【推荐1】More than a hundred years ago, two boys were fishing in a small river. They sat in a heavy-bottomed boat, each holding a long, bent pole in his hands and eagerly waiting for “a bite”. When they wanted to move the boat from one place to another, they had to push against a 1ong pole into the bottom of the stream. “This is slow work, Robert,” said the older of the boys. “Yes, Christopher, and it’s hard work, too,” answered Robert. “I think there’s some better way of moving a boat.”

Christopher advised rowing it and Robert promised to make some paddles (桨). The next day Robert’s aunt heard a great noise in her house. The two boys were there, busily working. “What are you making, Robert?” she asked. He told his plan. His aunt laughed and said, “Well done! I hope you’ll succeed.”

After much work, they succeeded in making two paddle wheels. They were very rough, but strong and usable. They fixed each of these wheels to the end of an iron rod (杆) which they passed through the boat from side to side. The rod was bent in the middle. When the work was finished, the old fishing boat looked rather strange, with a paddle wheel on each side. The boys lost no time in trying it. One of the boys could guide the boat while the other turned the paddle wheels.

That night when Christopher went home, he told his father a wonderful story. “Robert Fulton planned the whole thing,” he said, “and I helped him make the paddles and put them on the boat.” When Robert Fulton became a man, he didn’t forget his experiment with the old fishing boat. He kept on thinking and working, until at last he succeeded in making a boat with paddle wheels that could be run by steam. He’s now honored as the inventor of the steamboat.

1. How did the two boys move their heavy boat at first?

A．By moving two paddle wheels.

B．By pushing two paddles in the water.

C．By using a long pole in the water.

D．By moving their hands in the water.

2. What did Robert’s aunt do when she knew about his plan?

A．She helped Robert work on it.

B．She didn’t care about Robert.

C．She laughed at Robert much.

D．She wished Robert success.

3. What does the underlined words “a wonderful story” in the last paragraph may refer to?

A．Christopher’s successful plan.

B．The invention of paddle wheels.

C．Christopher’s skill in guiding the boat.

D．The old fishing boat.

4. Which of the following can best describe Robert Fulton?

A．Easy-going and careful.

B．Determined and selfless.

C．Creative and hardworking.

D．Helpful and brave.

【推荐3】Putting a microchip (芯片) into one’s brain brings the world a super hero, which is common in sci-fi movies. However, we may find it possible in reality.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and co-founder of electric car maker Tesla — has been working on this technology. On Aug 28, Musk gave a livestream demonstration of the chip, which was implanted into the head of a pig named Gertrude.

The chip, developed by Musk’s company, is the size of a coin. But don’t let its size fool you. The tiny chip has over 3,000 electrodes (电极) attached to flexible threads, which can monitor about 1,000 neurons (神经元). It collects neural signals from an area of the brain, and then transmits those signals wirelessly to nearby computers. In the livestream, Gertrude could be seen walking around sniffing the ground while a monitor showed her brain activity.

Though the technology is still in its early stage, it is encouraging for humans. This technology “would solve a lot of brain injuries”, which allows the human brain to combine with an artificial intelligence, Musk said.

When the device can be applied to humans, its main goal will be to help those who have mobility issues, such as those suffering from paralysis. Musk hopes this technology could also be used to help those with hearing and eyesight issues and one day lead to a cure for epilepsy (癫痫).

Although such a device could, in principle, repair those problems, putting it into practice is by no means a piece of cake. Currently, the device can transmit signals from about 500 neurons in the pig’s brain. Compared to 80 billion neurons in a human brain, this number is tiny. And to cover the whole human brain also means the electrodes have to be much smaller. Also, implanting the chip into the brain poses a potential danger. There is a possibility of the immune system attacking this foreign body.

Right now, the hope of controlling the brain via controlling a few neurons seems overly optimistic. “There are many technological challenges...to overcome before Neuralink can put its devices to the purposes,” Yuan Lanfeng, an associate professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, told China Daily.

1. What do we know about Elon Musk’s microchip according to the first three paragraphs？

A．It is able to collect wireless signals.	B．It was inspired by sci-fi movie plots.
C．It is tiny in size but powerful in function.	D．It has no more than 1, 000 electrodes.

2. What is the major goal of the microchip in human applications？

A．To develop a cure for epilepsy.

B．To monitor animals’ brain activity.

C．To contribute to the research in Al technologies.

D．To help people with difficult in moving freely.

3. What do paragraphs 6 mainly talk about？

A．Key differences between pigs’ and humans’ brains.

B．Hidden challenges and risks in practice.

C．Implanting the chip costs a lot.

D．The immune system is the major problem to the implant.

4. How does Yuan Lanfeng feel about implanting the chip into the human brain？

A．Excited.

B．Cautious.

C．Optimistic.

D．Worried.

【推荐3】California has been facing a drought for many years now,with certain areas even having to pump freshwater hundreds of miles to their distribution system.The problem is growing as the population of the state continues to expand.New research has found deep water reserves under the state which could help solve their drought crisis.Previous drilling of wells could only reach depths of 1,000 feet,but due to new pumping practices,water deeper than this can now be extracted(抽取）。The team at Stanford investigated the aquifers(地下蓄水层）below this depth and found that reserves may be triple(三倍的）what was previously thought.

It is profitable to drill to depths more than 1,000 feet for oil and gas extraction,but only recently in California has it become profitable to pump water from this depth.The aquifers range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the ground,which means that pumping will be expensive and there are other concerns.The biggest concern of pumping out water from this deep is the gradual setting down of the land surface.As the water is pumped out,the vacant space left is compacted(压缩）by the weight of the earth above.

Even though pumping from these depths is expensive,it is still cheaper than desalinating(脱盐）the ocean water in the largely coastal state.Some desalination plants exist where practical,but they are costly to run and can need constant repairs.Wells are much more reliable sources of freshwater,and California is hoping that these deep wells may be the answer to their severe water shortage.

One problem with these sources is that the deep water also has a higher level of salt than shallower aquifers.This means that some wells may even need to undergo desalination after extraction,thus increasing the cost.Research from the exhaustive study of groundwater from over 950 drilling logs has just been published.New estimates of the water reserves now go up to 2,700 billion cubic meters of freshwater.

1. How could California's drought crisis be solved according to some researchers?

A．By building more reserves of groundwater.

B．By drawing water from the depths of the earth.

C．By developing more advanced drilling devices.

D．By improving its water distribution system.

2. What can be inferred about extracting water from deep aquifers?

A．It was considered vital to solving the water problem.

B．It is bound to gain support from the local people.

C．It was not considered worth the expense.

D．It may not provide qualified freshwater.

3. What is mentioned as a consequence of extracting water from deep underground?

A．The sinking of land surface.

B．The harm to the ecosystem.

C．The damage to aquifers.

D．The change of the climate.

4. What is the author's purpose in writing the text?

A．To encourage people to save water.

B．To promote the seawater desalination.

C．To introduce a new way of extracting freshwater.

D．To draw people's attention to the droughts in California.

【推荐1】Betty and Harold have been married for years. But one-thing still puzzles old Harold. How is it that he can leave Betty and her friend Joan sitting on the sofa, talking, go out to a ballgame, come back three and a half hours later, and they're still sitting on the sofa?

Talking? What in the world, Harold wonders, do they have to talk about?

Betty shrugs(耸肩).Talk? We're friends.

Researching this matter called friendship, psychologist Lillian Rubin spent two years interviewing more than two hundred women and men. No matter what their age, their job, their sex, the results were completely clear: women have more friendships than men, and the difference in the content and the quality of those friendships is “marked and unmistakable.”

More than two-thirds of the single men Rubin interviewed could not name a best friend. Those who could were likely to name a woman. Yet three-quarters of the single women had no problem naming a best friend, and almost always it was a woman. More married men than women named their wife/husband as a best friend, most trusted person, or the one they would turn to in time of emotional distress(痛苦).“Most women,” says Rubin, “identified at least one, usually more, trusted friends to whom they could turn in a troubled moment, and they spoke openly about the importance of these relationships in their lives.”

“In general,” writes Rubin in her new book, “women's friendships with each other rest on shared emotions and support, but men's relationships are marked by shared activities. ”“For the most part”, Rubin says, “interactions between men are emotionally controlled-a good fit with the social requirements of   “manly behavior.”

“Even when a man is said to be a best friend,” Rubin writes, “the two share little about their innermost feelings. While a woman's closest female friend might be-the first to tell her to leave a failing marriage, it wasn't unusual to hear a man say he didn't know his friend's marriage was in serious trouble until he appeared one night asking if he could sleep on the sofa.”

1. What old Harold cannot understand or explain is the fact that : ___

A．women have so much to share

B．he finds his wife difficult to talk to

C．women show little interest in ballgames

D．he is treated as an outsider rather than a husband

2. Rubin's study shows that for emotional support a married woman is more likely to turn to______.

A．her parents

B．her husband

C．a male friend

D．a female friend

3. According to the passage, which type of behavior is NOT expected of a man by society?

A．Going out to ballgames too often.

B．Complaining about his marriage trouble.

C．Spending too much time with his friends.

D．Ending his marriage without good reason.

4. Which of the following statements is best supported by the last paragraph?

A．Men keep their private feelings to themselves.

B．Women depend on others in making decisions.

C．women are more serious than men about marriage.

D．Men often take sudden action to end their marriages.

5. The research done by psychologist Rubin centers around________.

A．emotional problems in marriage	B．happy and successful marriages
C．friendships of men and women	D．interactions between men and women

【推荐2】California has been facing a drought for many years now,with certain areas even having to pump freshwater hundreds of miles to their distribution system.The problem is growing as the population of the state continues to expand.New research has found deep water reserves under the state which could help solve their drought crisis.Previous drilling of wells could only reach depths of 1,000 feet,but due to new pumping practices,water deeper than this can now be extracted(抽取）。The team at Stanford investigated the aquifers(地下蓄水层）below this depth and found that reserves may be triple(三倍的）what was previously thought.

It is profitable to drill to depths more than 1,000 feet for oil and gas extraction,but only recently in California has it become profitable to pump water from this depth.The aquifers range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the ground,which means that pumping will be expensive and there are other concerns.The biggest concern of pumping out water from this deep is the gradual setting down of the land surface.As the water is pumped out,the vacant space left is compacted(压缩）by the weight of the earth above.

Even though pumping from these depths is expensive,it is still cheaper than desalinating(脱盐）the ocean water in the largely coastal state.Some desalination plants exist where practical,but they are costly to run and can need constant repairs.Wells are much more reliable sources of freshwater,and California is hoping that these deep wells may be the answer to their severe water shortage.

One problem with these sources is that the deep water also has a higher level of salt than shallower aquifers.This means that some wells may even need to undergo desalination after extraction,thus increasing the cost.Research from the exhaustive study of groundwater from over 950 drilling logs has just been published.New estimates of the water reserves now go up to 2,700 billion cubic meters of freshwater.

1. How could California's drought crisis be solved according to some researchers?

A．By building more reserves of groundwater.

B．By drawing water from the depths of the earth.

C．By developing more advanced drilling devices.

D．By improving its water distribution system.

2. What can be inferred about extracting water from deep aquifers?

A．It was considered vital to solving the water problem.

B．It is bound to gain support from the local people.

C．It was not considered worth the expense.

D．It may not provide qualified freshwater.

3. What is mentioned as a consequence of extracting water from deep underground?

A．The sinking of land surface.

B．The harm to the ecosystem.

C．The damage to aquifers.

D．The change of the climate.

4. What is the author's purpose in writing the text?

A．To encourage people to save water.

B．To promote the seawater desalination.

C．To introduce a new way of extracting freshwater.

D．To draw people's attention to the droughts in California.