Electronic timing is older than most people imagine and was used for the first time more than a hundred years ago at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Initially, the well-known company Ericsson was tasked with developing the technology, but it was the Swedish inventor Ragnar Carlstedt who eventually created the final product.
At the same time, Carlstedt introduced another invention: the finish line camera. The 1, 500-meter Olympic final was extremely close with Arnold Jackson from Great Britain winning by only 0.1 seconds. But it was impossible to decide on the silver medal since the two Americans Abel Kiviat and Norman Taber finished side by side. For the first time in history, the outcome of an Olympic event had to be settled based on a photo finish when Kiviat was judged to be “slightly ahead”.
The significance of these two inventions led a major newspaper to write: “Electronic timing at the Olympic Games. Simultaneous (同时发生的) timing and photography of contestants. A brilliant idea!”
The next step in timekeeping was the photo-finish camera with a time stamp imprinted on each picture, which was introduced at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. The 1948 Olympics saw the introduction of another invention with the continuous slit camera (狭缝摄影机), where a film behind a narrow slit rolls (滚动) with the same speed as the runners. Four years later the clocks were connected to the slit camera giving a solution of 1/100 s. But it was not until 1972 that official times were recorded to the 100th of a second.
The next big step in the eighties was to make the camera digital to speed up the feedback (反馈). But the idea behind the slit camera was kept and is still the basis of all timing systems for athletics used today. The only difference is that now there is a very narrow sensor array ( 阵列传感器) instead of the moving film.
After a century technology has reached the point where the whole timing system can be stored in a smartphone. So in a way, the circle was closed when SprintTimer, a sports timer and photo finish app, was developed in the same place and precisely a hundred years after Ragnar Carlstedt.
1. What do we know about electronic timing?| A．It was created in recent years. |
| B．It was first introduced at the Olympics. |
| C．It was developed by the well-known company Ericsson. |
| D．It was perfected by the Swedish inventor Ragnar Carlstedt. |
| A．The increasing need for a finish line camera. |
| B．The excellent performance of Arnold Jackson. |
| C．The significant role of Carlstedt's another invention. |
| D．The intense competition of the 1,500-meter Olympic final. |
| A．It avoided the use of a moving film. |
| B．It rolled with the same speed as the runners. |
| C．It made a 100th-of-a-second record possible. |
| D．It adopted a new idea for all timing systems used today. |
| A．Further improvement was discontinued. |
| B．The problem was back to the origin. |
| C．A new invention was created. |
| D．The issue was resolved. |
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【推荐1】One day your pocket might power your smartphone. Soon you may never have to worry about your smartphone running out of juice. Your clothing will simply power it back up for you. That's the word from scientists at China's Chongqing and Jinan Universities in a study just published in the journal ACS Nano.
Researchers have been hard at work during the last few years trying to create wearable energy, or clothes that can charge things. The assumption is simple. People today rely heavily upon devices such as smartphones and tablets. And they're looking for ways to recharge these devices on the go. So if you could design clothing fabric that could make use of solar power--one of the most widely available and inexhaustible（用不完的）renewable energy sources-you'd be able to charge your various devices with ease.
Scientists have had some past success creating energy-harvesting fibers. But there was always one problem when they tried to fashion these threads into self-powered smart clothes: The fibers they designed got damaged during the clothing manufacturing process, namely during the weaving and cutting. The Chongqing and Jinan University scientists say they've solved this problem because the energy-collecting and energy-storing threads they created are highly flexible--each individual thread is easily bendable, and not simply the fabric as a whole.
The team's sample textile can be fully charge to volts in 17 seconds by exposure to sunlight—enough voltage that your future smart T-shirt or smart dress might be able to power small electronics. I's durable, too; their research showed there was no decrease in the fabric after 60 days. But don't worry that this means the fabric is similar to rough cloth. The scientists note their textile can be fashioned into numerous different patterns, and tailored into any designed shape, without affecting performance.
1. What does the underlined phrase "running out of juice" in Paragraph I mean?.| A．Being lacking in energy. | B．Wanting to have some juice. |
| C．Being picked out of a drink. | D．Having some water running out. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Pessimistic. |
| C．Neutral | D．Doubtful. |
| A．persuade readers to buy new clothes |
| B．inform readers of the ways to use their devices |
| C．introduce new wearable energy to readers |
| D．remind readers to wear smart clothes |
【推荐2】Imagine a cat that does not need someone to clean up after it keeps an older people company and helps them remember to take their medicine. That is the shared dream of the toy maker Hasbro and scientists at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The researchers received a $ 3-million-dollar from the National Science Foundation for a special project. They want to find ways to add artificial intelligence, or AI, to Hasbro’s “Joy for All” robotic cat.
The cat has already been for sale for two years. Though priced at over 1,000 dollars, it sold quite well. It was meant to act as a “companion”(陪伴) for older people. Now the project is aimed at developing additional abilities for the cat. Researchers are working to decide which activities older adults may need the most. They hope to make the cat perform a small number of activities very well. Such activities include finding lost objects and reminding the older people to take medicine or visit their doctor. They also want to keep the cost down to just a few hundred dollars.
It is an idea that has appealed (有吸引力) to Jeanne Elliott. Her 93-year-old mother Mary Derr lives with her in South Kingstown. Derr has dementia (痴呆). The Joy for All cat that Elliot bought this year has become a true companion for Derr. The cat stays with Derr and keeps her relaxed while Elliott is at work. Elliot said a robotic cat that helps her mother to remember to take her medicine and be careful when she walks would be greater.
The researchers are trying to learn how the improved cats will complete helpful activities and how they will communicate. They say that they do not want a talking cat, however. Instead they are trying to design a cat that can move its head in a special way to successfully communicate its message. In the end, they hope to create an exchange between the human and the cat in which the human feels the cat needs them. By doing so, the researchers hope they can even help prevent feelings of loneliness and sadness among elderly people.
1. What’s the purpose of the project?| A．To reduce the pain of the elderly. |
| B．To increase the sales of a medicine. |
| C．To help make the robotic cat smarter. |
| D．To invent a robotic cat for the elderly. |
| A．It will be on sale in two years. |
| B．It may be cheaper in the future. |
| C．Its abilities will be made simpler for the elderly. |
| D．It can tell the activities that older adults need the most. |
| A．The cat gives much help to the elderly. |
| B．The cat works well to talk with the patient. |
| C．The cat can make the dementia patient less painful. |
| D．The cat should be designed to satisfy patients’ need. |
| A．Each family can afford such a cat in the future. |
| B．A talking cat is quite popular among the elderly. |
| C．Feelings of sadness among the elderly are unavoidable. |
| D．The feeling of being needed is important to the elderly. |
【推荐3】Oh, the places you’ll go!
When it comes to habitat, human beings are creatures of habit. It has been known for a long time that, whether his habitat is a village, a city or, for real globe-trotters (周游世界者), the planet itself, an individual person generally visits the same places regularly. The details, though, have been surprisingly obscure. Now, thanks to an analysis of data collected from 40,000 smartphone users around the world, a new property of humanity’s locomotive (移动的) habits has been revealed.
It turns out that someone’s “location capacity”, the number of places which he or she visits regularly, remains constant over periods of months and years. What constitutes a “place” depends on what distance between two places makes them separate. But analyzing movement patterns helps illuminate the distinction and the researchers found that the average location capacity was 25. If a new location does make its way into the set of places an individual tends to visit, an old one drops out in response. People do not, in other words, gather places like collector cards. Rather, they cycle through them. Their geographical behavior is limited and predictable, not fancy-free.
The study demonstrating this, just published in Nature Human Behavior, does not offer any explanation for the limited location capacity it measures. But a statistical analysis carried out by the authors shows that it cannot be explained solely by constraints on time. Some other factor is at work. One of the researchers draws an analogy. He suggests that people’s cognitive capacity limits the number of places they can visit routinely, just as it limits the number of other people an individual can routinely socialize with. That socialization figure, about 150 for most people, is known as the Dunbar number, after its discoverer, Robin Dunbar.
Lehmann says his group is now in search of similar data from other primates (灵长目动物), in an attempt to work out where human patterns of mobility have their roots. For those, though, they will have to rely on old-fashioned methods of zoological observation unless they can work out a way to get chimpanzees to carry smartphones.
1. The underlined word “obscure” in paragraph 1 can be replaced by .| A．clear | B．little known |
| C．accurate | D．long forgotten |
| A．Observe the primates or let them carry smartphones. |
| B．Work together with Robin Dunbar. |
| C．Carry out statistical analysis. |
| D．Publish essays in Nature Human Behavior. |
【推荐1】Two years ago, aerospace manufacturer SpaceX shocked the world by landing its reusable booster (助推器) engine — the biggest and most costly part of the rocket used to power spacecraft into low orbit — on an autonomous drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Now, California-based startup Rocket Lab, has come up with an even more courageous idea: using parachutes and helicopters to capture the returning booster, or first stage as it is often called, in the air!
Rocket Lab’s decision to avoid the propulsive or vertical (垂直的) landing used by SpaceX comes from its business model to keep its Electron rockets small and cost-effective. Standing just 57 feet tall, they are designed to deliver smaller payloads (有效载重) of about 500 pounds for only $5 million a launch. In contrast, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket measuring 229 feet tall can lift up to 50,000 pounds, costs about $62 million a mission. “We’re not in the business of building medium-sized launch vehicles but small ones for customers to get on orbit frequently.” said Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck.
Similar to other rockets, the Electron divides into two once it reaches outer space. While the top part, carrying the load, continues on to its final destination, the booster engine falls back to Earth The company intends to fix a ballute — a parachute-like braking device — to quickly slow down the booster's supersonic speed (超声速) upon its return into the atmosphere. Once it slows down to a reasonable pace, a helicopter will grab the rocket from midair and put it onto an awaiting ship to transport to the company's headquarters. Beck said: “The grand goal here is that if we can capture the vehicle in wonderful condition, in theory, we should be able to put it back on the pad, charge the batteries up, and go again.”
The idea, still in the concept stage, will become one step closer to becoming a reality during Electron’s next launch, scheduled for sometime in 3 years, “Engineers will carefully monitor the first stage as it returns, testing its ability to guide its landing with the best way to slow down its speed,” said Beck.
1. We can infer from the first two paragraphs that ___________.| A．with a height of 229 feet, the Space X Falcon 9 rocket can deliver a load of 50,000 tons |
| B．small launch vehicles are designed by Rocket Lab to make its boosters economical |
| C．Space X once successfully captured its rocket before it landed on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean |
| D．an autonomous drone ship is used by Rocket Lab to transport the first stage |
| A．It will be equipped with a ballute to reduce its landing speed. |
| B．Its booster engine falls back to the earth with the load. |
| C．It divides into two the instant it enters outer space. |
| D．It is loaded on a helicopter heading for the company’s headquarters. |
| A．How to capture the booster engine without damaging its function. |
| B．When to slow down the first stage as it returns. |
| C．How to cut the cost of each launch mission by calculation. |
| D．How to make its rockets smaller and more reusable. |
| A．Books & Art. | B．Business. |
| C．Science Fiction. | D．Technology. |
【推荐2】China is recognized as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence and facial recognition systems. A Chinese company, the Beijing-based Hanwang Technology Ltd. , says it has created a new facial recognition system that can identify people even if they are wearing masks. Engineers at the company say their system is the first to be created to effectively identify people wearing face masks.
The company told a news agency that a team of 20 people built the system in about a month. The system is based on existing technologies developed over the past 10 years. The process involved adding a collection of about 6 million unmasked faces and a much smaller collection of masked faces, the company said.
The company is now selling two main kinds of products that use the new technology. One performs “single channel” recognition, which is designed to be used at the entrances to buildings. The other product is a “multi-channel” recognition system that uses groups of surveillance (监视) cameras. It can identify individuals in a crowd of up to 30 people within a second.
“When people are wearing a mask that covers the mouth and nose, the recognition rate can reach about 95%, which can ensure that most people can be identified.” said Huang, vice president of the company. He added that the system’s success rate for people not wearing a mask is about 99.5%. However, the new system struggles to identify people wearing both a mask and sunglasses. “In this situation, all of the key facial information is lost. In such cases recognition is tough.” Huang said.
People were reacting differently to the new technology. While some citizens have been against using such tools, the majority have accepted the technology as an effective way to decrease crime and catch criminals.
1. What did the company do to build the system?| A．They merely used the latest technology. |
| B．They gathered many face images. |
| C．They employed hundreds of people. |
| D．They spent about a decade building it. |
| A．The new system has already been used by the police. |
| B．The recognition rate of masked faces is about 99.5%. |
| C．The single channel produce can be used at the entrances. |
| D．It is hard to recognize people with both masks and glasses. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Optimistic. | C．Objective. | D．Critical. |
| A．Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition. |
| B．China—the First to Create Facial Recognition. |
| C．An Effective way To Decrease Crimes and Catch Criminals. |
| D．A New Recognition System to Identify People with Masks. |
【推荐3】NASA has a new job listing, and it’s no joke. The US space agency (机构) is looking for a “joker” to join their planned mission (任务) to Mars.
A mission to Mars is no laughing matter. On average, the red planet is 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) away from Earth. A trip there would take around eight months in a small spacecraft. And Mars has a communications delay (延迟) of 20 minutes. This means that astronauts will have to wait 20 minutes for a reply, when an emergency happens.
“When you’re living with others in a confined space for a long period of time, such as on a mission to Mars, problems are likely to occur,” Jeffrey Johnson, a scientist at the University of Florida, told The Guardian.
This is probably why NASA wants an astronaut with a sense of humor. “These are people that have the ability to pull everyone together,” Johnson said.
In stressful situations, perhaps humor is a way to know we aren’t alone. By laughing together, we share our stress. Then we can focus on our jobs instead of just worrying.
There are other examples of team “clowns”. One example is the journey to the South Pole (南极) led by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. It was a difficult journey, full of danger. Adolf Lindstrom, a cook at Amundsen’s team, was a “clown”. He made people laugh through the whole journey. Amundsen later wrote that Lindstrom was the most valuable member of the team.
But if you’re hoping that your favorite TV comedian (喜剧演员) will fly to Mars, that probably won’t happen.
“Being funny won’t be enough to land somebody the job,” Johnson said. “They also need to be an excellent scientist and engineer.”
Besides, they must be in top physical condition.
1. What is NASA’s new job listing?| A．A funny engineer. | B．A talented clown. |
| C．A good cook. | D．A popular comedian. |
| A．a crowded space | B．an empty space |
| C．an open space | D．a small space |
| A．It can stop them from feeling worried. |
| B．It can encourage teamwork on a mission. |
| C．It can help them feel less homesick. |
| D．It can help them know themselves better. |
| A．A New Job Listing of NASA |
| B．Humorous Astronauts in NASA |
| C．Keeping the Spirits Up |
| D．A mission to Mars |
【推荐1】Bread fruit is a traditional staple (主食) crop from the Pacific islands with the potential to improve worldwide food security. While people have survived on it for thousands of years, there was a lack of basic scientific knowledge of the health impacts of a bread fruit-based diet in both humans and animals. Now the fruit is getting the nutritional thumbs-up from a team of British Columbia researchers.
Bread fruit can be harvested, dried and made into flour. For the project, researchers had four bread fruits from the same tree in Hawaii, shipped to the march Lab at UBC Okanagan. Ying Liu led the study examining the digestion and health impact of a bread fruit-based diet.
“We wanted to contribute to the development of bread fruit as a sustainable, environmentally-friendly and high-production crop,” Liu says. The researchers designed a series of studies that could provide data on the impacts of a bread fruit-based diet fed to mice and also an enzyme (酶) digestion model.
The researchers determined that bread fruit protein was found to be easier to digest than wheat protein in the enzyme digestion model. And mice fed the bread fruit diet had a significantly higher growth rate and body weight than standard diet-fed mice. Liu also noted mice on the bread fruit diet had a significantly higher daily water consumption compared to mice on the wheat diet.
Fundamental understanding of the health impact of bread fruit digestion and diets is necessary and essential to the establishment of bread fruit as a staple in the future. “Overall, these studies support the use of bread fruit as part of a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet,” says Liu. The use of bread fruit could make inroads in food sustain ability for many populations globally. Liu suggests if a person ate the same amount of cooked bread fruit they can meet up to nearly 57 per cent of their daily fibre requirement, more than 34 per cent of their protein requirement and at the same time consume vitamin C, iron, calcium and other elements.
1. What does the underlined word “thumbs-up” mean in the first paragraph?| A．Requirement. | B．Benefit. | C．Reflection. | D．Acceptance. |
| A．To help those Pacific islanders. | B．To prove the value of the food. |
| C．To promote the food worldwide. | D．To develop a new type of diet. |
| A．The research method. | B．The research focuses. |
| C．The research process. | D．The research findings. |
| A．It will take the place of wheat. | B．It is superior to other foods. |
| C．It can help ease food shortage. | D．It needs further improvement. |
【推荐2】The fashion industry produces approximately 10% of the world’s carbon emissions (排放). This number will increase as “fast fashion” does as well. With climate change becoming more of a threat with each day, people are looking into ways to push back against fast fashion.
Fast fashion is a term that refers to the increase in the production of clothing. The industry is at a peak of production that it hasn’t seen before. People buy more clothes, get rid of them faster and look for the cheapest options. Meanwhile, companies are putting out more clothing options and collections than ever. Zara, for example, is one of the biggest fashion producers in the world. In 2021, they produced 840 million articles of clothing.
With production that high, the environmental effects increase greatly. Clothing production has approximately doubled since 2000, and it doesn’t show signs of slowing down. With the increase come more impacts on the environment than ever before. On top of the industry’s CO2 emissions, it also affects water consumption and air and ocean pollution. It’s the second-largest consumer of water. And many of the clothes end up in landfills and oceans.
With fast fashion increasing, so will these effects. But the environment isn’t the only area of vulnerability (易受伤害). The treatment and wages of workers is an area for concern and attention. Many clothing factories all over the globe do not provide heathy working conditions or fair salaries for their employees. And the higher and faster the demand for clothes, the more they will have to work.
You may want to get active to help change your role or involvement with clothing purchases. Luckily, there are small ways that can make a big difference when shopping. Changes on a small scale that come together have the ability to create changes at the industry level.
1. Which of the following belongs to fast fashion according to the text?| A．Choosing the most expensive clothes. |
| B．Sending old clothes to a recycling center. |
| C．Giving away clothes to those in need. |
| D．Buying more clothes than necessary. |
| A．Employees work longer hours. |
| B．Customers pay more for clothes. |
| C．Employees have more choices of clothes. |
| D．Environmental pollution has gone down. |
| A．How fast fashion affects the environment. |
| B．What changes fast fashion has brought about. |
| C．What people can do to resist fast fashion. |
| D．Why the fast fashion industry has been growing so rapidly. |
| A．The growing popularity of fast fashion |
| B．Negative effects of fast fashion |
| C．Common practices of fast fashion |
| D．The future of the fast fashion industry |
【推荐3】In 2013 Tallinn(爱沙尼亚首都塔林) became the world’s first capital city to offer people free public transport. Last year Estonia(爱沙尼亚) set the aim to become the first country with free public transport nationwide. Buses are now free of charge in 11 of its 15 counties.
Tallinn’s city government came up with the idea of free transport in 2008. Even though the city paid more than 70% of public-transport costs, ticket prices were still too high for poorer people. Crowdedness had also become a problem. Since 1991, the number of people owning cars has doubled.
Opponents(反对者) thought the idea unaffordable and critics(批评者) predicted the transport system would become overcrowded and lack money.
Surprisingly, public transport has improved, despite a €12 million hit to the system’s finances from lost ticket sales. Tallinn’s population has grown, leading to an increase in local tax intake. Additional revenu(财政收入) comes from tourists, who still have to buy tickets. The use of public transport in Tallinn has gone up by 10%, while the number of cars in the city has gone down by 10%, meaning less congestion.
Now other countries are looking at Estonia’s experience. Tallinn officials say they have had interest from France, Sweden, Poland, Italy and Germany. Other places have already introduced free public transport for certain groups or at certain times. In England 1/3 of all bus trips are fare-free especially for pensioners(领养老金者); Wales runs free travel at weekends to improve tourism. But so far full fare-free travel is rare. The city of Hasselt in Belgium ran free public transport for 16 years before reintroducing fares because of increasing costs.
1. Which of the following places offers full fare-free public transport?| A．Hasselt | B．Estonia | C．Wales | D．Tallinn |
| A．The government wouldn’t have enough money to carry it out. |
| B．It wouldn’t help with the city’s over crowdedness. |
| C．It would lead to the heavy loss from ticket sales. |
| D．Years later the city would reintroduce fares from people. |
| A．pollution | B．population | C．crowdedness | D．income |
| A．It offers more job opportunities for people. |
| B．It helps to solve the traffic problem in cities. |
| C．It encourages people to stop driving. |
| D．It attracts more tourists to take buses. |
