【推荐3】A roadside system that detects if a mobile phone is in use in a passing vehicle is being tested in the UK first. Despite being unable to tell whether the driver is using the phone, it is hoped that it will act as a warning to people who make calls behind the wheel. The technology picks up the phone signal in the vehicle and activates(激活) a roadside warning sign of a mobile phone with a red line through it.

The system can’t tell the difference between a driver and a passenger on a bus, but to some degree it can warn drivers that they can be detected using their phones. Using a directional antenna(天线)，the detector picks up radio waves produced by a phone handset , and measures the signal strength and length of them. When a signal is detected of duration(持续时间) long enough and signal strength strong enough to set off the system， the detector activates the warning sign. The detector is able to distinguish Bluetooth connections or hands- free devices which, when picked up，will prevent the activation.

While this new system is no replacement for a police officer catching someone in the act， it could be enough to make some drivers think twice- and that has to be a positive step forward. However, just as technology has enabled the problem of drivers using mobile phones illegally, it can also be a big part of the solution in getting people to stop. Statistics from the devices will be shared with Norfolk Police， the county council said. The council said that enabling the system to record specific number plates could be a“future development”.

Using a mobile phone at the wheel is one of the four road crimes which can have horrible consequences if it causes a deadly or serious car crash. Law enforcement(执行) technology has been falling behind for a decade and not made any easier by motor producers that encourage users to plug in their phones even before driving.

1. What is the function of the roadside system according to Paragraph 1?

A．To collect information for future use.

B．To send out cellphone signals to drivers.

C．To detect passengers' wrong use of phones.

D．To warn people against using pones while driving.

2. How does the detector of the roadside system work?

A．It measures the length of the phone.

B．It warns drivers with a phone in hand.

C．It picks up radio waves from handsets.

D．It activates the vehicle's Bluetooth system.

3. What does the text suggest drivers do with the road warning sign?

A．Swift to Bluetooth while driving.

B．Have a close watch of road signs.

C．Avoid being picked up by detectors.

D．Stop using a hands- free mobile phone.

4. What will the county council probably do in the future?

A．Share the devices with the police.

B．Make the system more advanced.

C．Replace the police with the new system.

D．Take steps to settle road safety problems.

【推荐1】Creating a new gene in a single day could soon be possible. The technology could one day let researchers speedily rewrite genes, enabling them to make new medicines and fuels on the fly. Researchers have been able to make DNA since the 1970s. The traditional approach takes DNA nucleotides(核苷酸）and adds them, one by one, to a growing chain called an oligo(寡核苷酸）。But the process is typically slow and error-prone, limiting oligos to about 200 letters-a tiny part of the thousands of letters that make up most genes.

Over the decades, most researchers have settled on one particular polymerase(聚合酶），called TdT,because unlike others, it can attach new nucleotides to an oligo strand without following a DNA template strand. Scientists have tried for years to make TdT add one nucleotide at a time and stop, before repeating the process with a different nucleotide. But TdT doesn't work well with these modified nucleotides. “TdT is very picky." says Sebastian Palluk, a Ph. D. student. One such system, for example, required about an hour to add each modified base, far too slow to be practical.

Ultimately, the approach should be cheap, because TdT is easy to manufacture in bacteria. It's also fast. Most new nucleotides attach to the growing oligo in 10 to 20 seconds. For now,the step still takes a minute. So synthesizing a whole gene will still likely take the better part of a day.

The new approach is not quite ready. So far, the group has made oligos only 10 bases long. And there are still a few writing problems,as the approach was only 98% accurate at writing DNA, below the 99% accuracy of the traditional approach. In order to write oligos up to 1000 bases long, the approach will likely need to be 99.9% accurate.

1. What is the drawback of the traditional way of making DNA?

A．It is too expensive.

B．It is too hard to be carried out.

C．It increases oligos to about 200 letters.

D．It is too slow and there may be mistakes.

2. Why have most researchers settled on TdT?

A．Because it is cheap.

B．Because it is easy to get.

C．Because it is harmless to people.

D．Because it is easy to control.

3. What can we learn from the text?

A．Researchers have been able to make DNA recently.

B．The new approach is quite ready without any problem.

C．There is still some work to do before the new approach is practical.

D．To write oligos 1000 bases long, the approach needs to be 99% accurate.

4. Where is this text most likely from?

A．A magazine.	B．A diary.
C．A novel.	D．A guidebook.

【推荐3】Parents, teachers and caregivers have long suspected the magic of storytelling to calm kids. Researchers have now quantified the biological and emotional benefits of a well-told tale.

“We know that narrative has the power to transport us to another world,” says Guilherme Brockington from Brazil’s Federal University. “Earlier research suggested that stories help children process and regulate their emotions — but this was mostly conducted in a laboratory, with subjects answering questions while lying inside functional MRI machines. There are few studies on biological and psychological effects of storytelling in a more commonplace hospital setting.”

So investigators working in several Brazilian hospitals split a total of 81 patients aged 4 to 11 into two groups, matching them with storytellers who had a decade of hospital experience. In one group, the storyteller led each child in playing a riddle game. In the other, youngsters chose books and listened as the storyteller read them aloud. Before and after these sessions, the researchers took spit samples from each child, then asked them to report their pain levels and conducted a free-association word quiz.

Children in both groups benefited measurably from the interactions; they showed lower levels of cortisol — the stress-related hormone and higher levels of oxytocin, which is often described as a feel-good hormone. Yet kids in the storytelling group benefited significantly more: their cortisol levels were a quarter of those in the riddle group, and their oxytocin levels were nearly twice as high. Those who heard stories also reported pain levels dropping almost twice as much as those in the riddle group, and they used more positive words to describe their hospital stay.

The study demonstrates that playing games or simply interacting with someone can relax kids and improve their outlook but that hearing stories has an especially dramatic effect. The researchers “really tried to control the social interaction component of the storyteller, which I think was the key,” says Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University who was not involved in the new research.

Next, the investigators plan to study how long these effects last, along with storytelling’s potential benefits to kids with particular illnesses such as cancer. For now Brockington says the results indicate storytelling is a low-cost and extremely efficient way to help improve health outcomes in a variety of settings. Mar agrees. “It’s very promising and scalable,” he says, “and possibly generalizable.”

1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?

A．The effects of story-telling on children.

B．The limitations of the earlier research.

C．The methods used in earlier studies.

D．The major breakthroughs achieved so far.

2. The underlined word “scalable” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to _________.

A．accessible

B．comparable

C．adjustable

D．readable

3. Which of the following is TRUE about the study conducted in Brazilian hospitals?

A．It measured participants’ blood levels.

B．It divided subjects into groups of 81.

C．It quantified the benefits of story-telling.

D．It compared impact of two types of story-telling.

4. The conclusion drawn from the study is that ________.

A．listening to stories reduces pain and stress in hospitalized kids

B．interacting with others improves sick kids’ mental sharpness

C．story telling has potential benefits for kids with cancers

D．riddle guessing is as effective as storytelling in helping sick kids