Earthquakes cannot be forecast, but engineers can prepare for them. Seismic-isolation systems use concrete (水泥), rubber and metal to reduce quake damage. But such adaptations are expensive. Engineer Jian Zhang of the University of California, Los Angeles, says the system can increase building costs by 20 percent. Although these systems might save more than they cost over time, builders in some areas may not have the money for them.
A new seismic-isolation method uses the physics of rolling to create a simpler, lower-cost choice with easily found things: used tennis balls. The team of Michalis Vassiliou, an engineer, based its method on an early form of seismic isolation that rolls a shaking building to a stop the way a skater comes to rest. By separating a building from the ground with a layer of balls, rolling isolation changes horizontal shaking into a soft rocking movement and uses friction to reduce the shaking.
The researchers built a cheap model consisting of four filled tennis balls between two concrete boards, and they found that it withstood simulated (仿造的) earthquake shaking while supporting eight kilonewtons (千牛顿) of force per ball — about twice what isolation systems might experience under one-story houses. The balls had to contain exactly the right amount of the concrete mixture to reduce the shaking without cracking during tests.
Zhang, who didn’t take part in the study, says that the work is valuable. But she notes that the results are basic. Vassiliou agrees that next steps will mean creating and testing a larger model with hundreds of tennis balls. Vassiliou says that he has received money to test the system on the ground to improve the invention. “For this to actually be applied,” he adds, “you need to develop it with engineers from developing countries so that it actually deals with their needs.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Earthquakes can’t be forecast. |
| B．Seismic-isolation systems can reduce quake damage. |
| C．Engineers can prepare for earthquakes. |
| D．Present seismic-isolation systems are very expensive. |
| A．It is simple. | B．It is cheap. |
| C．It only needs used tennis. | D．It is better to reduce damage. |
| A．The new system model. | B．The simulated earthquake. |
| C．A filled tennis ball. | D．A one-story house. |
| A．It is little valuable. | B．It is too simple to use. |
| C．It needs to be improved. | D．It only be needed in developing country. |
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【推荐1】A device called a TreeTalker is providing information about trees to people who oversee forests and woodlands. The device aims to measure the growth and general health of trees.
Scientists say forests are important because they absorb, or take in, carbon dioxide, one of the gases released by burning oil and other fossil fuels. It is a heat-trapping gas and has been linked to a general warming in the Earth's atmosphere.
The world is at a historic period for climate change because the scientific world is on guard. Many scientists say “Be careful, the ecosystem of the forests is not able anymore, as it was before, to absorb all this carbon dioxide.” Rising temperatures are placing forests under increased stress. Harmful insects and diseases are becoming more of a threat to trees. This is bad for the environment.
The TreeTalker devices serve as an early warning system for people overseeing forests. TreeTalker turns eco-physiological signals, such as growth, absorption of carbon dioxide, liquid flow from roots to leaves, into scientific information. This can help show if a tree is under attack from insects or other organisms. The TreeTalker sends its information to forest managers.
The TreeTalker device transmits data via radio and it can transmit data actually a very long distance, up to one kilometer. The information lets forestry officials take action immediately to control threats. The TreeTalker is able to measure the width of the bottom of a tree. Timber industry workers can use this information to know how much wood they are growing compared to how much they are harvesting. Another goal is to give scientists the information they need to understand how climate affects forests and the part trees play in a healthy environment.
About 300 TreeTalker devices are being tested in Italy and other countries, such as China and Russia. Another 1,700 devices are expected to be tested worldwide this year.
1. What was the TreeTalker device used for?| A．Providing information of forests change. |
| B．Absorbing carbon dioxide. |
| C．Controlling threats from nature. |
| D．Helping the growth and health of trees. |
| A．Harmful insects and diseases. | B．Forest managers. |
| C．Carbon dioxide. | D．Timber industry workers. |
| A．The information of an early warning system. |
| B．The information on the absorption of carbon dioxide. |
| C．The information of eco-physiological signals. |
| D．The information to the forest managers. |
| A．Promising. | B．Alarming. |
| C．Doubting. | D．Understanding. |
The Kolibree toothbrush was exhibited at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It senses how it is moved and can send the information to an Android phone or iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection.
The toothbrush will be able to teach you to brush right (don’t forget the insides of the teeth!) and make sure you’re brushing long enough. “It’s kind of like having a dentist actually watch your brushing on a day-to-day basis,” says Thomas Serval, the French inventor.
The toothbrush will also be able to talk to other applications on your phone, so developers could, for instance, create a game controlled by your toothbrush. You could score points for beating monsters among your teeth. “We try to make it smart but also fun,” Several says.
Serval says he was inspired by his experience as a father. He would come home from work and ask his kids if they had brushed their teeth. They said “yes,” but Serval would find their toothbrush heads dry. He decided he needed a brush that really told him how well his children brushed.
The company says the Kolibree will go on sale this summer, for $99 to $199, developing on features. The U.S. is the first target market.
Serval says that one day, it’ll be possible to replace the brush on the handle with a brushing unit that also has a camera. The camera can even examine holes in your teeth while you brush.
1. Which is one of the feature of the Kolibree toothbrush?
| A．It can sense how users brush their teeth. |
| B．It can track users’school performance. |
| C．It can detect users’fear of seeing a dentist. |
| D．It can help users find their phones. |
| A．You will find it enjoyable to see a dentist. |
| B．You should see your dentist on a day-to –day basis. |
| C．You can brush with the Kolibree as if guided by a dentist. |
| D．You’d like a dentist to watch you brush your teeth every day. |
| A．It can be used to update mobile phones. |
| B．It can be used to play mobile phone games |
| C．It can send messages to other users |
| D．It can talk to its developers. |
| A．How Serval found out his kids lied to him. |
| B．Why Serval thought brushing teeth was necessary. |
| C．How Serval taught his kids to brush their teeth. |
| D．What inspired Serval to invent the toothbrush |
| A．They were unwilling to brush their teeth |
| B．They often failed to clean their toothbrushes. |
| C．They preferred to use a toothbrush with a dry head. |
| D．They liked brushing their teeth after Serval came home. |
| A．The brush handle will be removed. |
| B．A mobile phone will be built into it. |
| C．It will be used to fill holes in teeth |
| D．It will be able to check users’ teeth |
【推荐3】Laughter comes in many forms, from a polite and quiet laugh to a great hearty laugh. Scientists are now developing an AI system to recreate different laughs in proper social contexts. The team behind the laughing robot Erica said that the system could improve natural conversations between people and an AI robot. “We think that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy(共情),” said Dr Koji Inoue, the lead author of the research. “So we decided that one way a robot can empathize with its users is to share their laughter.”
The team have set out to teach their AI system the art of conversational laughter. They gathered training data from more than 80 daily dialogues between male subjects and the robot that was initially operated by four actresses remotely. The dialogue data was grouped into social laughs (where polite or embarrassed laughter isn’t involved) and laughter of joy. Based on the audio files, the algorithm(算法) learned the basic characteristics of social laughs, which tend to be softer, and merry laughs, with the aim of mirroring these inappropriate situations.
“Our biggest obstructor in the work was identifying the actual cases of shared laughter because as you know, most laughter is actually not shared at all,” said Inoue. “We had to carefully decide exactly which laughs we could use for our analysis and we couldn’t just assume that any laugh can be responded to. It was really not easy work.” The team said laughter could help create robots with their own distinct character although it could take more than 20 years before it would be possible to have a casual chat with a robot like we would with a friend.
“One of the things we’d keep in mind is that a laughing robot or algorithm will never be able to understand you or the meaning of laughter,” points out Prof. Sandra Wachter of the Oxford Internet Institute. “But with their development, they might get very good at tricking you into believing they understand what’s going on.”
1. Why did Inoue’s team develop the AI system?| A．To better understand human empathy. |
| B．To promote the social skills of robots. |
| C．To explore the differences between laughs. |
| D．To assist robots in identifying people's moods. |
| A．Repeat the details of the 80 dialogues |
| B．Distinguish people by hearing their laughs |
| C．Recreate a scene played by the four actresses |
| D．Master the features of laughs provided by data. |
| A．Potential. | B．Barrier. | C．Alternative. | D．Division. |
| A．Are AI systems going beyond human ability? |
| B．Can conversational AI really understand us? |
| C．Laughing robots are round the conner. |
| D．Robots become laughing masters. |
【推荐1】Neighbors used to wave to Timothy Masters whenever he stood outside his barn (谷仓). Across his soybean fields in this small town about ten miles north of Niagara Falls, they trade hellos every morning. That ended about a year ago, when a field of solar panels was set up on 18 acres of Masters’ land.
Masters is among a growing number of landowners trying to cash in on New York State’s push toward renewable energy. The solar company now using his land, he said, pays him 20 times more than the soybean farmer who had previously rented it. However, by replacing soybean plants with rows of silicon and metal solar panels, Masters has found himself the target of a growing backlash against the spread of solar farms in rural areas.
The tension over solar plants often resembles not-in-my-backyard, or NIMBY, disputes. “You’ll have people that get up and say, ‘I am green,’ ‘I’m for the environment,’ and ‘I’m pro this whole-green agenda.’ But then, all of a sudden, whenever one comes in, it changes.” Masters said. “What I notice is that people have ideals and values that they will put forth—until it comes around their own house.”
Opponents in New York cite a wide range of reasons. There are practical ones, like the danger of glare (刺眼的光) for drivers passing by. Some are about aesthetics (美学), such as the impact of solar panels on the rural landscape. There is even concern for endangered short-eared owls that may struggle to find field mice to eat amongst the panels. Small farmers who rent land from bigger farmers or landowners, meanwhile, have resisted for economic reasons. They fear they will be squeezed out by energy companies willing to pay more to use farmland for their solar panels.
Across western New York, anti-solar sentiment has surfaced on lawn signs and in Change. org petitions (请愿书). The movement has had some effect. At least a dozen towns in New York State have suspended new solar projects. Several others are weighing temporary bans. Local officials have said they need time to study the potential impact of solar farms.
The pushback is not unique to New York. In Virginia, anti-solar campaigners successfully blocked the plan of an 80-megawatt solar farm last year. This has inspired the launch of a nonprofit with a mission to help communities across the country to stop solar farms. The grass-roots backlash against solar farms has become so widespread that the U. S. Solar Energy Industries Association last year developed a manual that included coping with community sensitivities, in a move to fight increasing negativity.
1. According to the article, what has Timothy Masters noticed?| A．Few people genuinely support the development of green energy technologies. |
| B．Many people believe solar farms should be set up in cities rather than in rural areas. |
| C．People support green energy only when the equipment is located away from their houses. |
| D．The past few years saw a drop in the number of people supporting green energy. |
| A．they think the farms have ruined the rural landscape |
| B．they consider it dangerous to drive by these farms at night |
| C．the farms may endanger many rare species, such as short-eared owls |
| D．they can’t rent farmland as they can’t pay as much as energy companies |
| A．launched | B．stopped |
| C．promoted | D．permitted |
| A．Solar Farms Face Resistance | B．Solar Energy Industries Encounter Backlash |
| C．Farmers Dispute Renewable Energy | D．Solar Energy Industries Fight Pushback |
【推荐2】Since the 1950s, some 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally, of which only about 10% has ever been recycled. Yet environmentally conscious companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. Manufacturing giants claim to be committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled materials. However, this confidence masks (掩饰) a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain extremely low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.
While many plastics have the potential to be recycled, most are not because the process is costly, complicated and the resulting product of a lower quality than the original. Despite rising demand for recycled plastic, few waste companies turn a profit. Part of this is because virgin plastic-linked to oil prices - is often cheaper than recycled plastic, meaning there is little economic incentive to use it. Worse yet, much of our plastic waste is difficult to recycle. Lightweight food packaging, like a mozzarella packet, contains different plastics, dyes and toxic additives (添加剂). This dirty mix means plastic recycled through mechanical methods- the most common form- can only be melted down and moulded (浇铸,塑造) again a couple of times before it becomes too fragile to be reused. And the nature of the process means plastic recycling has a carbon footprint of its own.
Given all of these difficulties, environmental critics say recycling is not the solution-and argue that creating more products from recycled material to attract environmental consciousness merely worsens the problem. “The solution is to use less plastic and to stop misleading the public about the recyclability,” says Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a US campaign group with a mission to end single-use plastic. “They should stop making false claims about the recyclability of plastics since they know most will either be littered (乱扔) or burned or landfilled (填埋). Using less plastics means shifting to reusable products and relying more on paper, cardboard, glass and metal- -all of which should be made from recycled content.”
1. What is an environmentally conscious customer’s attitude towards recycling plastics?| A．Suspicious. | B．Favorable. | C．Indifferent. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．motive. | B．issue. | C．crisis. | D．policy. |
| A．The recycling process of plastics. | B．Pollutants contained in recycled plastics. |
| C．Reasons why users dislike recycled plastics. | D．Contributing factors to low plastic recycling rates. |
| A．Using metal or glass food containers. | B．Littering recycled plastics in a landfill. |
| C．Processing plastics in a mechanical way. | D．Launching campaigns to promote recyclability. |
Horses are picky eaters
Horses have an even better sense of smell than humans do. When horses raise their noses and open their nostrils (鼻孔), their nervous system allows them to sense smells we can’t sense. This might explain why they refuse dirty water and carefully move around meadows, eating only the tastiest grasses, experts say.
Whale says thanks
In 2018, a whale expert spotted a humpback whale trapped in a fishing net and spent an hour freeing it. Afterward, in an hour-long display of thanks, the whale swam near their boat and leaped into the air about 40 times.
Pandas like to be naughty
Is there anything more lovely than a baby panda, except maybe a human baby? In fact, baby pandas sometimes behave like human babies. They sleep in the same positions and value their thumbs. Pandas are shy by nature for its shy behaviors such as covering its face with a paw or ducking its head when confronted by a stranger.
A cat honors its owner
Paper towels, and a plastic cup are just a few of the gifts that Toldo, a devoted three-year-old gray-and-white cat, has placed on his former owner Iozzelli Renzo’s grave every day since the man died in September 2018. Renzo adopted Toldo from a shelter when the cat was three months old, and the two formed an inseparable bond. After Renzo passed away, Toldo followed the coffin to the cemetery, and now “stands guard” the grave for hours at a time.
1. What can horses do to pick delicious grasses?| A．Feel them. |
| B．Taste them. |
| C．Smell them. |
| D．Observe them. |
| A．They are clever. |
| B．They have a grateful heart. |
| C．They are active and lovely. |
| D．They have a good sense of smell. |
| A．The whale |
| B．The cat. |
| C．The horse. |
| D．The panda. |
