Canada’s new Dark Vessel Detection program is using advanced satellite technology to find illegal fishing ships that attempt to steal fish from waters around the world. Illegal fishing is a major contributor to the decrease of fish and their habitat destruction.
It is said that illegal fishing accounts for about 30 percent of fishing activity worldwide. It means that u to 26 million tons of fish are caught at a cost to the global economy of more than $ 23 billion a year. Illegal fishing occurs both on the high seas and within the 200 mile limits of coastal states. It has an especially negative effect on coastal populations in undeveloped areas.
Now, the government’s Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in partnership with the Department of National Defense and MDA (Canada’s space technology maker), has started a new program that has already led to fines on five foreign ships. The $7 million Dark Vessel Detection program uses satellite technology to locate and track ships. Some illegal fishing ships have switched off their location transmitting (传输) equipment, in an attempt to avoid surveillance (监视) and control.
The program offers state-of- the-art satellite data to small island nations and coastal states around the world. The local economies of those places are often influenced by illegal fishing. Finding illegal fishing ships from space will allow these small island nations to focus on their investigations and protect their fish.
“Illegal fishing threatens the health of our fish population and takes resources (资源) away from hard- working, legal fishermen,” said Bernadette Jordan, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, “This state -of the art system will help Ecuador and small island nations in the Pacific region deal with illegal fishing. Such illegal activity will do great harm to the Galapagos Islands and the food and economic security of its people,” she added.
1. What is the purpose of Canada’s new Dark Vessel Detection program?| A．To prevent sea pollution. | B．To assess the loss of fish farms. |
| C．To observe endangered fish species. | D．To protect the fish population worldwide. |
| A．The difficulties of undeveloped countries. | B．The slowdown in the global economy. |
| C．The seriousness of illegal fishing. | D．The general result of overfishing. |
| A．By speeding up their ships. | B．By finding remote fishing areas. |
| C．By hiding signals of their ships. | D．By fishing in the middle of the night. |
| A．Island nations tend to suffer food shortages. |
| B．The interests of legal fishermen are threatened. |
| C．The tracking system will be applied to more fields. |
| D．Stricter laws will be made for the fishing industry. |
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【推荐1】All over the globe and in some of the world's most prestigious art galleries and museums there is always one form of artwork that you'll find gracing the walls-watercolors.
Creating artwork using watercolors is one of the most popular ways of capturing beautiful scenery, painting life-like portraits and studying still-life objects. However, an unfortunate side effect of using watercolors is that they begin to fade over time, and as the years go by there is a risk of these masterpieces being lost to us forever. But just how do we prevent these wonderful paintings from disappearing? Well, thanks to the advances of modern technology, we now have the ability to scan watercolors, capturing every detail of them in the process and then saving them in a digital form.
Not only does this help to preserve the artwork in a very modern way, but when these digital captures are uploaded to a website, it offers the public more chances to appreciate them. One such website is Water colour World, which is one of the many organizations supported by Javad Marandi, one of the Joint Chairs of the Marendi Foundation which helps to provide opportunities in education, and supports some of the most vulnerable communities in the United Kingdom, as well as art and cultural initiatives. Scanning watercolors is certainly a lot more advanced than the usual scanning you might be more familiar with. Keeping the liveliness of the painting, the depths of the colors requires the correct equipment, software and a great eye for detail.
If you're an artist and you'd like to digitize (数字化) your watercolors through scanning, or if you're generally interested in how it's achieved, we've broken down the process below to give you a better idea of how art is transformed from paint to pixels (像素)!
1. What is the disadvantage of watercolor paintings?| A．They are easy to be stolen. | B．They can't last a long term. |
| C．They make people unfortunate. | D．They are only about natural scenery. |
| A．By capturing every detail. | B．By educating community citizens. |
| C．By moving them to a website. | D．By supporting more organizations. |
| A．It is quite demanding. |
| B．It helps to preserve the artwork. |
| C．It is simpler than usual scanning. |
| D．It is invented by Watercolor World. |
| A．How watercolors are digitized. |
| B．Why paints need to be transformed. |
| C．How the idea of scanning came into being. |
| D．What watercolors will become through scanning. |
【推荐2】Construction has started on the largest telescope array (阵列) on Earth. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will contain hundreds of radio antennae (天线) spread across two continents, is now under construction in both South Africa’s Karoo region and Western Australia’s Murchison Shire.
Together, the two sites—named SKA-Mid and SKA-Low, for the types of radio frequencies they will primarily detect—will enable high-resolution imaging of the whole sky, according to the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), the organization that oversees the telescope. The sensitivity of the telescope will allow scientists to pick up even faint signals left over from the earliest days of the universe.
“The SKA project plan has been many years in the making,” SKAO committee chair Catherine Cesarsky said in an address at the South Africa site on Dec. 5, “Today, we gather here to mark another important chapter in this 30-year journey that we’ve been on together, a journey to deliver the world’s largest scientific instrument.”
The Australia site will host 131,072 low-frequency antennae placed as far as 65 kilometers apart. Together, they’ll act as a radio telescope with a lens spanning nearly 400,000 square meters. Each antenna station is 2 meters tall and contains 256 antennae in an arrangement that looks a bit like a pine tree. By catching very-low-frequency signals from the whole sky, SKA-Low will be able to dig into some of the oldest echoes left over from the first billion years of the universe.
The site is on the land of the Native Wajarri Yamaji, who signed a land-use agreement to ensure that the telescope did not interfere with any cultural sites and that locals would receive economic and educational benefits from the site. As a part of the agreement, the Wajarri Yamaji awarded the traditional name “Inyarrimanha llgari Bundara” on the site, which means “sharing the sky and stars.”
Scientists around the world plan to use data from the telescope to study questions ranging from the fundamental nature of dark energy to the nature of mysterious fast radio bursts from distant galaxies(星系).
1. What do scientists probably care about the telescope under construction?| A．Its size. | B．Its location. |
| C．Its sensitivity. | D．Its cost. |
| A．The SKA project is about a 30-year journey. |
| B．The SKA project has been planned for decades. |
| C．The biggest telescope has been constructed for years. |
| D．The biggest telescope will be shown at the South Africa site. |
| A．Possess. | B．Chair. |
| C．Organize. | D．Sponsor. |
| A．Negotiating with the land owner. |
| B．Making agreement with the locals. |
| C．Applying to the local government. |
| D．Purchasing from the native village. |
【推荐3】Everyone looks forward to progress, whether in one’s personal life or in the general society. Progress indicates a person’s ability to change the way he is living at the moment. Progress must lead a better way of doing things. All these, however, remain true only in so far as people want to accept technology and move forward by finding new and more efficient ways of doing things.
However, at the back of the minds of many people, especially those who missed the “good old days”, efficiency comes with a price. When communication becomes efficient, people are able to contact one another no matter where they are and at whatever time they wish to. The click of a button allows people miles apart to talk or to see each other without even leaving their homes. With the communication gadgets, such as mobile phones and ipads, people often do not take the effect to visit one another personally. A personal visit carries with it the additional feature of having to be in the person’s presence for as long as the visit lasts. We cannot unnecessarily excuse ourselves or turn the other person off.
With efficiency also comes mass production. Such is the nature of factories and the success of industrialization today. Factories have improved efficiency. Unskillful tasks are left to machines and products are better made and produced with greater accuracy than any human hand could ever have done. However, with the improvements in efficiency also comes the loss of the personal touch when making these products. For example, many handcrafts are now produced in a factory. Although this means that supply is better able to increase demand, now that the supply is quick and efficient, the demand might fall because mass production lowers the quality of the handicraft and it is difficult to find unique designs on each item.
Nevertheless, we must not commit the mistake of analyzing progress only from one point of view. In fact, progress has allowed tradition to keep up. It is only with progress and the invention of new technology that many old products can be brought back to their old state. New technology is required for old products to stay old.
It is people’s attitude towards progress that causes the type of influence that technology has on society. Technology is flexible. There is no fixed way of making use of it. Everything depends on people’s attitude. The worst effects of progress will fall on those who are unable to think again about their attitudes and views of society. When we accept progress and adapt it to suit our needs, a new “past” is created.
1. According to Paragraph 1, progress can benefit people when they are willing to _______.| A．live a better life | B．look for better methods |
| C．accept technology and advance steadily | D．change ways of living |
| A．tools | B．messages | C．barriers | D．skills |
| A．describing a process | B．making classification |
| C．following time order | D．using examples |
| A．lack great accuracy | B．lack the personal touch |
| C．are of high value | D．are quite welcome |
| A．Progress can suit the needs of daily life. |
| B．People review the past with great regret. |
| C．People’s attitude decides the use of technology. |
| D．Technology should be introduced in a fixed way. |
【推荐1】Sixteen miles off the coast of northern Scotland, the future of green energy is taking shape. The five giant turbines (涡轮机) of the Hywind Scotland wind farm look much like any other off-shore wind project, except one major difference — they’re floating.
While traditional offshore turbines sit on metal and concrete towers fixed into the seabed, Hywind’s turbines rest on floating frames that move up and down with the waves. It proves to be an important development as the world struggles to meet the net zero carbon emission (排放) targets set in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
To cut those emissions, green electricity will need to be at the main source of global energy, according to the International Energy Agency. It says that by 2040, half of the world’s energy needs will have to be met by electricity produced in a net zero way. Projects like Hywind’s floating wind farm offer a picture of what the future could look like.
The reasons for this can be listed as follows. Firstly, unlike fixed units, floating turbines can operate in deep waters far from the shoreline, where winds tend to be stronger. Secondly, it can serve offshore areas that are too deep for bottom-fixed turbines. “In places like Korea, Japan and California, you can only manage a certain amount of offshore wind, or maybe even none at all, so floating turbines are the only option in the longer term,” explains Henrik Steisdal, a Danish inventor at the forefront of floating wind innovation.
While floating turbines overcome some of the problems that make offshore wind farms in deep waters impossible, there are still challenges that have to be overcome. There are some concerns about what effect floating wind turbines might have on the sea environment. The price of floating wind projects is also still high — almost twice as much as that of the bottom-fixed offshore ones. Another problem is how to avoid the risk of a system breakdown when the wind is blowing too hard.
1. What do the Hywind’s turbines and the traditional turbines have in common?| A．They are fixed. | B．They use wind. |
| C．They are floating. | D．They use waves. |
| A．It offers a picture of the future. |
| B．Winds are stronger in deep waters. |
| C．It helps meet the net zero carbon emission targets. |
| D．It is difficult to fix turbines in deep offshore areas. |
| A．Solutions to the problems. |
| B．Functions of the wind power. |
| C．Advantages of the floating project. |
| D．Opinions on the floating turbines. |
| A．Wind Projects — a Greener World |
| B．Wind Projects — a Practical Solution |
| C．Floating Turbines — a Choice for the Future |
| D．Floating Turbines — a More Efficient World |
【推荐2】“Leave no track” is popular among many campers who are concerned about our environment and favor sustainable (可持续的) travel. Its goal is simple; to minimize human-created impacts on the natural world.
Reject plastic and paper. First and foremost, one of the easiest ways to reduce the impact of camping on the planet is to go plastic and paper-free. Instead of single-use plastics and paper plates, choose bamboo or other recyclable camping dinnerware and food packages.
Rent or buy a used tent. Instead of brand-new equipment, consider renting camping equipment instead. Outdoor retail (零售) brands like REI offer a wide variety of camping products to rent, including tents.
Only camp in designated (指定的) camping areas.
| A．Pack with the planet in mind. |
| B．Sort out what you really need when camping. |
| C．They even carry other outdoor essentials for rent. |
| D．Learn how to sustainably upgrade the summer camping here. |
| E．Campers can also buy reusable paper towels in order to genuinely leave no track. |
| F．Eco-friendly campers can learn how to update their skills with these simple tips. |
| G．Although backpacking off the beaten path sounds fascinating, it may not be eco-friendly. |
【推荐3】Armed with bowls and spoons, the youngsters at Berridale Public School headed into the school’s kitchen to bake biscuits. These treats were for endangered mountain pygmy possums (山袋貂). This small-sized animal lives only in the Australian regions of Victoria and New South Wales, and being active at night, is rarely seen in the wild. Up until the 1960s, when a small population of the possum was found in Victoria, the species was thought to be extinct.
Pygmy possums live on a diet of bogong moths (布冈夜蛾) and seeds. Yet in recent years, the once vast number of bogong moths that migrate each spring to the Snowy Mountains has severely fallen. Dr Linda Broome heads a team that has been tracking the region’s community of mountain pygmy possums for more than 30 years. “An estimated 330 adults were counted in the Cabramurra region in 2016, with 200 counted in 2018-19,” says Broome. The animals are also affected by extreme weather.
That’s when Broome started baking “bogong” biscuits, using a specially developed recipe that replicates (仿制) the nutritional value of the moths. But with vast quantities of the nutritional biscuits needed weekly to feed all the hungry mouths, she needed help.
The children at Berridale Public School wanted to know how they could help the region recover. The school, under the leadership of current principal Tracey Southam, contacted Broome. The kids were more than happy to put down their pencils and pick up spoons instead. It wasn’t long before all the primary school students across the Snowy Mountains region were busy baking the treats. Each bake-off took around 4.5 hours to produce sixty 200-gram bags of biscuits. Altogether, this resulted in an impressive 660 bags of bogong biscuits.
“While it is difficult to estimate the number of babies that have survived with the help of the biscuits, a field count in March resulted in 32 babies, which is a number similar to good seasons,” Broome says. Although the figures are still small, the results are pleasing and everyone is hopeful that their numbers can recover.
1. What is a feature of mountain pygmy possums?| A．They are globally distributed. |
| B．They like to hang out after dark. |
| C．They prefer biscuits to bogong moths. |
| D．They are frequent visitors to Australian kitchens. |
| A．The disastrous effect of climate change. |
| B．The worrying condition of pygmy possums. |
| C．The disappointing recovery of bogong moths. |
| D．The changing habitat requirement of pygmy possums. |
| A．They were environmentally aware. |
| B．They led the feeding programme. |
| C．They dragged their feet over baking biscuits. |
| D．They created the unique recipe for pygmy possums. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Tolerant. | C．Optimistic. | D．Confused. |
【推荐1】A 62-year-old man has set an amazing world record, planking (平板支撑) for 8 hours, 15 minutes and 15 seconds. George Hood spent around 2,100 hours planking to train to win back his record from Chinese policeman Mao Weidong, who took the record in 2016 at an event Mr. Hood also competed in.
“Anybody can do what I do,” Mr. Hood said in an interview. “Everybody has to start somewhere. Every tree that’s planted has roots. Once that tree is planted, those roots start to grow, whether it be 30 seconds or a minute or five minutes or an hour of planking. You start repeating the process and taking care of your tree, it will grow and you will improve and you will actually get better.”
Mr. Hood’s preparation included four to five hours of planking a day and 2,000 sit-ups, 700 push-ups, and 500 squats a day. He also attended training camps and had a practice attempt in 2018 in which he lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes.
His new record-breaking plank was sponsored by a US gym called Fivel5 Fitness, which was set up to help people experiencing mental illnesses that affect their thinking, feeling, or behavior. Throughout the attempt, Mr. Hood spoke to groups and listened to words from guests with autism (自闭症) and adult learning difficulties.
After Guinness World Records judge, Philip Robertson, said that he had broken the record, Mr. Hood said he would never do plank record attempts again. However, he ended the event by doing 75 push-ups after his 8-hour plank, indicating that while his record-breaking plank days might be over, push-up record attempts are happening in the near future.
1. What was Hood talking about in the interview?| A．How to plant trees. |
| B．How to keep a record. |
| C．How to look after oneself. |
| D．How to plank as well as him. |
| A．Hood had been training hard to break the record. |
| B．Hood went to a month-long training camp in 2016. |
| C．Hood planked shorter in 2018 than the new record. |
| D．Hood likes doing all kinds of sports in his spare time. |
| A．Teach others to plank. |
| B．Work for Fivel5 Fitness. |
| C．Try to do push-up record attempts. |
| D．Continue doing plank record attempts. |
| A．To tell us a funny story about Hood’s life. |
| B．To describe the advantages of physical activity. |
| C．To provide us with information on a new record. |
| D．To record a change that happened in Hood’s body. |
【推荐2】The Internet is a growing new world that has been developing ever since it was created many years ago. The only reason Internet sales are not taxed(征税) is because we did not know the Internet would be used to sell products when it was created. Internet sales are no different from going into the store to buy the exactly same products except for the fact that Internet sales are not taxed.
When buying online, people cannot see and touch the product the same way they could in a store. To fix this, customers are going into the store to see the product. Then if they like the product, they buy it online to save money on the sales tax. This is a form of tax evasion(逃税) if you ask me!
Everyone has to pay the tax in the store and they should have to pay taxes online as well. Also, the added money brought in through Internet taxing could help the government to fund certain policies and other things that they could not do without the added funds(资金). This could go toward the country’s schools or other institutions necessary for society to function well. These funds could be extremely beneficial because of the recession(经济衰退) that the country is in at this point. Internet taxing is a way to increase those funds and in turn improve the quality of life for all who live in that country.
In a word, there are many more advantages than disadvantages in the argument over taxing Internet sales. I do understand that I may have to pay more if I want to buy something online, but the funds stay within my society and help my country. The added cost may hurt me at first but in the end, the funds will help me and others in our country.
1. Internet sales are not taxed because .| A．they are different from store sales | B．selling online was unexpected |
| C．people don’t know how to tax them | D．many people are against taxing them |
| A．Customers get better products at a lower price online. |
| B．Online shoppers find it difficult to buy satisfactory goods. |
| C．Online shoppers probably try to avoid paying tax. |
| D．Problems related to online shopping are hard to fix. |
| A．is good for all people living in the country |
| B．can help the country out of the recession |
| C．can help improve the quality of products |
| D．is beneficial to the development of Internet |
| A．whether Internet sales should be taxed |
| B．why Internet sales are not taxed |
| C．why people love to buy things online |
| D．whether it is a good way to buy things online |
【推荐3】A walk through the galleries of Quebec’s Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) places individuals face-to-face with some 43,000 artworks ranging from Chinese ceramics to Inuit sculpture.
While the visiting is an incredible cultural experience, a group of local physicians will soon be able to prescribe (开处方) museum visits as treatment for some illnesses.
“We know that art contributes to neural (神经的) activity,” said MMFA director Nathalie Bondil. “What we see is that being in contact with art can really help your well-being.”
Hélène Boyer, vice president of a Montreal-based medical association, explains that museum visits have been shown to increase levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter (神经递质) known as the “happy chemical” which helps to lift the mood.
According to Boyer, the small increase in hormones associated with enjoying an afternoon of art is similar to that offered by exercise, making museum visits prescriptions ideal for the elderly experiencing pain that prevents them from regularly joining in physical activity.
The museum visits are designed to improve traditional methods. As Bondil notes,spending time in a peaceful environment can provide a welcome distraction. “What is most important is this experience can help them escape from their own pain,” she says. “When you enter the museum,you escape from the speed of our daily life.”
“I am convinced that in the 21st century, culture will be what physical activity was for health in the 20th century,” said Bondil.“Some people would do well to recall that just in the 19th century,sports were believed to do harm to the body. Just as doctors now prescribe exercise, they will be able to prescribe a visit to the MMFA.”
1. What does Hélène Boyer think of museum visits?| A．They can cheer people up. |
| B．They can reduce physical activity. |
| C．They can slow down our life pace. |
| D．They can increase levels of art appreciation. |
| A．Stop them concentrating on pain. |
| B．Stop them focusing on traditional methods. |
| C．Encourage them not to be absent-minded. |
| D．Encourage them to slow their steps while walking. |
| A．Physical activity was popular in the 19th century. |
| B．Sports are considered to be harmful to the body. |
| C．Ideas of treating illnesses are changing over time. |
| D．Doctors prescribe museum visits regularly now. |
