【推荐1】15-year-old Max produced the Vybpro, a wearable wristband (腕带) which warns users whenever they are about to touch their faces. The gesture has been recognized as one of the key ways that COVID-19 can be spread, making it a potentially life-saving invention.

He first hit on the excellent idea two years ago for the purpose of reducing the spread of the cold and flue. After both of Max’s parents were infected with COVID-19 four months ago, however, he put in all his effort to develop a working prototype (模型).

Worn on both wrists, the intelligent device is expected to sell for £ 89. It uses position-sending technology algorithms (算法) to tell between predicted face touching and other hand motions. Then the device warns users of hand gestures that are dangerously near the face.

“We came up with the concept a few years ago when my family was repeatedly catching cold and flue viruses from traveling in and out of London and I could see how easy it was to pick up germs especially from using public transport,” said Max. “It was only when the World Health Organization (WHO) began suggesting people avoid touching their eyes, noses and faces to stop the spread of viruses from contaminated surfaces did I realize that it could play a part in slowing the spread of COVID-19.”

Max, who is from Bristol, launched a £ 60,000 crowdfunding campaign (众筹活动) on Kickstarter earlier this week to further his project and turn the prototype into a public reality. “The main task of this project is not to make money, but to get it onto the wrists of those it can help keep safe. Any profits made from early sales through the crowdfunding site will be reinvested into providing free devices for organizations that help people such as National Health Service (NHS) staff and nursing homes.

1. Why did Max develop the Vyhpro?

A．To prevent the spread of the cold and flu.	B．To protect people against COVID-19.
C．To test position-sending technology.	D．To monitor people’s health.

2. What does the underlined word “contaminated” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Polluted.	B．Clean.
C．Smooth.	D．Rough.

3. What did Max start the crowdfunding campaign for?

A．Raising money for nursing homes.	B．Providing free devices for NHS.
C．Helping to advance his project.	D．Making a better type of Vyhpro.

4. What can we learn from Max’s story?

A．Hard work pays off.

B．Technology changes our lives.

C．Ups and downs make one strong.

D．Little people can make a big difference.

【推荐3】Researchers are looking into new ways to generate efficient photovoltaic energy (光伏能源) and for this they have been inspired by the v-shaped posture of the Cabbage White butterfly.

Photovoltaic energy is the science behind solar power, where light is turned into electricity. It is a two-set process. Step one is a photoelectric effect, caused by sunlight. The second step is an electrochemical process, which generates an electric current.

To improve the collection of sunlight, a research group has been inspired by the resting posture of the Cabbage White butterfly. The species has a natural range across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. To many farmers, the butterflies are regarded as a pest; to others, they are pretty to look at. To one research group the butterflies are an inspiration.

The butterfly adopts a v-shape in order to heat up its flight muscles before taking off. By creating solar panels(太阳能电池板)in this formation，scientists think that the quantity of power that a solar panel can produce can be increased by around 50 percent.

The Cabbage White butterfly is different to many other butterflies in using the v-formation. On cloudy days butterflies need to wait to receive enough sunlight in order to fly. However, by using the v-posture, the Cabbage White butterfly is able to absorb more energy more quickly than other butterflies. In addition, the butterfly can reflect sunlight from its wings, which allows its flight muscles to be warmed to an ideal temperature.

The new research was conducted at the University of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) and the Centre for Ecology and Conservation. Discussing the findings with Laboratory Manager magazine, lead researcher Professor Tapas Mallick stated :"Biomimicry（仿生学）in engineering is not new. However, this research shows pathways to develop low cost solar power that have not been done before. "

1. Which can be the best title for the text?

A．The future of solar power

B．The butterfly effect theory

C．Cool things about the Cabbage White butterfly

D．Butterflies contribute to solar power revolution

2. What posture of the Cabbage White butterfly is being adopted by scientists?

A．The flying posture.	B．The resting posture.
C．The take-off posture.	D．The sleeping posture.

3. What is the main purpose of Cabbage White butterflies using the v-posture?

A．To look prettier.	B．To take a good rest.
C．To prepare for flight.	D．To protect themselves.

4. What is Tapas Mallick's attitude towards the research?

A．Positive.	B．Casual
C．Skeptical.	D．Disapproving.

5. Where is the text most probably taken from?

A．A lesson plan.	B．A book review.
C．A science report.	D．A personal diary.

【推荐1】Technology is making life easier for some dairy farmers. They use robotic systems to milk their cows. These systems are designed to reduce labor and increase milk production.
Cows are trained to follow a series of paths that lead to the milking stations. Only one cow at a time can enter the station. Once inside，the cow is rewarded with food. As the cow eats，a robotic arm cleans and connects the animal to the milking machine. A few minutes later，the milking is completed. The gate is lifted. The cow leaves and the next cow enters. The robotic systems are designed to operate twenty­ four hours a day. Cows are milked on average about three times a day. Some are milked four to six times a day. The cows wear collars(颈圈) around their necks that identify them to the system. A computer keeps records on their eating and milking. A cow is released from the station if the computer decides it should not be milked. The system also measures the temperature and color of the freshly produced milk. Milk is thrown away if it does not pass the tests. Cows need two to four weeks to learn to use the robotic milking systems. Once trained，the cows no longer require human assistance，unless something goes wrong.
Professor Plaut heads the Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University. She believes the systems will attract especially the next generation of farmers who are more interested in technology and less interested in working all the time on the farm. Still，she says the price of robotic milking systems will continue to limit their use. Doug Suhr has more than one hundred milking cows on his farm. Last year it became the fourth farm in southeast Minnesota to get a robotic milking system. A recent story in a local agricultural newspaper said the first robot cost $175，000 and the second cost $150，000.Doug says the increase in milk production reaches a high of more than 6kg per cow per day.
1. Under robotic milking systems，______ decide(s) whether a cow is suitable to be milked.

A．the robotic arms	B．the dairy farmers
C．the cows themselves	D．a computer

2. When is human assistance needed during the milking?

A．When the cows enter the milking station every morning.

B．When a robotic arm connects a cow to the milking machine.

C．When the cows are trained to use the robotic milking system in the first two to four weeks.

D．When the temperature and color of the freshly produced milk are measured.

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the last paragraph?

A．Since Doug got the robotic milking system，milk production on his farm has increased.

B．The price of milking machines decreases $25，000 every year.

C．Doug has the largest farm in southeast Minnesota.

D．There are four farms in southeast Minnesota that have robotic milking systems so far.

4. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A．the price of robotic milking systems will greatly decrease

B．robotic milking systems are still too expensive to be popular

C．most farmers are too old to use robotic milking systems

D．robotic milking systems don't need to work at night

【推荐2】How Much Can We Afford to Forget?

In 2018, Science magazine asked some young scientists what schools should teach students. Most said students should spend less time memorizing facts and have more space for creative activities. As the Internet grows more powerful, students can access（获得）knowledge easily. Why should they be required to carry so much of it around in their heads?

Civilizations（文明）develop through forgetting life skills that were once necessary. In the Agricultural（农业的）Age, a farmer could afford to forget hunting skills. When societies industrialized, the knowledge of farming could be safe to forget. Nowadays, smart machines give us access to most human knowledge. It seems that we no longer need to remember most things. Does it matter?

Researchers have recognized several problems that may happen. For one, human beings have biases （偏见）, and smart machines are likely to increase our biases. Many people believe smart machines are necessarily correct and objective, but machines are trained through a repeated testing and scoring process. In the process, human beings still decide on the correct answers.

Another problem relates to the case of accessing information. When there were no computers, efforts were required to get knowledge from other people, or go to the library. We know what knowledge lies in other brains or books, and what lies in our heads. But today, the Internet gives us the information we need quickly. This can lead to the mistaken belief — the knowledge we found was part of what we knew all along.

In a new civilization rich in machine intelligence, we have easy access to smart memory networks where information is stored. But dependency on a network suggests possibilities of being harmed easily. The collapse of any of the networks of relations our well-being（健康）depends upon, such as food and energy, would produce terrible results. Without food we get hungry; without energy we feel cold. And it is through widespread loss of memory that civilizations are at risk of falling into a dark age.

We forget old ways to free up time and space for new skills. As long as the older forms of knowledge are stored somewhere in our networks, and can be found when we need them, perhaps they’re not really forgotten. Still, as time goes on, we gradually but unquestionably become strangers to future people.

1. Why are smart machines likely to increase our biases?

A．Because they go off course in testing and scoring.

B．Because we control the training process on them.

C．Because we offer them too much information.

D．Because they overuse the provided answers.

2. The case of accessing information from the Internet .

A．frees us from making efforts to learn new skills

B．prevents civilizations from being lost at a high speed

C．misleads us into thinking we already knew the knowledge

D．separates the facts we have from those in the smart machines

3. The word “collapse”in Paragraph 5 probably means“ ”.

A．a sudden failure	B．the basic rule
C．a disappointing start	D．the gradual development

4. What is the writer’s main purpose in writing this passage?

A．To question about the standards of information storage.

B．To discuss our problems of communication with machines.

C．To stress the importance of improving our memorizing ability.

D．To remind us of the risk of depending on machines to remember.

【推荐3】Although it is a business not many are aware of, sidewalk robots are set to become an industry with annual sales of $1 billion within a decade. These four-or six-wheeled autonomous machines, usually the size of a suitcase, are already delivering groceries in America, China and Europe, which puts them ahead of many driverless cars and lorries being developed.

Those bigger vehicles are held back not by technology but regulation. This means having a “safety driver” on board ready to take over if there is a problem, which is hardly labour-saving. For these larger vehicles, regulators want to see safety systems thoroughly proved. In January 2022, Britain’s Law Commission, which reviews lawmaking, recommended that it should not be the person in the driver’s seat who faces prosecution if a vehicle in autonomous mode crashes, but the manufacturer or the body that sought approval for its use.

However, sidewalk robots are getting on with the job. For example, Starship Technologies, based in San Francisco, estimates it has already clocked up more than 2.5 million deliveries with robots in a number of cities, universities and business parks in Europe and America. Amazon is carrying out trials with a similar sort of machine. Kiwibot, a Colombian startup, is making sidewalk deliveries in California. Udelv, a Californian firm, is developing a larger type called Transporter to operate at highway speeds.

Sidewalk robots carry a few bags of groceries using a variety of sensors, including cameras, radar and GPS to navigate and avoid obstacles and people. Their progress can be monitored on a phone app, which also unlocks them for goods to be removed. As they are small, move slowly and are “telemonitored” by people in a control room who can take over, authorities seem more willing to give them a green light.

Such robots are becoming more autonomous. Being much further along the road in earning their keep, these delivery robots are helping to pave the way for the time when bigger autonomous vehicles can join them.

1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．Problems caused by autonomous cars.	B．Suggestions for producing intelligent robots.
C．Challenges faced by large driverless vehicles.	D．The innovative technology of delivery vehicles.

2. Why does the author give some examples in paragraph 3?

A．To prove the safety of autonomous machines.

B．To present the development of sidewalk robots.

C．To encourage the public to create more robots.

D．To show the advantages of self-driving technology.

3. What can we know about sidewalk robots?

A．They are environmentally friendly.

B．They can distinguish traffic lights on the road.

C．They make deliveries faster than ordinary trucks.

D．They make it easy for people to track the delivery process.

4. Which section of a magazine is this text probably taken from?

A．Sports and music.	B．Business and culture.
C．Science and technology.	D．Nature and geography.