelbart developed the mouse in the 1960s—a wooden shell covering two meal wheels, obtaining a patent for it long before the mouse’s widespread use.

Engelbart was born on January 30, 1925 in Portland, Oregon, to a radio repairman father and a housewife mother. He was working in a government aerospace laboratory in California when he had the vision of the computer mouse.

When he started working, the computer was at the infant stage and was a big machine that required huge amounts of time to process data. But Engelbart had already imagined the future of the computer and related technology. He was ahead of many scientists working on the same technology.

After the Vietnam War he started working on the interactive computer at an experimental research group at Stanford Research Institute, which had the financial backing of the Air Force, NASA and the Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the Defense Department.

In 1968at a conference, he demonstrated a working model of a mouse, computer and keyboard that was used to share data on network. He demonstrated text editing, video conferencing and hypertext. His idea of computer network was the base and first step towards ARPANET.

He never made money with the invention of the mouse as his patent was till 1987 and the mouse came into wide use after the 1980s when Steve Jobs of Apple bought one button mouse. Apple never paid any money to Engelbart.

1. With the development of science and technology ________.

A．the computer mouse is still a necessary part of a laptop

B．some people stop using the mouse on their desktop computer

C．the touch pad has taken the place of the mouse in a way

D．laptops will become popular with most of the users

2. When Douglas Engelbart left the world ________.

A．he suffered a lot from kidney failure

B．he happened to be living with his daughter

C．he failed to send an email to a museum

D．he had a quiet expression on the face

3. When Engelbart got a patent for the mouse ________.

A．he had made many other inventions

B．the mouse wasn’t used widely

C．a wooden mouse was very popular

D．he took charge of an aerospace laboratory

4. From the sixth paragraph we can know that ________.

A．Engelbart went off to the Vietnam War	B．Engelbart gained a lot of support
C．Engelbart worked for the Air Force	D．Engelbart earned a lot of money

【推荐1】For many years, Bruce Bexler dreamed of going where no human had gone before. He wanted to cut a path through unexplored lands and discover rare, exotic species.

That might sound like an impossible dream, but Bexler turned it into a reality.

In December 2015, he and a team of Australian and American scientists ventured into an isolated tropical rain forest on the island of New Guinea. They were the first people ever to enter the mist-covered region. “As time was limited, we were dropped in by helicopter. Once we were on the ground, there were no trails anywhere; it was really hard to get around,” Bexler says.

Within minutes of landing, the team spotted a black chicken-like bird with strange orange skin hanging from its neck. The scientists soon determined that the unusual creature was a type of honeyeater — the first new bird species to be sighted on New Guinea in 60 years.

The honeyeater wasn’t the only surprise for the scientists. They discovered more than 40 previously unknown plant and animal species — 13 birds of paradise, 20 frogs, four butterflies, and five palms. “We were like kids in a candy store,” Bexler recalls. “Everywhere we looked, we saw amazing things we had never seen before.”

The newfound species didn’t shy away from the scientists. Two long-nosed echidnas — primitive egg-laying mammals — let the visitors pick them up and take them back to camp to study them. An echidna looks like a hedgehog and is also called a spiny anteater.

Bexler thinks the animals weren’t scared because they had never seen humans before. “In almost all parts of New Guinea, animals are hunted for food, and because of this, they are very cautious of people,” he explains. “This area gives scientists a place where they can go to study the behaviours of animals that have not yet learned to be afraid of people.”

Scientists believe the area is probably the largest untouched forest in Asia. Local people called Kwerba hunt and collect plants from the outer-edges of the forest but told Bexler that not even their ancestors had gone so far into the woods. The wooded area is approximately a 10-day walk from the nearest village.

Bexler and his team did not have enough time during the expedition to study the area completely. They hope to return and expect to record many more undiscovered species. “We just scratched the surface,” Bexler says. “Anyone who goes there will come back with a mystery.”

1. Which word best describes Bruce Bexler?

A．Adventurous.	B．Cautious.
C．Optimistic.	D．Thorough.

2. What does Bruce Bexler mean in Paragraph 5 when he says the scientists “were like kids in a candy store”?

A．They didn’t have enough food and were hungry.

B．They were very excited about what they saw.

C．They were misbehaving like naughty children.

D．They knew that if they kept searching, they’d find sugar.

3. Why did some of the animals allow the scientists to pick them up?

A．The scientists seemed to be very friendly.

B．The scientists were skilled in handling animals.

C．The animals had been well-trained by the local people.

D．The animals had no experience or fear of people.

4. What can we conclude about the area Bruce Bexler explored?

A．The best way to explore the area is by helicopter.

B．The area has not been visited by scientists for many years.

C．The area still contains many plants and animals unknown to science.

D．The locals are unwilling to allow the scientists to enter the deep woods.

【推荐2】If you have ever been disappointed because you don’t have a good gardener ,the clever robot may one day become the helper of your indoor plants

The Hexa Plant is a six-legged robot that has been specially made to care for the potted plant that carries on top of its head .Using light and heats sensors (传感器) the robot has the ability to carry its plant in and out the daylight .If the houseplant needs more sun，the Hexa will walk into the sunlight ;and if the houseplant is getting too hot , the Hexa will go back into the area that blocks direct light The Hexa Plant will even do a little dance when it senses that the plant needs to be watered to warn its owner .

The robot was developed by Vincross engineer and founder Sun Tianqi after he saw a dead sunflower sitting in the darkness in a room back in 2014 .” Plants only receive an action without responding ,”SunTianqi wrote in a blog post .” Whether they are being cut ,bitten ,burned or pulled from the earth ,or when they haven’t received enough sunshine ,water ,or are too hot or cold ,they will hold still and take whatever is happening to them .

According to Sun Tianqi ,for billions of years ,plants have never experienced movement of any kind ,not even the simplest movement .In their whole lives ,they stick to where they were born .Sun Tianqi continued ,” Do they want break their own settings or have a tendency towards this ?I do not know the answer ,but would love to try to share some of this human tendency and technology with plants With the help of the robot ,plants can experience the move”.

The Hexa Plant model robots are not for sale ,though Vincross does sell a Hexa robot model .It is said that in the near future the robots can open up a new market to watch over our household plants

1. What can we learn about the Hexa Plant?

A．It helps people do some gardening .

B．It waters the plants through dancing

C．It helps indoor plants get proper sunlight

D．It carries the potted plant with its hands

2. What does the author try to show through Paragraph 3?

A．The way plants spend their whole lives

B．The common way people deal with plants

C．The difference between plants and humans

D．The cause of making the indoor plants’ helper.

3. What does Sun Tianqi try do using this technology?

A．To develop gardening skills.

B．To draw people’s attention plants

C．make plants experience move

D．study the living conditions of plants

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

A．A New Market for robots

B．An Indoor Plants’ Helper

C．An Important Development in Gardening

D．The Tendency of Gardening in the Future

【推荐2】A new study finds that the average performance of students from the lowest income families in the US lags(滞后) about three to four years behind that of the highest income students-an achievement gap that has remained constant for decades. An analysis of standardized tests given to more than 2. 7 million middle and high school students over 40 years suggests that federal education programs aimed at closing the gap are falling short.

Researchers looked at results from four different programs conducted nationwide at various intervals from 1971 to 2015 to test teenagers in math, reading and science. A total of 98 exams were used in the programs, testing students aged 13-15 as well as 17-year-olds. Test scores for 17-year-old students in the bottom 10th income percentile(百分位) were far lower than those in the top 10th percentile.

Meanwhile, the overall test scores didn't shift for 17-year-olds during the study period. They did improve slightly for 13-to 15-year-olds, which suggests that federal programs for younger students have been helpful. But the lowest income students still score much lower than the highest income students. “Programs for older students are badly needed,” says study coauthor Eric Hanushek, an education economist at Stanford University. “Lower achievement in high school leads to lower earning potential throughout adulthood. The next generation is going to look a lot like this generation. Kids from poor families will become poor themselves.”

Whether the problem is worsening, however, is up for debate. A 2011 study, conducted by Stanford education sociologist Sean Reardon, looked at 12 exams administered from 1960 to 2007, and found that the gap in test scores between the poorest and the wealthiest students grew by 40 percent. It shows the poorest students lag about three to six years behind their wealthier peers in learning. Reardon suggested parents of means were increasingly investing in their children's education, sharpening the divide.

The different results between the new study and that conducted in 2011 come down to the fact that the researchers analyzed results from different tests and how they categorized(分类) family income level, says education sociologist Anna Chmielewski. Hanushek and Reardon agree that the income-related achievement gap is alarming.

1. What does the result of the new study indicate?

A．The poorest students' lagging behind exists in specific age groups.

B．A better standard for category should be adopted in the study.

C．The federal education programs turned out unsuccessful generally.

D．A better school performance necessarily leads to higher income.

2. How does the author present the serious issue?

A．By showing the discussion result.	B．By clarifying some points.
C．By doing a questionnaire.	D．By making a comparison.

3. What may cause the different results of the two studies?

A．The different countries.	B．The analytical methods.
C．The income assessments.	D．The different ranges of age.

4. Why does the income-related achievement gap concern people?

A．It will disappear eventually.

B．It will further widen the social gap.

C．It results in the students' blind competitions.

D．It makes Americans smarter and richer.

【推荐3】Working or learning in a foreign country can be a difficult experience. The hardest part of working abroad isn't finding a place to stay or learning the language. It's learning to overcome the culture shock.

These things are part of everyday life, and include many signs, gestures, facial expressions ,and customs. When we enter a new culture, these cues (提示)are usually not present or so different that they’re no longer understandable to us.

“When a person enters a foreign culture, ” wrote Oberg, “all or most of these familiar cues are eliminated. He or she is like a fish out of water. No matter how broad-minded he or she may be, lots of props(支柱) have been knocked out from the environment.”

This is what happened to Lara, a young IT consultant (顾问) from America moved last year to their company in southern Europe. Three weeks after she arrived in Europe. Lara sent a desperate e-mail begging to return home. “The people are so unfriendly, ”Lara wrote ,"They eat at strange hours and I'm starting to get allergic (过敏的)to the local food. I can't get anything done because their way of doing business is so disorganized and so inefficient and I have a terrible skin itch because of the water. I want to come home! ”

What Lara and other IT consultants meet on their first assignment abroad is a culture shock. While you can’t prevent the culture shock from happening, you can take some measures to cut down its effects.

1. What is the most difficult part for a foreign student?

A．Entering a famous school.

B．Finding a right place to live.

C．Adapting to the local culture.

D．Learning the foreign language.

2. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “eliminated”in Paragraph 4?

A．solved	B．measured
C．observed	D．removed.

3. What happened to Lara when she arrived in Europe?

A．Her life got into a mess.

B．She worked more efficient than at home.

C．She couldn’t get on well with her colleagues.

D．She was out of condition because of the weather

4. Why does the author describe Lara’s experience?

A．To tell us how she manages to work well.

B．To explain to us what the culture shock is.

C．To show us how to adapt to the culture shock.

D．To show us where we'll meet with the culture shock.