Do you experience worse car sickness in electric cars than in petrol cars? You’re not alone - and when it comes to self-driving cars, it may be even worse.
Although scientists aren’t exactly sure what causes motion sickness, it has to do with passengers losing the ability to predict future movements. When you read a magazine in a car, your eyes will signal to your brain that the car is not moving. However, your brain will recognize the vibrations (振动) and turns that the car makes. This can confuse the mind and make you start to feel sick.
As for electric cars, one-pedal (单踏板) driving is often linked to feelings of car sickness, according to the US Department of Energy. The one pedal does both the accelerating (加速) and braking (刹 车) - the driver steps on the pedal to increase speed and takes their foot off the pedal to slow down. If you stop accelerating, the one-pedal will automatically slow and stop the car. The deceleration caused by this system is thus more rapid than that of petrol cars, which may lead to motion sickness.
Another technological advance that can also be related to car sickness is the larger and increasing number of screens inside vehicles. These screens overburden users with visual information, which discourages them from looking outside, according to The Conversation. Passengers thereby lose their ability to take in the “correct” visual signals, such as the moving surroundings, which can lead to sickness.
Unfortunately, even when people get used to the movements of electric cars and experience less car sickness, self-driving vehicles might be another challenge for them. According to a 2015 study, as much as 12 percent of the US population may feel carsick while riding in autonomous vehicles.
To ensure the widespread usage of new types of vehicles, car producers are working to solve such problems with better technology. For example, Japanese company Honda is working on reducing the car’s “violent (猛烈的) ”acceleration by making changes to the engine, said Car Magazine.
1. What is the possible cause of passengers experiencing motion sickness?| A．Lack of visual signals in the car. |
| B．Unpredictable movements of the car. |
| C．Inability to sense vibrations and turns. |
| D．The brain’s confusion about movements. |
| A．Their unique driving mode. |
| B．Their slow way of braking. |
| C．Their violent acceleration. |
| D．Their constant pedal adjustment. |
| A．Potential dangers of placing screens in cars. |
| B．A technology to reduce car sickness. |
| C．A design aspect in vehicles that causes car sickness. |
| D．Passengers’ different responses to car sickness. |
| A．Developing a more powerful engine. |
| B．Reducing their cars’ deceleration time. |
| C．Making the cars’ acceleration smoother. |
| D．Adding more automatic adjustment features. |
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【推荐1】Most of us learned what we know about eye color from a chart in grade-school biology. You know two blue-eyed parents are going to have blue-eyed kids. But the story of how eye color is passed down is more complicated（复杂的) than we’re taught.
Humans get their eye color from melanin（黑色素）, which also determines skin and hair shades. Melanin is good at absorbing light, which is especially important for the iris（虹膜）, the function of which is to control how much brightness can enter the eyes. Once it passes through the irises, the majority of the visible light goes to the retina（视网膜）, where it’s translated into images by the brain. The little that isn’t absorbed by the iris is reflected back, producing what we see as eye color. That color depends on the kind and amount of melanin a person is born with.
Though we used to think eye color just came from a simple pattern of inheritance （遗传）, in recent years scientists have found that it’s also shaped by many genes acting together. What’s more, tiny changes, or mutations（突变）, in a gene can result in different shades in the iris.
The two genes currently thought to be most strongly linked with human eye color are OCA2 and HERC2. OCA2, the gene we used to think was the only player in eye color, controls the production of the P-protein and the organelles that make and transport melanin. Different mutations in the OCA2 gene increase or decrease the amount of protein that’s produced in the body, changing how much melanin is sent to the irises. The HERC2 gene, meanwhile, acts like a helicopter parent （直升机父母） for OCA2. Different mutations in this gene act as a switch that turns OCA2 on and off and determines how much P-protein it produces.
Those are just the two genes we know about in detail so far. Newer studies have linked as many as 16 genes to eye color, all of which pair with OCA2 and HERC2 to generate different iris colors and patterns. With all these genes and their structural changes, it’s hard to say for sure what a child’s eye color will be based on their parents’.
1. Which of the following shows how light reaches the brain?| A．The irises→ melanin→ the brain. |
| B．The retina→ melanin→ the brain. |
| C．The irises→ the retina→ the brain. |
| D．The retina- the irises -the brain. |
| A．OCA2 is controlled by HERC2. |
| B．OCA2 can be changed into HERC2 |
| C．Both can make and transport melanin |
| D．Both are the cause of mutations in genes. |
| A．Different colors received by the retina. |
| B．A lot of genes as well as their mutations |
| C．The amount of protein the person has in his or her body. |
| D．OCA2 and how much melanin it produces and transports. |
| A．Whether the melanin plays a key role in mutations. |
| B．Whether oCA2 and HERC2 can influence each other. |
| C．Whether melanin results in different shades in the iris. |
| D．Whether your eye color just comes from your parents. |
【推荐2】Strange things happen to time now and then when you travel, because the earth is divided into twenty-four time zones (areas), one hour apart. You can have days with more or fewer than twenty-four hours. And weeks with more or fewer than seven days.
If you make a five-day trip across the Atlantic Ocean, your ship enters a different time zone every day. As you enter each zone, the time changes one hour. Travelling west, you set your clock back; traveling east, you set it ahead. Each day of your trip has either twenty-four or twenty-three hours.
If you travel by ship across the Pacific, you cross the international date line. By agreement this is the point where a new day begins. When you cross the line, you change your calendar (日历) one full day, backwards or forwards. Travelling east, today becomes yesterday; traveling west, it is tomorrow!
1. Which of the following should be chosen as the title of this passage?| A．Different Time. | B．Twenty-four Hours. |
| C．Time Zones. | D．The Changing Time. |
| A．24. | B．23. | C．25. | D．26. |
| A．Twenty-four hours. | B．Seven days. |
| C．Twenty-five hours. | D．One hour. |
| A．Set the clock back. | B．Set the clock ahead. |
| C．Make the clock fast. | D．Make the clock slow. |
| A．Your calendar is of no use. | B．Today becomes yesterday. |
| C．Today becomes tomorrow. | D．Both B and C are right. |
【推荐3】A mother goat is able to pick out her own baby from its voice alone by the time the kid is just five days old.
Researchers from University of London played kids’ bleats to female goats and studied their responses. They were surprised to find that the animals were able to pick out their own kids’ voices.
“A mother and the kid rely a lot on smell to recognize one another and, in the wild, during the first week of their lives, the animals hide in grass and don’t call much. It’s a strategy they use to avoid enemies,” Dr Elodie Briefer, who led the research, explained to BBC News. “The mother call to the kids when she want them to come and feed, so we expected that kids would recognize the mothers’ voices.” In fact, this was the case for deer, which also use this hiding strategy, although they do not belong to the same family of species as goats.
She and her team recorded and played back young kids’ calls to the female goats and recorded their responses.She explained, “Even when the calls came from kids that are five to six days old, we could see the mothers responding more to the voices of their own babies.” Hearing the voice of their own kids, the females would look towards the speaker that the sound was coming from, moving around and calling in response.
The scientists say that understanding how goats behave and communicate is very important. “This helps us understand just how smart these animals are,” said Dr. Briefer. “Farmers might be able to change their way to raise goats considering this natural behaviour.”
1. What does the underlined word “bleats” means?| A．habits | B．voices |
| C．responses | D．videos |
| A．voice | B．touch |
| C．videos | D．smell |
| A．Making voice in response. | B．Jumping over and over. |
| C．Hiding herself somewhere. | D．Behaving just as usual. |
| A．teachers | B．writers |
| C．farmers | D．lawyers |
【推荐1】In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh, Britain. The idea was to unite Europe again after the Second World War.
At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official(官方的) festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house disused for years.
Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to Edinburgh each summer to perform theatre by little--known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
Today the “Fringe”, once less recognized (被承认), has far outgrown(成长速度超过) the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.
A paid administrator(管理者) was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.
1. What was the purpose of Edinburgh Festival at the beginning?| A．To bring Europe together again | B．To introduce young theatre groups |
| C．To attract great artists from Europe | D．To memorize heroes of World War II |
| A．They came to accept a challenge |
| B．They owned a public house there |
| C．They thought they were also famous |
| D．They wanted to take part in the festival |
| A．Popular writers | B．University students |
| C．Artists from around the world | D．Performers of music and dance |
| A．Keeps growing rapidly | B．Gives shows all years round |
| C．Has gone beyond an art festival | D．Has become a non-official event |
【推荐2】Round and Round They Go
Space is becoming more crowded. On December 3, a Falcon 9 rocket made by SpaceX thundered into the sky. On board were 64 small satellites, more than any American company had launched before in one go.They have a variety of uses, from space-based radar to the monitoring of radio-frequency emissions.
These objects are part of the latest breed of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites. This launch is just a taste of what is planned. SpaceX and OneWeb, a communications firm, plan to launch satellites in their thousands, not hundreds. The pair are set to double the total number of satellites in orbit by2027.
For that to happen,however,three worries must be overcome. Debris (碎片) is the most familiar concern.As long ago as 1978, Donald Kessler,a scientist at NASA, proposed a situation in which, when enough satellites were packed into low-Earth orbits, any collision could cause a chain reaction which would eventually destroy all space craft in its orbital plane (平面).The syndrome which bears Mr. Kessler's name weighs heavily on the minds of executives at the new satellite firms.Debris could cause entire tracts (广阔的一片) of space to be unusable for decades.
Solutions exist. One is to grab malfunctioning satellites and pull them down into-Earth's atmosphere.Another is to monitor space more intensively for debris; a US Air Force programme called Space Fence is due to start in 2019. But technology is only part of the answer. Rules are needed to govern the safe disposal (清除) of old satellites from low-Earth orbit. The United States' Federal Communications Commission is revising its regulations with this in mind. Other countries should follow suit.
Cyber-security is a second, long-standing worry. Hackers could take control of a satellite and seal intellectual property, redirect data flows or cause a collision. The satellite industry has been slow to respond to such concerns. But as more of the world's population comes to rely on the infrastructure of space for access to the internet, the need for action intensifies.
The third issue follows from the first two. If a simple mistake or a cyber-attack can cause a chain reaction which wipes out hundreds of billions of dollars of investment, who is liable?Underwriters (保险商) are studying the plans of firms that wish to operate large numbers of satellites.But there is a long way to go before the risks are well understood,let alone priced.
As space becomes more commercialized, mind-bending prospects open up: packages moved across the planet in minutes by rocket rather than by plane, equipment sent to other small planets, passengers launched into orbit and beyond. All that and more may come,one day. But such activities would raise the same questions as LEO satellites do. They must be answered before the space economy can truly develop.
1. What can we learn about LEO satellites from the passage?| A．They are supposed to limit the space economy. |
| B．They are expected to increase in large numbers. |
| C．They are designed to move beyond the Earth as far as possible. |
| D．They are mainly intended to bring internet connectivity to remote areas. |
| A．depending entirely on the modern technology |
| B．monitoring the movement of spaceships carefully |
| C．strengthening rules to remove old satellites safely |
| D．destroying all the satellites with problems instantly |
| A．Measure. |
| B．Increase. |
| C．Spread. |
| D．Repeat. |
| A．Lack of satellite regulations. |
| B．Loss of intellectual property. |
| C．Crisis of confidence in the field. |
| D．Slow response of satellite industry. |
| A．It should be further confirmed for it ownership. |
| B．It should be continued because of its advantages. |
| C．It should be done carefully to avoid potential risks. |
| D．It should be stopped in face of the space economy. |
The shopping cart was the brainchild of Sylvan Goldman, the owner of a grocery food chain in Oklahoma. Goldman noticed that his customers struggled to carry their food in heavy hand-held baskets. He decided there must be an easier way for his costomers to carry the food around in his supermarkets. Observing a folding chair, Goldman decided to use that as the prototype for his new shopping cart.
With the aid of a mechanic, Fred Young, Goldman designed the first shopping cart based on the folding chair. Wheels were placed where the bottoms of the chair legs were. In place of the chair seat, Young and Goldman, placed two metal baskets on top of each other. This cart could be stored by folding it up like a folding chair.
At first there was a bit of difficulty getting the public to accept shopping carts. Men thought using them was effeminate (女人气的) while younger women considered the use of the shopping carts to carry products around to be somewhat unstylish. Goldman solved this problem by hiring men and women models to use shopping carts in his stores. In addition, store greeters instructed customers in how to use the shopping carts. In short order, the shopping carts became incredibly popular because it made shopping much easier for customers. By 1940 the popularity of shopping carts had grown to such an extent that there was a 7 year waiting list in store orders for new shopping carts.
1. The underlined word “ubiquitous” is closest in meaning to“_________”.
| A．strange | B．pleasant | C．common | D．possible |
| A．Goldman’s imagination | B．customers’ needs |
| C．Fred Young’s suggestion | D．other shops’ examples |
| A．Both men and women were afraid they would not look good if they used them. |
| B．People thought it unnecessary to use them because they never did much shopping. |
| C．The early shopping carts were too difficult to use. |
| D．Only men and women models were supposed to use such modern things. |
| A．Men and women models used shopping carts in his stores. |
| B．Store greeters instructed customers in how to use the shopping carts. |
| C．Some stores had to wait several years to get his shopping carts. |
| D．His shopping carts had improved so much that both men and women liked to use them. |
