【推荐1】Self­driving cars are so popular that the University of Michigan has even established a town called Mcity to allow car manufacturers to safely test their autonomous cars.

While Mcity can be used to simulate(模拟) many real­life road conditions，it cannot help test gestures drivers use to communicate their intention to other drivers，pedestrians or cyclists.To find a solution，US car manufacturer Ford，with researchers from Virginia Tech，firstly considered using text as a way to communicate the car’s intention，but decided it would probably not work universally.The option of using symbols was also discarded，because research shows that a majority of people do not have a good understanding of what they mean.

Finally，the researchers settled on light signals.A white light warned that there were no humans in the car.A slow blinking one indicated that the car was coming to a stop，while a rapidly flashing light cautioned passers­by that the car was about to accelerate.

Then came the big challenge—testing the signals on real road.“We needed to try out this new lighting to communicate the intention of the vehicle，but if you’ve got a driver behind the seat，you still have natural communication between humans，” said Andy Shaudt，who led the Virginia Tech research team.“So we needed to make it look like a driverless car.”

The team designed a car seat costume(服装) that the driver would wear to cover his or her face and upper body.Of course，the drivers could see very clearly.The researchers then equipped the car with cameras to capture human reactions to a light bar on the windshield(挡风玻璃)，which flashed one of the three signals when appropriate.Six drivers，all keeping their hands low on the wheel so as not to be detected，took turns to test driving the car through the busy streets.

The overall reaction to the flashing lights was very encouraging.Who knew costumes could be useful for more than Halloween?

1. What did the team first consider using as a way to communicate the car’s intention?

A．Light.	B．Language.
C．Symbols.	D．Sound.

2. What does the underlined word “they” in the second paragraph refer to?

A．Symbols.	B．Drivers.
C．Researchers.	D．Flashes.

3. The car seat costume was intended to         .

A．amuse the drivers

B．attract the pedestrians

C．warn the cyclists

D．confuse the people

【推荐1】There has long been a notion (观念) that money buys happiness. However, although “we really, really tried that for a couple of generations, it didn’t work,” said Francine Jay, author of The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life.

Thanks to a travel-inspired revelation (启发), Jay has been happily living a simpler life for 12 years. “I always packed as lightly as possible, and found it exciting to get by with just a small carry-on bag,” she told CNN. “I thought if it feels this great to travel lightly, how amazing would it be to live this way? I wanted to have that same feeling of freedom in my everyday life.”

Jay decided to get rid of all her excess (额外的) possessions and live with just the essentials (必需品). “I wanted to spend my time and energy on experiences, rather than things.”

Jay is a follower of a movement called “minimalism (极简主义)”. Growing numbers of people have been attracted to this lifestyle all over the world. They share the same feeling of disappointment with modern life and a desire to live more simply. Minimalists are typically progressive and concerned about the environment, Leah Watkins, a lead researcher at Otago University in New Zealand, told Stuff magazine in March.

But many simply experienced unhappiness caused by owning too many possessions. Depression with the materialism of our world isn’t new. English romantic poet William Wordsworth summed up how dispiriting (令人 消沉的) this was back in 1802, at the beginning of the industrial age, when he wrote: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”. His preference was to go back to nature. Closer to our own times, the hippies (嬉皮士) of the 1960s also sought to ‘‘drop out” of modern life.

And for many minimalists, their key is to unload. Without objects, they “believe people are forced more and more into the present moment and that’s where life happens,” wrote Stuff.

But does simplicity ever feel like a sacrifice (牺牲)?

“It’s eliminating the excess—unused items, unnecessary purchases—from your life. Well, I may have fewer possessions, but I have more space … Minimalism is making room for what matters most,” said Jay.

And “the real questions”, according to Duane Elgin, US social scientist, are “what do you care about?” and “What do you value?”

He told CNN: “It’s important for people to realize minimalism isn’t simply the amount of stuff we consume. It’s about our families, our work, our connection with the larger world, our spiritual dimension. It’s about how we touch the whole world. It’s a way of life.”

1. What was the author’s main purpose in writing the text?

A．To explore the trend of minimalism.

B．To give tips on how to lead a happy life.

C．To argue whether money buys happiness.

D．To recommend one of Francine Jay’s books.

2. What inspired Francine Jay to live a simple life?

A．A book she came across.

B．Her desire to keep up with modern life.

C．The pleasure she enjoyed from traveling lightly.

D．A follower of minimalism she met on a trip.

3. According to Leah Watkins, a typical minimalist tends to       .
a. be fed up with materialism
b. like saving and visiting nature often
c. be angry about his or her current life
d. be environmentally friendly and live with fewer things

A．a, b	B．a, d
C．a, b, c	D．b, c, d

4. The underlined word “eliminating” in Paragraph 8 probably means       .

A．removing	B．distinguishing
C．accepting	D．improving

5. Which of the following would Duane Elgin probably agree with?

A．Minimalism is a healthy lifestyle that is in conflict with modem life.

B．Minimalism limits people’s freedom to enjoy their lives to the fullest.

C．Minimalism enables people to reflect on what truly counts in their lives.

D．Minimalism means people have to sacrifice some pleasure to live simply.

【推荐2】Ownership used to be about as straightforward as writing a cheque. If you bought something, you owned it. If it broke, you fixed it. If you no longer wanted it, you sold it or threw it away. In the digital age, however, ownership has become more slippery. Since the coming of smartphones, consumers have been forced to accept that they do not control the software in their devices; they are only licensed to use it. As a digital chain is wrapped ever more tightly around more devices, such as cars and thermostats, who owns and who controls which objects is becoming a problem. Buyers should be aware that some of their most basic property rights are under threat.

The trend is not always harmful. Manufacturers seeking to restrict what owners do with increasingly complex technology have good reasons to protect their copyright, ensure that their machines do not break down, support environmental standards and prevent hacking. Sometimes companies use their control over a product's software for the owners' benefit. When Hurricane Irma hit Florida this month, Tesla remotely updated the software controlling the batteries of some models to give owners more range to escape the storm.

But the more digital strings are attached to goods, the more the balance of control leans towards producers and away from owners. That can be inconvenient. Picking a car is hard enough, but harder still if you have to dig up the instructions that tell you how use is limited and what data you must give. If the products are intentionally designed not to last long, it can also be expensive. Already, items from smartphones to washing machines have become extremely hard to fix, meaning that they are thrown away instead of being repaired.

Privacy is also at risk. Users become terrified when iRobot, a robotic vacuum cleaner, not only cleans the floor but also creates a digital map of the inside of a home that can then be sold to advertisers (though the manufacturer says it has no intention of doing so). Cases like this should remind people how jealously they ought to protect their property rights and control who uses the data that is collected.

Ownership is not about to go away, but its meaning is changing. This requires careful inspection. Devices, by and large, are sold on the basis that they enable people to do what they want. To the extent they are controlled by somebody else, that freedom is compromised.

1. What benefit does it bring to customers if companies control the ownership of products?

A．It provides them with knowledge to prevent hacking.

B．It gives them the chance to be protected from danger.

C．It enables them to own the copyright of the products.

D．It helps them know more about complex technology.

2. The underlined words "that freedom" in the last paragraph refer to the freedom to ________.

A．control other people	B．share the ownership
C．inspect devices at any time	D．use devices as one wishes

3. The author may agree ________.

A．customers should buy fewer digital devices

B．producers should control property rights

C．property rights need to be protected

D．better after sales service is required

4. Which of the following shows the development of ideas in the passage?
I: Introduction P: Point Sp: Sub-point (次要点) C: Conclusion

A．	B．
C．	D．

【推荐3】Some people think if you are happy, you are blind to reality. But when we research it, happiness actually raises every single business and educational outcome for the brain. How did we miss this? Why do we have these social misunderstandings about happiness? Because we assumed you were average. When we study people, scientists are often interested in what the average is.

Many people think happiness is genetic. That’s only half the story, because the average person does not fight their genes. When we stop studying the average and begin researching positive outliers -- people who are above average for a positive aspect like optimism or intelligence -- a wildly different picture appears. Our daily decisions and habits have a huge impact upon both our levels of happiness and success.

Scientifically, happiness is a choice. It is a choice about where your single processor brain will devote its limited resources as you process the world. If you scan for the negative first, your brain really has no resources left over to see the things you are grateful for or the meaning embedded(嵌入) in your work. But if you scan the world for the positive, you start to acquire an amazing advantage.

I wrote the cover story for the Harvard Business Review magazine on “Happiness Leads to Profits”. Based on my article called “Positive Intelligence” and my research in The Happiness Advantage, I summarized our researched conclusion: the single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happy and busy workforce.

A decade of research in the business world proves that happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: increasing sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as a number of health and quality-of-life improvements.

1. The underlined word “this” in the first paragraph refers to ________.

A．the fact that people are happy

B．the connection between happiness and educational outcome

C．the fact that people often misunderstand happiness

D．the fact that most people are average

2. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Scientists are only interested in what the average is.

B．You can choose to be happy or not.

C．The average are not happy at all.

D．Our decisions and habits have nothing to do with happiness.

3. Why does the writer mention his articles and research?

A．To advertise himself.

B．To arouse the readers’ interest.

C．To support his point about happiness.

D．To attract the readers to read his articles.

4. What is the author’s purpose of writing this article?

A．To describe the misunderstandings about happiness.

B．To show people the importance of happiness.

C．To make the point of what business and educational outcome lies in.

D．To make the point that happiness promotes business and educational outcome.

【推荐1】Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when England tried to rule Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.

In the 1840s the main crop, potatoes, was affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.

For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Though many people still follow the routine nowadays, more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.

The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.

1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A．England ruled Ireland in the 16th century.

B．The Irish people fought for the English.

C．Northern Ireland belongs to the UK.

D．Ireland is an independent country.

2. Why did the population of Ireland once decrease greatly?

A．The Irish were killed by the English rulers.

B．The Irish were affected by a deadly disease.

C．The Irish were not eager to give birth to babies.

D．The Irish suffered from food and work shortage.

3. How did most Irish people make their living?

A．By working on the fields.	B．By working in offices.
C．By working in factories.	D．By performing instruments.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The History of Ireland	B．The Introduction of Ireland
C．The People of Ireland	D．The Independence of Ireland

【推荐2】Imagine this: your child has just been involved in an emergency. You call 911. The medical workers rush in and begin asking you questions as they work to rescue your child. But they also ask questions about your child’s medical history. It’s hard to think clearly. You begin to answer and then end up saying, “I don’t remember. I don’t know.” So many doctors suggest that parents keep handy a record of their children’s important healthy facts. This can often help the medical team make a better and more rapid diagnosis of a problem at a time when time really counts.

The most important information to know is the child’s allergies (过敏). It is especially crucial if the child is allergic to any medicine — penicillin, for example. Food allergies can come into play, so make a note of those as well. Children who have been hospitalized in the past may have developed latex (胶乳) allergies. Often this information can help emergency workers find a cause for problems like breathing difficulties.

Keep a list of any medicine, including what your child is now taking. Some medicines can cause adverse reaction when they are taken together, so the doctors need this information before they give your child anything. You’ll need to know when the child took the medicine last and how much was taken.

It is also important to tell emergency workers about any health problem or illness that your child has had. These pre-existing conditions can have a huge effect on the type of tests and treatment in an emergency. Consider having any child who has a health problem wear a tag around his neck. This kind of rapid notice can help doctors who are providing emergency care, especially if your child suddenly becomes ill at day care, school or a friend’s house.

1. What’s the function of the example in paragraph 1?

A．To tell us what we should do in an emergency.

B．To tell us the importance of keeping a record of children’s health facts

C．To remind us emergent situation is everywhere.

D．To tell us what doctors will ask

2. How many types of allergies are mentioned in Paragraph 2 ?

A．One

B．Two

C．Three

D．Four

3. The underlined word “crucial “in Paragraph 2 probably means________.

A．essential

B．professional

C．convincing

D．admirable

4. Doctors can make a rapid diagnosis of a problem with the help of knowing the following EXCEPT_________.

A．the medicine the child took last and the amount.

B．if the child is allergic to any medicine

C．if your child suddenly becomes ill at day care, school, or a friend’s house.

D．if your child has had any health problem or illness.

【推荐3】When a storm is coming, most people leave the area as quickly ad possible and head for safety. But there are a few people who will get into their cars and go straight for the center of the storm. These people are willing to risk being killed by floods or 100-kilometer-an-hour winds for the excitement of watching the storm close up.
“Storm chasing” is becoming an increasingly popular hobby, especially in the Midwest of the United States, where there are frequent storms between March and July. A storm chaser begins the day by checking the Internet for the latest weather reports, and then drives up to 1,000 kilometers to where the storm will be and waits for it to develop.
Although anyone can do it , storm chasing is extremely dangerous. The power of a big storm can throw a cow into the air or destroy a whole house in seconds. Storm chasers are also often hurt in accidents caused by driving in a heavy rain. If you are a beginner, it is much safer to join a group for storm-chasing vacations during the storm season.
Even then, storm chasing is not all adventure and excitement . “Storm chasing is 95% driving,” says Daniel Lynch, who spends most of his summer storm-chasing. “Sometimes you can sit around for hours waiting for something to happen, and all you get is blue sky and a few light showers.”
However, for storm chasers, it is all worth it. “When you get close to a storm, it is the most exciting sight you will ever see in your life,” says Jasper Morley. “Every storm is an example of the power of nature, It is the greatest show on Earth.”
1. For storm chasing, the first thing storm chasers do is to .

A．head straight for the center of the storm

B．get into the car for safety

C．wait patiently for the storm to develop

D．collect information about a coming storm

2. Beginners of storm chasing are advised .

A．not to drive in a heavy rain

B．to do it in an organized way

C．not to get too close to a storm

D．to spend more time on it in summer

3. By saying “it is all worth it” in the last paragraph, the author means that .

A．storm chasing costs a lot of money

B．storm chasing is worth hours of waiting

C．efforts in storm chasing are well paid

D．a storm presents the greatest show on Earth

4. What can we learn from the text?

A．Sometimes storm chasers get nothing but disappointment

B．Many storm chasers get killed in the storms.

C．Storm chasing is becoming popular around the world.

D．Storm chasing is only fit for young people.