【推荐1】NASA’s Curiosity vehicle recently recorded the largest level of methane(甲烷) ever measured during its seven-year Mars mission. The discovery is exciting because the existence of methane gas could support the case for life on Mars.

Methane has no color or smell. A special instrument on Curiosity’s Mars Science Laboratory recorded the increased gas level. The device, called a laser spectrometer, measures levels of chemical elements and gases in the Martian atmosphere. In addition to methane, the instrument can record levels of water and CO2. Nearly all the methane gas found in Earth’s atmosphere is produced by biological activity. It usually comes from animal and plant life. But it can also be formed by geological(地质的) processes, such as interactions between rocks and water. NASA said the increased methane was measured to be about 21 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). One ppbv means that if you take a volume of air on Mars, one billionth of the volume of air is methane.

It was not the first time Curiosity has found methane gas in the Martian atmosphere. About a year ago, NASA announced that Curiosity had discovered sharp seasonal increases in the gas. This time, NASA said the measured methane gas level was clearly larger than any others observed in the past. NASA officials even temporarily stopped Curiosity’s other activities to investigate further.

“It’s exciting because microbial(微生物的) life is an important source of methane on Earth,” NASA said in a statement announcing the discovery. However, Curiosity’s team carried out a follow-up methane experiment that showed a sharp drop in levels of the gas. The second examination found the level was less than one part per billion by volume. That number was close to the background levels Curiosity sees all the time. The rise and fall of the methane gas levels left NASA scientists with more questions than answers. The scientists are continuing to study possible causes for the sudden increase. The methane mystery continues.

Curiosity does not have instruments that can exactly identify whether the source of the methane is biological or geological. One leading theory is that methane is being released from underground areas created by possible life forms that disappeared long ago. Even though Mars has no active volcanoes, scientists believe it is also possible that methane is being produced by reactions involving carbon materials and water.

A clearer understanding of methane levels over time could help scientists determine where they’re located on Mars. Scientists hope this understanding will come as Curiosity continues to collect methane data in its search for possible life.

1. Curiosity discovered.

A．the largest methane gas level ever observed on Mars

B．the existence of life on Mars

C．the reason for the increased methane

D．interactions between rocks and water

2. Why did NASA officials once stop Curiosity’s other activities?

A．To further examine the methane gas level on Mars.

B．To seek possible life existing on Mars.

C．To check the quality of Curiosity’s mission.

D．To find seasonal increases in the methane gas.

3. What can we learn from the last three paragraphs?

A．Causes for the change of methane have been proved by Curiosity.

B．Curiosity has proved the location of methane by instruments.

C．Scientists think reactions involving carbon materials and water may produce methane.

D．Identifying the source of methane has helped scientists search for possible life on Mars.

4. The passage is probably taken from .

A．a geography textbook	B．a science newspaper
C．a health magazine	D．a travel brochure

【推荐2】Oh my God, the robots are taking over! We’re doomed! Doomed! Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, it’s become clear that while we may or may not be doomed, the robots are taking over. The latest example is the government’s new guidelines for self-driving cars.

Tesla, Google and Uber are already testing driverless cars in cities across America. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick is among those predicting that by 2021, self-driving cars will play a big part in urban settings.

Nearly 40,000 people died last year in this nation in automobile-related accidents, and we believe driverless cars can save tens of thousands of lives annually.

It makes sense. Robot drivers are less likely to get drunk, drive without a license, text while driving or feel agitated at the scene of a traffic jam. On the other hand, I wonder how these highly sensitive cars will react with walkers constantly dashing into the street. Will they jam on the brakes every 10 seconds?

But there’s a bigger picture. Not only are robots replacing humans behind the wheel, but behind the work desk, in warehouses, senior homes, you name it. Robots aren’t just taking over in the workplace.

The question is, where can’t a robot function better than a human? How about writing songs? A robot can go through every combination of notes in record time and come up with a pleasing melody. The lyrics might be a different story. Is a Grammy-winning song co-written by Hank Human and R-3071 in our future?

Finally, it’s only a matter of time until we have robot politicians and presidential candidates. Why not? They can be programmed to be experts in world and domestic affairs and come up with the best solutions without corruption and bad humors.

Actually, it’s too bad such technology isn’t available in 2018. Pretty sure the robot would win in a landslide.
1. What does the underlined word “agitated” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Exhausted.	B．Embarrassed.
C．Disappointed.	D．Anxious.

2. What doubt does the writer have about self-driving cars?

A．How passengers behave in it.

B．How robot drivers get the license.

C．How they respond to walkers on a busy street.

D．How they avoid crashing into other cars.

3. The last question asked in Paragraph 6 reflects the writer’s         .

A．eagerness to listen to songs written by robots

B．doubt about robots’ ability to write songs

C．confidence in robots’ winning Grammy Awards

D．curiosity about the future Grammy songs

4. What might be the most suitable title for the text?

A．Robots will control the world in every field.

B．Robots can drive cars and write music.

C．Robots are being used in our daily life.

D．Robots are coming but not soon enough.

【推荐1】"I'm going to learn at least one dish each week. You just need to sit back and watch." I got off the phone with my mom and clicked on the TV-box-shaped icon （图标）of YouTube. We were just having a bet about whether I would ever be able to teach myself to cook without her step-by-step guidance.

Technology has revolutionized the way we learn. That was what I believed then. However, after two weeks of watching those instructional videos, the reality of my barely improved cooking struck me in the face. To be honest, the result didn't come off as too much of a shock. Deep down, I had always known that perfection relies in no small part on endless hours of meaningful practice.

I am not alone in experiencing this type of failure. With an impressive variety of online resources at our fingertips, it is natural that we use them to our advantage and learn new skills through "watching" them.

There's nothing ineffective about this kind of learning in itself. However, a recent study published in Psychological Science shows that if you watch an expert performing a skill unknown to you for too long, it will raise your self-confidence in a way that it arouses （激发）your unrealistic expectations of yourself. The dissonance between your true ability and your false view of it can have a negative influence on your learning outcome. You might become as discouraged as I was. And if your determination isn't strong enough, you might just give up halfway.

If right now you are considering learning something new through watching online videos, be it juggling pins （杂耍），ice-skating, or even Michael Jackson's timeless moonwalk, don't forget to mix it up with the tried-and-true method of practicing and repeating. And most importantly, try not to get caught up in the feel-good act of watching.

1. What do we know about the author?

A．She knew her failure resulted from lacking practice.

B．She was astonished at her failure to be a great cook.

C．She disagreed with her mom on how to cook.

D．She was misled by some so-called experts.

2. What's the author's opinion of online resources?

A．They are of poor quality.

B．They are helpful in a way.

C．They are difficult of access.

D．They have benefited her a lol.

3. What does the word "dissonance" underlined in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Dislike.	B．Disbelief
C．Disapproval	D．Disagreement.

4. What does the author mainly intend to show readers?

A．Online videos are growing in popularity.

B．Mom is always a good example for us.

C．Watching doesn't make you perfect.

D．Cooking is a useful skill.

【推荐2】Two hundred years ago, American students went to American schools. Like you, they studied math, spelling and geography. Unlike you, they also studied Greek (希腊语) and Latin (拉丁语). In fact, students spent more than half their time studying Greek and Latin.

The same was true for most students in Europe. Until the seventh century, all educated Europeans knew Latin. It did not matter if they lived in England, Italy, France or Spain. If they were educated, they knew Latin.

During the seventh century, educated Europeans began to study Greek as well as Latin. Greek and Latin had been the leading languages of the ancient Greeks and Romans. All educated Europeans were expected to know these languages.

To educated Europeans, the languages of the Greeks and the Romans were important. The ideas of the Greeks and Romans were also important. People knew that many of their own ideas had come from the Greeks and the Romans. To understand their own culture, they must understand its origin (起源). They knew that those beginnings lay in the classical (古典文学的) world.

Today we have so many things to study that few people have time to learn Greek and Latin. Few of you will study either language in school. Yet the ideas of the Greeks and the Romans are still important to us. These ideas still help to shape western culture today. To understand our own culture, we must understand the culture of the classical world.

1. Two hundred years ago, in American schools _____.

A．there were many educated Greeks	B．Greek and Latin were very popular
C．students paid little attention to math	D．students knew little about geography

2. According to the text, Europeans thought _____.

A．the origin of their culture was unknown

B．the ideas of the Greeks were unacceptable

C．Greek was much more important than Latin

D．the Romans had a great influence on their culture

3. Where does the author of the text probably come from?

A．Japan.

B．Greece.

C．America.

D．China.

4. In the last paragraph, the author suggests that _____.

A．it’s of great value to learn Greek and Latin

B．it’s quite difficult to learn Greek and Latin

C．the culture of the classical world is useless nowadays

D．Western culture is quite different from Greek and Roman cultures

【推荐3】A new argument has been put forward as to whether penguins are disturbed by the presence of tourists in Antarctica.

Previous research by scientists from Keil University in Germany monitored Adelie penguins and noted that the birds’ heart rates increased dramatically at the sight of a human as far as 30 meters away. But new research using an artificial egg, which is equipped to measure heart rates, disputes this. Scientists from the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge say that a slow moving human who does not approach the nest too closely, is not viewed as a threat by penguins.

The earlier findings have been used to partly explain the 20 per cent drop in populations of certain types of penguins near tourist sites. However, tour operators have continued to insist that their activities do not adversely(不利地)affect wildlife in Antarctica, saying they encourage non-destructive behavior in tourists, and that the decline in penguin numbers is caused by other factors.

Amanda Nimon of the Scott Polar Research Institute spent three southern hemisphere summers at Cuverville Island in Antarctica studying penguin behavior towards humans. “A nesting penguin will react very differently to a person rapidly and closely approaching the nest,” says Nimon. “First they exhibit large and prolonged heart rate changes and then they often flee the nest leaving it open for predators(掠夺者)to fly in and remove eggs or chicks.” The artificial egg, specially for the project, monitored both the parent who had been ‘disturbed’ when the egg was placed in the nest and the other parent as they both took it in turns to guard the nest.

However, Boris Culik, who monitored the Adelie penguins, believes that Nimon’s findings do not prove his own research invalid. He points out that species behave differently–and Nimon’s work was with Gentoo penguins. Nimon and her colleagues believe that Culik’s research was methodologically(方法论上)defective because the monitoring of penguins’ responses needed catching the birds and fitting them with heart-rate transmitters(发射器). Therefore, argues Nimon, it would not be surprising if they became stressed on seeing a human subsequently.

1. According to the passage, which of the following messages is presented?

A．No firm conclusions are drawn.

B．Neither Culik’s nor Nimon’s findings are of much value.

C．Penguin reduction is closely related to tourist behavior.

D．Tourists are not responsible for the fall in penguin numbers.

2. Which of the following is right according to the passage?

A．Penguins are harder to research when they have young.

B．Tour operators should encourage tourists to avoid Antarctica.

C．Not all penguins behave in the same way.

D．Penguins need better protection from tourists.

3. What do you know about the opinions of Culik and Nimon in the passage?

A．They are unreasonable.	B．They are based on each other.
C．They are similar.	D．They are contrary to each other.

4. The underlined word subsequently probably means ________.

A．later	B．calmly
C．separately	D．earlier

【推荐2】AI is currently being used in various ways. So what does that mean? Does it mean the world will soon be overrun by robots? However, when it comes to customer service, AI cannot completely replace human interaction, for now at least.

Actually, all customer service interactions have two aspects: emotion and urgency. New AI tools can handle high-urgency situations quickly, but as to high-emotion situations, no AI can deal with them successfully. A robot might be able to recognize you’re trying to check in for a flight recently canceled, but the emotional aspect is entirely un-programmable. Perhaps the passenger has increasingly high emotions about the flight being canceled because he is flying to an important business meeting. Cases like this can create high-stress moments for the customer. Only a person can understand the difference.

High-stress moments tend to stay with customers forever, so it’s important to have a plan in place. Good companies are better at determining which cases AI can handle on its own and which cases need to be handled by a human with AI assistance. In high-emotion cases, there’s no substitute (替补) for the personal touch of a human. Passengers whose luggage is lost are going to seek out an employee to help them locate their bags. Although AI can be used to locate their bags, it can hardly deal with passengers’ high emotions.

The conversation around AI now is too focused on the question of how AI can replace human interaction, which is missing the point. The aim of AI shouldn’t be to replace human interaction, but to improve it. The question here won’t be how far we can push AI, but how we can use our imagination to continue reinventing (改良) the problem-solving process.

1. What is implied in paragraph 1?

A．AI has had control over the human being.

B．AI can totally replace human interaction.

C．AI can handle high-emotion cases easily.

D．AI still has its own limitations at present.

2. Why is the example of a canceled flight mentioned in paragraph 2?

A．To highlight the passengers’ high emotions.

B．To prove the efficiency of AI handling urgency.

C．To show AI can handle high-emotion cases well.

D．To stress the advantage a person has over AI.

3. Why should companies have a plan for high-stress moments?

A．High-stress moments require more AI tools.

B．High-stress moments can be handled by AI alone.

C．High-stress moments are unforgettable for customers.

D．High-stress moments are ignored by most companies.

4. What will we focus on when using AI to handle customer service?

A．Replacing humans with new AI tools.

B．Paying attention to solving problems.

C．Avoiding making trouble for customers.

D．Trying to invent more new AI tools.