It can be very difficult for people in wheelchairs to move around on beaches. Most beaches don’t have ways for disabled visitors to move around easily, or to get in and out of the sea safely.
Seatrac is a system that was designed to solve this problem. Seatrac is basically a chair on a moving ramp (坡道) that can smoothly carry a person down into the sea, where the person can either remain in the chair, enjoying the water or go for a swim. The Seatrac system can help the disabled, older people and pregnant (怀孕的) women.
The chair is operated by remote control. When the person is ready to get out of the water, the Seatrac system brings the chair back to the top of the slope. It’s even possible to take a shower in the Seatrac chair after going for a swim.
Seatrac was invented and developed in Greece. The idea for it came when one of the inventors Ignatios Fotiou, was talking with a friend who used a wheelchair. The friend said he enjoyed the sea but didn’t like having to be carried into the ocean as if he were “a bag of potatoes”.
Mr Fotiou realized that there must be a way to make it easier for wheelchair users to get into the water. Mr Fotiou worked with his partner and a professor at a Greek university to design the system. A wooden walkway allows wheelchair users to reach the Seatrac. The system is solar-powered. It doesn’t require outside power and can continue to run even if the electricity goes out. The Seatrac system can easily be packed up and stored when swimming season ends.
This summer, the Seatrac system is being used at over 220 beaches in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and Latvia. The Seatrac service in Greece is being offered for free. The Greek government and the EU have helped pay for it, with local cities buying and managing the equipment. Greece’s government hopes that Seatrac will help attract more tourists to the country.
1. Who is Seatrac mainly intended for?| A．Anyone who has a hard time walking. | B．Children who cannot swim very well. |
| C．Everyone who wants to enjoy the sea. | D．Those who are unwilling to walk on beaches. |
| A．Ignatios Fotiou was asked to invent it by his friend. |
| B．Ignatios Fotiou listened to a complaint from a disabled friend. |
| C．Ignatios Fotiou wanted to have a chair operated by remote control. |
| D．Ignatios Fotiou himself was troubled by not being able to enjoy the sea. |
| A．It offers service for free globally. | B．It consumes a lot of electricity. |
| C．It is used at many beaches now. | D．It is too large to pack up and store. |
| A．Promoting the Tourism Industry. | B．Instructions for the Seatrac System. |
| C．Some Measures for Disabled Visitors. | D．Helping the Unwalkable Enjoy the Sea. |
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【推荐1】How do you create lots of affordable housing with limited materials, labor, and other resources? One group of researchers at the University of Maine has come up with a solution: hook up a 3D printer.
The United States faces rising rents and housing shortages, but Maine has its own unique challenges: The state needs another estimated 20,000 homes to meet the current demand for low-income housing. It also has the oldest average population in the nation, with a median age of 44.7, an issue that exacerbates the state’s labor shortage.
BioHome3D, the prototype (样品房), was the first 3D-printed home made entirely of organic, renewable materials. It is 600 square feet in total, with a modern roof and a wide front porch. The interior contains an open-concept kitchen, living, and dining area with wooden walls and tall windows. The single bedroom doubles as an office, and a bathroom completes the space.
The materials used to manufacture the 3D-printed home also help address another issue in Maine: the shutting of several paper factories that once processed byproducts from local sawmills (锯木厂).
Dagher said, “We asked ourselves, could we print a home with that material?” The answer, thus far, has been yes. The prototype, which was shown on Nov. 21 at the University of Maine’s Orono campus, is now undergoing tests to see how the building fares during Maine’s harsh winters.
Though Dagher’s lab is not the first to 3D print a house, they are the first to use a 3D printer to create the entirety of the structure, as well as the first to use reusable materials. “There’s a lot of potential, not only to solve a crisis in Maine, but to assist in a solution to the housing crisis nationally as well,” he said.
1. What does the underlined word “exacerbates” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Suffers. | B．Solves. | C．Worsens. | D．Eases. |
| A．It is the first 3D-printed house. | B．It is environmentally friendly. |
| C．It is poorly equipped. | D．It is mass-produced. |
| A．Its structure. | B．Its construction. |
| C．Its application. | D．Its contribution. |
| A．3D-printed Houses — Kill Two Birds With One Stone |
| B．3D-printed Houses — No Sweet Is Without Sweat |
| C．3D-printed Houses — Well Begun Is Half Done |
| D．3D-printed Houses — Easier Said Than Done |
【推荐2】The fast spread of the virus has led most Chinese citizens to wear face masks in public to help reduce infections. The Beijing-based Hanwang Technology Ltd. says it has created a new facial recognition system that is the first to effectively identify people even if they are wearing masks.
China is recognized as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence and facial recognition system. The new system is based on the existing technologies developed over the past 10 years.
“When wearing a mask, the recognition rate can reach about 95 percent, which can ensure that most people can be identified,” Hanwang’s vice president, Huang Lei, said. He added that the system’s success rate for people not wearing a mask is about 99.5 percent. 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.
Hanwang is now selling two main kinds of products that use the technology. One performs “single channel” recognition and the other is a “multi-channel” recognition, which can identify individuals in a crowd of up to 30 people “within a second”.
Huang said officials can use Hanwang’s technology to compare images with ministry (部门) records on individuals in order to identify and track people as they move about. The system can identify crime suspects (嫌疑人), terrorists or make reports or warnings, he added.
While some citizens have expressed opposition to such tools, more people seem to have accepted the methods as a way to deal with the current health emergency.
So far, Huang says most interest in the new system has come from within China. But he sees the interest likely expanding if the virus continues to spread and the use of face masks increases.
1. What do we know about the new facial recognition system?| A．It has no relation to the existing tech. | B．It is being used both at home and abroad. |
| C．It can record people’s temperature. | D．It can be used for many purposes. |
| A．international companies | B．colleges and universities |
| C．the Ministry of Public Safety | D．the Ministry of Manpower |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving. | C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．To show China’s technological advances. | B．To introduce a newly developed system. |
| C．To demonstrate the innovation of China. | D．To advertise a new tech-based product. |
【推荐3】A 60-year-old homeless woman named Smokie has been sleeping outside in the dirt a few doors down from a man named Elvis Summers.
Most mornings, she stops by Elvis’s Los Angeles apartment and asks if he has any recyclable materials for her. Through these conversations, they struck up a friendship.
One morning, Elvis saw a news article about man in Oakland who has been making tiny houses out of deserted materials. He was inspired to put off paying a few bills so he could buy the wood and hardware to make Smokie a brand new shelter it took him five days to build it, and now, for the first time in ten years, Smokie a brand new shelter. It took him five days to build it, and now, for the first time in ten years, Smokie has a place to hang the sign. “Home Sweet Home”.
“I had nowhere to really build it, so I just built it in the street outside of my apartment,” Elvis told Good News Network. “The local LAPD police have been super cool, and have told me they support it—as long as we move it to a different spot every 72 hours.”
He made this pretty time-lapse(延时的) video showing how he did it. The materials, including two locks on the front door and strong wheels for moving it around, cost him about $500.
“I’ve met so many homeless people, good people,” Elvis said in an email, “Since I built Smokie’s , I’ve had several people asking me to make them a tiny home and it’s turned into much more than just the one house I wanted to build.”
Although he runs an online retail store that sells EDM clothes, he has decided to launch an ambitious project to fund more shelters. He plants to get lighter and cheaper materials—without sacrificing the strength of the house—for the next round. Rick Sassen, a branch manager, kindly donated the roof shingles and cedar supporting Smokie’s house, final items Elvis couldn’t afford on his own. Sassen has promised to work out a deal on future building materials for the same cause.
1. What is the meaning of the underlined words “struck up” in paragraph 2?| A．Kept on. | B．Established. |
| C．Gave out. | D．Accomplished. |
| A．A news report. |
| B．A science book. |
| C．A fiction story. |
| D．An advertisement. |
| A．It is air-conditioned. |
| B．It is very light. |
| C．It can move around. |
| D．It has no roof. |
| A．He will get help from poor people. |
| B．He earns his living by building houses. |
| C．He plans to build stronger houses. |
| D．He will help more homeless people. |
【推荐1】While the ability to copy sounds is uncommon among animals, only a few species can adjust their voice to sound higher or lower. Seals are one of these animals and they copy humans like parrots. They change the pitch (音高) of their calls depending on the sounds of their surroundings.
Now scientists have found baby seals are on the short list of animals with volume control. “By looking at seals which may be capable of learning sounds, we hope to understand how humans acquire speech and finally why we are such chatty animals,” said Dr. Ravignani, one of these scientists.
The scientists studied eight harbor baby seals which were being held in a center before being released back into the wild. They recorded noises from the nearby sea before playing them back to these seals at volumes ranging from no sound to higher sound, but keeping the same tone height as the animal’s calls. They then recorded the baby seals’ calls to see whether they changed their tone of voice to match these sounds. Baby seals lowered their tone of voice when they heard louder sea noises. But one of them displayed the so-called Lombard effect, producing louder calls when the noise got louder. This is also typical of human speech, as people generally raise their voices to be better understood in noisy situations.
Baby seals have a more advanced control over their calls than assumed up. This control seems to be already present at an early age. This is astonishing, as few other animals seem capable of that. However, baby seals didn’t produce more or longer calls when exposed to different levels of sea sounds.
Dr. Ravignani said, “To date, humans seem to be the only mammals with direct connections between the cortex—the outer layer of the brain, and the larynx—what we use to produce tone of voice. These results show that seals may be the most promising species to find these direct connections and uncover the mystery of speech.”
1. What are the scientists studying about baby seals?| A．Their ability to adjust their volume. |
| B．Their ability to acquire human speech. |
| C．Their ability to communicate with parrots. |
| D．Their ability to change their surroundings. |
| A．They became more active. | B．They kept the same tone height. |
| C．They made more or longer calls. | D．They lowered their tone of voice. |
| A．A man speaks louder at a noisy market. |
| B．A student can learn better in a quiet library. |
| C．A salesgirl with a smile can sell more houses. |
| D．A talkative businessman is more likely to succeed. |
| A．The mystery of speech is difficult to uncover. |
| B．Scientists should make good use of seals in the sea. |
| C．The results of the study help to know human speech. |
| D．Different parts of human brain should be further studied. |
【推荐2】Empathy (共情) is one of the most important skills a teacher can have, but it is not always easy to respond to student behaviour with empathy. However, when you demonstrate to students that you understand and respect their feelings, you build mutual trust and friendly relationship.
According to new research, teaching children in a way that encourages them to empathize with others improves their creativity and may lead to a variety of other beneficial learning outcomes. The findings are the result of a year-long University of Cambridge study with year 9 Design and Technology (D &T) students (ages 13 to 14) from two inner London schools. Pupils at one school spent the year following curriculum-required lessons, while students at the other school used a set of engineering design thinking tools to improve students’ ability to think creatively and empathically while solving real-world problems.
Both sets of pupils were assessed for creativity at both the start and end of the school year using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking: a well-established psychometric test (心理测试). The results showed a statistically significant increase in creativity among pupils at the intervention school, where the thinking tools were used. At the start of the year, the Creativity scores of pupils in the control school, which followed the standard curriculum, were 11% higher than those at the intervention school. By the end, however, the situation had completely changed: Creativity scores among the intervention group were 78% higher than the control group.
Nicholl, Senior Lecturer in Design and Technology Education, who trains teachers studying on the University’s D & T PGCE course, said, “Teaching for empathy has been difficult despite being part of the D &. T National Curriculum for over two decades. This evidence suggests that it is a missing link in the creative process, and vital if we want education to encourage the designers and engineers of tomorrow.” Nicholl added, “When I taught Design and Technology, I didn’t see children as potential engineers who would one day contribute to the economy; they were people who needed to be ready to go into the world at 18. Teaching children to empathize is about building a society where we appreciate each other’s thoughts. Surely that is something we want education to do.”
1. What will a teacher with empathy do?| A．Share knowledge with students. |
| B．Understand students’ emotions. |
| C．Improve important teaching skills. |
| D．Respond to students’ behaviour. |
| A．To spread the ideas related to empathy. |
| B．To learn the curriculum-required lessons. |
| C．To promote problem-solving abilities. |
| D．To inspire creativity with mutual trust. |
| A．The standard curriculum didn’t encourage creativity. |
| B．The intervention school was more popular among students. |
| C．The control group lacked the ability to empathize with others. |
| D．The empathetic class contributed significantly to creativity. |
| A．Unarguable. | B．Influential. | C．Distinctive. | D．Inaccurate. |
【推荐3】You may have heard the term self-awareness, but what is it and why does it matter?
Being self-aware can influence how you feel in your job and in your personal life. Daniel Goleman takes that connection much further, saying self-awareness is the key to success. He describes self-awareness as “knowing one’s internal (内在的)states, preference and resources”, and then monitoring that “inner world” information as it comes up. If you can be as aware of your feelings and thoughts, you’ll be better able to deal with new situations. Because you know yourself better, you’ll be more accepting of yourself, your thoughts and your feelings, Goleman says.
But self-awareness doesn’t stop at how you see yourself. It’s also understanding and acknowledging how others see you. Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, explains that self-awareness has two parts — internal and external (外部的). Internal self-awareness means we can clearly see our own values, thoughts, passions and feelings. External self-awareness is clearly seeing how others see us. People who are externally self-aware tend to be better leaders.
So how do you know if you’re self-aware or not? Eurich developed a short online quiz to help. You’re not the only one who has to take it. Someone who knows you well also has to answer questions about you.
In a recent TED Talk, Eurich refers to self-awareness unicorns. This group makes up only a small part of all the people she has studied. These are people who not only believe they are self-aware, but other people who know them would agree. Additionally, these unicorns would say they have improved their self-awareness in their lives and again, those who know them well would agree.
Thankfully, anyone can become more self-aware, as long as they’re willing to devote some time and effort to the cause.
1. According to Daniel Goleman, a self-aware person ________.| A．feels dissatisfied with his life | B．has a burning desire for success |
| C．avoids challenging new situations | D．handles his self-information well |
| A．External self-awareness. | B．Clear thinking. |
| C．Sharp understanding. | D．Internal self-awareness. |
| A．By setting criteria for answers. |
| B．By measuring others’ reactions. |
| C．By analyzing only quiz-takers’ questions. |
| D．By matching internal and external opinions. |
| A．They are born experts. | B．They fail to get approval. |
| C．They are rare talents. | D．They try to please others. |
