You don’t have to be a fan of math to get excited about Pi (“n”) Day. While the event may start with some calculations, it is more than likely to conclude with a slice or two of delicious pie. The holiday is held every March 14, because “n” is widely recognized as 3.14.
The tradition of honoring “n” began at San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum. On March 14, 1988, physicist Larry Shaw convinced his colleagues to mark the day by marching around one of the museum’s circular spaces and consuming fruit pies. The celebration was made official in 2009 when the U. S. House of Representatives set aside March 14 as Pi Day.
Today, Pi Day is observed in many creative ways. Students at the California Institute of Technology in Los Angeles host a pie-eating event, which begins at 1:59 a.m. and features 26 pies, each of five different flavors. Though that might seem random (随机的), the date (3.14), time (159), number of pies (26), and number of varieties (5) recreate the first nine digits of “n”: 3.14159265!
Students applying for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge eagerly wait for the day every year to find out if they have been accepted. However, instead of sending out the offers at 3:14 p.m., the institution waits till 6: 28 p. m. 6.28 is referred to as “tau”, which is “n” multiplied by 2. The number is believed to be much more reliable than “n” by some experts and even has its own celebration on June 28. Since 2017, MIT has also used Pi Day as a fundraiser (资金筹集活动) to support its students, departments and programs.
This day is also Albert Einstein’s birthday, so the town of Princeton, New Jersey, where Einstein lived until his death in 1955, celebrates the occasion with multi-day festivities that end on March 14. Visitors can participate in concerts, shows, as well as pie-eating, pi-recitation, and Einstein-lookalike contests.
1. Where was Pi Day originally celebrated?| A．In San Francisco. | B．In Los Angeles. |
| C．In Cambridge. | D．In Princeton. |
| A．Inform applicants of application results. | B．Conduct a calculating test. |
| C．Organize a march around the campus. | D．Make desserts of different flavors. |
| A．It is in memory of physicist Larry Shaw. |
| B．Students in America host a pie-eating event. |
| C．Students have to eat 26 pies within 159 minutes. |
| D．Much money is raised to help students in MIT. |
| A．To propose a suggestion. | B．To make an introduction. |
| C．To state an idea. | D．To give an explanation. |
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【推荐1】Here is a list of festivals and events taking place throughout Ontario. You can choose whatever suits you.
Winter Glow
Date: December 4-27, 2022, 5:30 p. m. -11:00 p. m. Admission: $40 per person
Experience a family-friendly outdoor winter festival as you celebrate the magic of winter with ice and snow sculptures, life size snow globes, light show and more!
Contact: Julie, Email: julie@ellevents.ca, Phone: 6477993187
Barrie Winterfest
Date: February 4-5, 2023, 10:00a. m. -5:00 a. m.
Grab your gloves 8&celebrate winter! Enjoy spectacular ice & snow sculptures, lumberjack(伐木工)shows, polar bear dip, family entertainment, drop-in activities, pancake breakfast, and skating.
Contact: Arin Donnelly, Email: arin.donnelly@barrie.ca, Phone:(705)7394285
Family Day Geocaching Event
Date: December 21, 2022 Admission: $24.35
The event will start with an introduction to geocaching(地理寻宝). After one practice, we’ll review important geocaching rules, helpful clues, and safety considerations. All equipment is provided. Children under 12 must be accompanied by paying adults.
Contact: Shawn Hermans, Email: info@geocachecanada.com, Phone: 4164026746
Bridges Festival
Date: December 12-14, 2022 Admission: $0-35
Puppetry(木偶戏)and the animation of inanimate objects are some of the oldest art forms known to humans. But giving life to lifeless objects is not an art form of the past. Wei are proud to present world class puppetry and animation shorts to local audiences in Mississauga.
Contact: Aimee Poulin, Email: info@cranecreations.ca, Phone: 5149268781
1. What do Winter Glow and Barrie Winterfest have in common?| A．They both provide activities involving ice. | B．They both have polar bear dip. |
| C．They both charge the same price. | D．They both last two days. |
| A．Family Day Geocaching Event. | B．Barrie Winterfest. |
| C．Bridges Festival. | D．Winter Glow. |
| A．Julie. | B．Arin Donnelly. | C．Aimee Poulin. | D．Shawn Hermans. |
【推荐2】Thailand has several unique holidays. One of them is King’s Birthday, which is a national holiday. On this day, each city is decorated with bright colored lights, and in the evenings the Thai walk around together looking at the decorations. Traditional dishes and family favourties are eaten, and meals always include steamed whole chicken with hot pepper dipping sauce and sliced roast pig’s head.
New Year’s Day is also important in Thailand. Brown eggs are boiled and then cooked in soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce and five spices. These eggs represent good life in the coming year. The Thai will also eat special egg rolls, dipped in namplaprig, a sweet and sour sauce. Decorations for the New Year include fruit like bananas, coconuts, pineapples and papayas.
Songkran is a three-day water festival that comes in April. For this holiday, people douse each other and everything they have with water in thanks for rain and in the hope of good luck. April is the hottest month in Thailand, so this festival is refreshing and fun. The celebrations also include a big dinner, at which curries, usually yellow ones, and long noodles are eaten. These noodles symbolize long life.
Loy Krathong is a November holiday that involves making bamboo boats and putting lighted candles into them. As these little boats float down the river, they are supposed to carry away sin and pay honor to the spitits of the water. After watching the boats, people eat a large meal that includes grilled chicken, fish, coconut and egg yolks. No matter what they are celebrating, Thai holidays always include family and good food.
1. What would be the best title for this passage?| A．Songkran and Loy Krathong in the coming Year. |
| B．How the King Celebtates His Birthday |
| C．Special Acitivities on Holidays |
| D．Festivals in Thailand |
| A．Roasted pig’s head and grilled chicken |
| B．Long noodles served with dipping sauce |
| C．Towns decorated with colored lights. |
| D．Dinner tables filled with traditional eggs. |
| A．Long life. | B．A good life in the coming year. |
| C．Bad deeds carried away. | D．Decorated tables with kinds of fruit. |
| A．Songkran | B．Loy Krathong |
| C．King’s Birthday | D．New Year’s Day |
| A．In April | B．In November |
| C．On the King’s birthday. | D．After people enjoy a large meal. |
【推荐3】The earliest known music festival occurred in the 6th century BCE. After centuries’ development, by the late 1960s, Rock bands began to organize their own music festivals. Perhaps the first formal and well-known festival to Rock was the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, which brought that band to the attention of American audiences.
By 1970, the festival grew to bring in more than 600,000 people, showing the popularity of music festivals to organizers. Many others also began to organize such events. The Summerfest Festival was established in 1968.
| A．Rock music is the reflection of history. |
| B．Woodstock festival changed the form of rock concerts. |
| C．However,it focused not only on music but other events. |
| D．Another early rock festival was the Isle of Wight Festival. |
| E．Today, it’s hard to imagine summer without musical festivals. |
| F．What perhaps put music festivals on the map was Woodstock in 1969. |
| G．Others are intended for younger audiences or those who prefer period based music. |
【推荐1】New research from the American non-profit organization Consumer Reports finds that plastics have a “widespread” presence in food. The group called on the United States government to examine the safety of food that comes into contact with plastics during production.
In a report released Thursday, Consumer Reports said that 84 out of 85 food products it recently tested contained “plasticizers” called phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals used to make plastics last longer. The researchers also said 79 percent of the examined foods contained bisphenol A (BPA), another chemical found in plastics.
In these tests, the researchers checked a wider variety of foods to see how much of the chemicals Americans actually consume. The answer is quite a lot. The tests found that bisphenols and phthalates remain widespread in food, almost in every food we tested. The levels did not depend on packaging type, and no one particular type of food — say, dairy products or prepared meals — was more likely than another to have them. Consumer Reports said all the levels were within limits set by U.S. and European regulators. All the foods tested remained within the limits. However, does that mean it is safe to eat?
Beyond highlighting these concerns, Consumer Reports is actively working on issues related to consumer safety. This includes advocating for the banning of harmful chemicals in food. The widespread presence of plastics in food is a pressing issue that requires immediate attention from both regulators and consumers. While we wait for policy changes, there are steps individuals can take to reduce exposure to these chemicals. Some of these measures include avoiding plastic food storage containers, limiting consumption of fast food. Replacing plastic kitchen tools with those made of wood and stainless steel can also help. Using glass or steel water bottles can further reduce exposure. It’s also important to air your home regularly to reduce exposure to phthalates in household dust.
1. What is the finding of the research?| A．Plastic containers are widely used nowadays. | B．Plastics can pollute food during production. |
| C．Plastics contain many harmful materials. | D．Plastics are related to food safety issue. |
| A．To stress its key role in making plastics. | B．To show it will do harm to our health. |
| C．To offer basic information to consumers. | D．To tell what food products are made up of. |
| A．Bisphenols and phthalates are not used. | B．The set limits may not be suitable at present. |
| C．The regulators don’t perform their duty. | D．The packaging types are still the same. |
| A．By discussing research experiments. | B．By comparing different results. |
| C．By analyzing cause and effect. | D．By presenting problem and solution. |
【推荐2】Compared with the obvious environmental issues we hear about every day, littering often takes a backseat—but it’s more pressing than we may think.
If you were to throw, say, a banana peel out of your car while driving along the motorway, that would be a completely harmless action, due to the fact that it’s part of a fruit—right? Absolutely, no. A banana peel can take up to two years to break drown. An orange peel and a cigarette butt (烟蒂) has a similar biodegrading (生物降解) term to that of a banana, but tin and aluminium cans last up to 100 years; and plastic bottles last forever, as do glass bottles, Styrofoam cups and plastic bags.
Despite the fact that longer-lasting materials will serve to damage the environment and its animals for longer, we can’t only measure the severity (严重性) of a certain type of rubbish by its lifetime. For example, despite having a fairly short biodegrading time, more than 120 tons of cigarette-related litter is thrown in the UK every day. Similarly, our regular littering here and there has caused the UK’s rat population to increase by 60 million.
Littering is not a cheap habit either: UK taxpayers spend £ 500 million in order to keep our streets clean, and when you include our green spaces, that goes up to £1 billion. So, it’s not surprising that if caught littering you could face a £ 20,000 fine or even jail time and, if you threw away something harmful, the court could give you five years to serve.
To take back our beautiful countryside and cities we need to do more than simply not leaving rubbish where it ought not to be. We need to truly care more about the world around us.
1. Which of the following needs the longest time to break down?| A．A banana peel. | B．A glass bottle. |
| C．Aluminium cans. | D．An orange peel. |
| A．The quantities of regular litter. |
| B．The consequences of littering. |
| C．The harm of longer-lasting materials. |
| D．The ways of measuring the severity. |
| A．Littering wastes amounts of money. |
| B．Littering is harmful to the environment. |
| C．Whoever litters will be punished in the UK. |
| D．Whoever litters will be put into prison in the UK. |
| A．Why is littering often ignored? |
| B．Why is a banana peel harmless? |
| C．Why is littering a surprisingly big issue? |
| D．Why is protecting environment significant? |
【推荐3】On Tuesday, NASA sent up a test satellite from New Zealand as part of its experiment with a new orbit around the moon that it hopes to use in the coming years to land astronauts on the lunar surface. If the rest of the mission is successful. the satellite will be the first to take the new path around the moon and will send back vital information for at least six months. However, getting the 25-kilogram satellite into orbit will take more than four months and be done in three stages.
First, the small Electron rocket was launched from New Zealand Just nine minutes later, the second stage rocket called Photon separated and went into orbit around the earth
Over the next live days. Photon`s engines are scheduled to fire on a regular basis to raise its orbit further and further from the earth. Six days alter the launch. Photon’s engines ail fire a final time, allowing it to escape the earth’s orbit and head for the moon.
Finally, Photon will release the satellite, which has its own small engine that won’t much energy as it travels toward the moon over four months, with a few planned course corrections along the way.
“The new orbit seems like a stretched-out egg with one end passing close to the moon and the other lar from it.” NASA wrote on its website. “Thus path-finding satellite will be put in a sweet spot in space — where the pull of gravity from the earth and the moon interacts to allow for a stable orbit.”
NASA spokesperson Morgan Bailey said that eventually. NASA plans to put a space station called Gateway into the orbital path, from which astronauts can travel to the mon’s surface as part of its Artemis program.
“One of the advantages of the orbit is that a space station should be able to stay in continuous communication with the earth,” said Morgan Bailey. “Because it will avoid being blocked by the moon.”
1. How long will it take NASA to get the satellite to “the sweet spot”?| A．About six days. | B．At least six months. |
| C．Around five days. | D．More than four months. |
| A．At the first stage. | B．At the second stage. |
| C．At the third stage | D．At the fourth stage. |
| A．NASA. | B．The satellıte. |
| C．The moon. | D．The new orbit. |
| A．It will be able to escape the pull of the earth |
| B．It will be the closest to the moon all the time. |
| C．It does not need coactions to stay in the orbit. |
| D．It can commurucate conveniently with the earth. |
