【推荐1】Engineers have launched a huge garbage collection device to gather plastics floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. The plastic makes up what is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is the world’s largest spread of garbage, twice the size of the state of Texas.

The Organization Ocean Cleanup created the collection device. The group’s founder is Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old inventor from the Netherlands. When Slat was 16, he went diving in Mediterranean Sea and saw more plastic bags than fish. Since then, he has made up his mind to clean up the oceans.

He told the Associated Press that researchers with his organization have found plastic from the 1960s and 1970s among the material in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in total. Most of them float on the surface of the water, or are within a few meters of the surface.

Last Saturday, a ship pulling the pipe-shaped floating barrier left San Francisco for the Garbage Patch. The barrier, called the floater, is 600 meters across. Attached to it is a screen (筛子) that hangs three meters down in the water. The screen is designed to collect the plastic as it moves through the water. Sea animals can safely swim under the barrier. The cleanup system also comes with lights powered by the sun, cameras, and other special devices. Slat said this enabled the system to communicate its position at all times.

Shipping containers will hold all the plastic gathered, including bottles and fishing equipment. Slat said the containers were expected to be back on land within a year. Then the plastic will be recycled. And they will also study how the system performs in severe ocean conditions, including huge waves.

1. How did Boyan Slat react to that dive in the Mediterranean Sea?

A．He showed a great interest in diving.

B．He became worried about his safety.

C．He decided to remove the garbage in oceans.

D．He became curious about underwater creatures.

2. What has the organization Ocean Cleanup found about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

A．Most of its plastic is half a century old.

B．It covers almost the size of the state of Texas.

C．Altogether there are about 1.8 billion pieces of plastic.

D．The majority of its plastic floats on or near the surface.

3. Why was a screen attached to the ship?

A．To power lights in the ship.	B．To protect sea animals near it.
C．To tell the position of the ship.	D．To collect plastic along the way.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Approaches to removing garbage in oceans.

B．The problem of garbage in the Pacific Ocean.

C．A young man who does well in classifying garbage.

D．A huge device made to clean garbage in oceans.

【推荐2】A city in South Korea, which has the world’s largest number of people using smartphones, has placed flashing lights and laser beams at a road crossing to warn “smartphone zombies” to look up and drivers to slow down, in the hope of preventing accidents.

The designers of the system were motivated by growing worry that more pedestrians glued to their phones will become victims in a country that already has some of the highest road death and injury rates among developed countries. State-run Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) believes its system of flashing lights at zebra crossings can warn both pedestrians and drivers.

In addition to red, yellow and blue LED lights on the pavement, “smombies” - smartphone zombies - will be warned by laser beam projected from power poles and a warning sent to the phones by an app that they are about to step into traffic.

“Increasing number of smombie accidents have occurred in pedestrian crossings, so these zombie lights are essential to prevent these pedestrian accidents,” said KICT senior researcher Kim Jong-hoon. Drivers are warned by the flashing lights, which have shown to be effective 83.4 percent of the time in the institute’s tests involving about 1,000 vehicles.

In 2017, more than 1,600 pedestrians were killed in auto related accidents, which is about 40 percent of total traffic deaths, according to data from the Traffic Accident Analysis System. For now, the smombie warning system is placed only in Ilsan, a suburban city about 30 km northwest of the capital, Seoul, but is expected to go nationwide, according to the institute.

Kim Dan-hee, a 23-year-old resident of Ilsan, welcomed the system, saying she was often too absorbed in her phone to remember to look at traffic. “This flashing light makes me feel safe as it makes me look around again, and I hope that we can have more of these in town,” she said.

1. What do the underlined words “smartphone zombies” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Pedestrians buried in their phones.	B．Drivers driving after drunk.
C．Passengers crazy about phones.	D．Policemen in charge of traffic.

2. What do we know about the warning system?

A．It has reduced death rate by 83.4%.	B．It has been spread nationwide.
C．It gives a warning to the smartphones.	D．It is being tried out in many places.

3. What was the residents’ attitude to the traffic system?

A．Negative.	B．Unconcerned.
C．Disapproving.	D．Favorable.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Flashing Lights Are Used to Prevent Accidents

B．Smartphone Zombies Are Causing Traffic Accidents

C．South Korea Warns Smartphone Zombies of Traffic

D．South Korea Warns Drivers to Look Up

【推荐3】Plato was upset about the invention of the alphabet(字母表)because, with this “technology”, learners would not use their memories and thus appear to be a know-it-all but actually know nothing. If Plato were alive today, what would he say about ChatGPT? ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence program released recently by OpenAl, is a significant advancement that can produce articles comparable to good high school essays.

When I asked ChatGPT a range of simple questions, the answers were well-reasoned and clear. It’s also interactive: I could ask for more details or request changes. But then, on trickier topics or more complicated concepts, ChatGPT gave completely wrong answers.

However, that doesn’t mean ChatGPT can’t be a useful tool in education. Schools have already been dealing with the internet’s wealth of knowledge, along with its misleading essay factories. One way has been to change how they teach. Rather than listen to a lecture in class and then go home to research and write an essay, students listen to recorded lectures and do research at home, then write essays in class, with supervision, even cooperation with peers(同龄人) and teachers. This is called flipped(翻转的) classrooms, in which students wouldn’t use ChatGPT to create a whole essay. Instead, they’d use it as a tool to generate critically examined building blocks of essays.

Plato was wrong to think that memory itself is a goal, rather than a means for people to have facts so they can make better analyses and arguments. As Plato was wrong to fear the written word as the enemy, we would be wrong to think we should be against a process that allows us to gather information more easily.

The way forward is not just to feel regret for replaced skills, as Plato did, but also to recognize that as more complex skills become essential, our society must fairly educate people to develop them. And then it always goes back to the basics. Value people as people, not just as packs of skills. And that isn’t something ChatGPT can tell us how to do.

1. What would probably be Plato’s attitude toward ChatGPT?

A．Favorable.

B．Uncaring.

C．Critical.

D．Unclear.

2. How do students use ChatGPT according to the text?

A．They apply it to correcting mistakes.	B．They use it as a part of their research.
C．They rely on it to create a whole essay.	D．They employ it to conduct peer reviews.

3. What mistake did Plato make according to the text?

A．He laid stress on memory too much.

B．He failed to tell facts from opinions.

C．He doubted easily accessible information.

D．He used written words to attack his enemy.

4. What is suggested to our society in the last paragraph?

A．Updating and improving ChatGPT.

B．Breathing fresh life into replaced skills.

C．Equipping all people with necessary skills.

D．Bringing people with different skills together.

【推荐1】When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?

These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact, plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.

Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smart phones, according to a survey. Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third admit that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.

More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor — only 58 percent of Generation Ys(people born in or after 1980) still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.

Generation Xers (people born between 1965 and 1980) with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).

How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?

1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?

A．Their target users.	B．Their wide popularity.
C．Their major functions.	D．Their complex design.

2. What can we say about Baby Boomers?

A．They like smart phone games.	B．They enjoy guessing callers’ identity.
C．They keep using landline phones.	D．They are attached to their family.

3. According to paragraph 4, what is the main reason for Australian families to keep their landline?

A．Users' age.

B．Convenience.

C．Household decoration.

D．Mobility.

4. What can be inferred about the landline from the last paragraph?

A．It remains a family necessity.	B．It is as important as the gas light.
C．It may increase daily expenses.	D．It will fall out of use some day.

【推荐2】If you’ve spent any amount of time boating, fishing, or bird-watching at lakes and rivers, you have most likely seen fishes jumping out of the water. I have seen it many times. Certainly, fishes will exit water in desperate attempts to escape enemies. Dolphins take advantage of the behavior, forming a circle and catching the frightened fishes in midair. But just as we may run fast from fun or from fear, different emotions might motivate fishes to jump.

Mobula rays (蝠鲼) aren’t motivated by fear when they throw their impressive bodies — up to a seventeen-foot wingspan (the distance from the end of one wing to the end of the other) and a ton in weight — skyward in leap of up to ten feet. They do it in schools of hundreds. They usually land on their bellies, but sometimes they land on their backs. Some scientists think it might be a way of removing parasites (寄生虫). But I think that the rays are enjoying themselves.

In the clear waters of Florida’s Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, I watched several schools of fifty or more mullets(鲻鱼) moving in beautiful formation. Their well-built bodies were most evident when they leaped from the water. Most of the time I saw one or two leaps by a fish, but one made a series of seven. They usually land on their sides. Each jump was about a foot clear of the water and two to three feet in length.

Nobody knows for sure why the fish leaps. One idea is that they do it to take in oxygen. The idea is supported by the fact that mullets leap more when the water is lower in oxygen, but is challenged by the likelihood that jumping costs more energy than is gained by breathing air. It is hard to imagine they will feel any fresher when back in water.

Might these fishes also be leaping for fun? There is some new evidence. Gordon M. Burghardt recently published accounts of a dozen types of fishes leaping repeatedly, sometimes over floating objects — sticks, plants, sunning turtle — for no clear reason other than entertainment.

1. What can we say about the dolphins in Paragraph 1?

A．They have great escaping skills.	B．They are easily frightened.
C．They are very clever.	D．They love jumping.

2. What do the ray and the mullet have in common when jumping?

A．Both do it in groups.	B．Both land on their bellies.
C．Both jump many feet out of water.	D．Both make leaps one after the other.

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards the idea mentioned in Paragraph 4?

A．Anxious.	B．Indifferent.
C．Approving.	D．Questionable.

4. Why do fishes leap according to Gordon?

A．To remove parasites.	B．To amuse themselves.
C．To take in more oxygen.	D．To escape enemies.

【推荐3】The Royal Mint has chosen Beatrix Potter’s thieving Peter Rabbit as the first character from children’s literature ever to appear on a UK coin.
Peter, pictured in the blue jacket that he is forced to abandon in the garden of Mr McGregor when he is caught stealing vegetables, is captured on a special, coloured edition of a 50p coin available from now. The Royal Mint, which described Peter as “the most recognizable of Potter’s creations, and one of the most cherished from children’s literature”, will release uncoloured versions of the coin in change later this year.
Three more of Potter’s characters will also be committed to currency later this year, as part of celebrations marking 150 years since the children’s author’s birth. The images have been created by coin designer Emma Noble, who said it was “amazing to be given the opportunity to work with such famous and treasured literary characters”.
Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, featuring Peter and his better-behaved siblings (兄弟姐妹) Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail, was the first of her stories to be published, released in 1902 by Frederick Warne & Co. Potter would go on to follow it with a series of much-loved stories which remain popular today, from The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin to The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck.
1. Which character from children’s literature can be found on the UK coin?

A．Jemima Puddle-Duck

B．Squirrel Nutkin

C．Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail

D．Peter Rabbit

2. According to the passage, the coins will be released by the Royal Mint to_____.

A．celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter

B．celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Peter Rabbit

C．celebrate the first publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit

D．promote the sales of Beatrix Potter’s works

3. Which of the following statement is true?

A．Peter Rabbit is one of the most recognized literary characters in UK.

B．The Tale of Peter Rabbit mainly features his better-behaved siblings.

C．It was Emma Noble who created Peter Rabbit, the famous literary character.

D．Uncoloured versions of the Peter Rabbit coin are available now.

4. Where is this passage probably taken from?

A．An autobiography	B．A children’s book
C．A travel guide	D．A news report

【推荐2】New data from NASA's Curiosity rover indicate Mars Crater once held an enormous lake. This discovery suggests that the red planet may have been much wetter than scientists thought and raises the possibility that the planet was once habitable.
“The size of the lake and the length of time and series that water was showing up implies that there may have been sufficient time for life to develop.” NASA's Mars Exploration Program scientist Dr. Michael Meyer told Reuters.
Curiosity collected the new data on its five-mile drive to Mount Sharp, the prime destination on its mission to study Mars' climate and geography. The rover landed in Gale Crater in August 2012.
After reaching Mount Sharp in September, the rover spent two months studying rocks at the base of the three-mile-high mountain, discovering fine layers of mudstone--which tend to collect at the bottom of lakes. This shows how a mountain inside a Mars' Gale Crater might have formed.
“If our assumption for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the idea that warm and wet conditions were passing, local, or only underground on Mars,” Dr. Ashwin Vasavada said in a written statement. “A more radical explanation is that Mars' ancient, thicker atmosphere raised temperatures above freezing globally, but so far we don't know how the atmosphere did that.”
Vasavada said Curiosity will continue to study changes in the rock formation as it climbs Mount Sharp in the next few months, which should test the team's hypothesis.
“We'll also look at the chemistry of the rocks to see if the water that was once present would've been of the kind that could support microbial life, if it ever was present,” he said in a video released by NASA. “With only 30 vertical feet of the mountain behind us, we're sure there's a lot more to discover.”
1. What does this text mainly talk about?

A．How scientists explored Mars.

B．The ways Curiosity used to explore Mount Sharp.

C．Some data about Gale Crater.

D．The discovery of Curiosity rover on Mars.

2. The discovery of the lake proves that _____.

A．early Mars was ripe and ready for life

B．the climate on early Mars was hot

C．life once existed on Mars

D．humans can live on Mars

3. What is the height of Mount Sharp?

A．5 miles

B．30 miles

C．3 miles

D．22miles

4. Where does this text probably come from?

A．A science fiction.	B．A science report.
C．An environment report.	D．An official announcement.