A unique experience awaits you at the Centre for Alternative Technology on the edge of the beautiful Snowdonia National Park.
Over thirty years ago a group of people decided to try out alternative technologies. They chose a remote empty place, where rock used to be dug from the ground, as their base. Here experiments offering solutions to the world’s energy problems were carried out, and nowadays many of these ideas have become common practice. You can experience all these for yourself in just one day with us, and then take away what you have learned and put it into practice at home. Be assured it will help you save on your household energy costs!
Your visit to us begins with a ride up a steep 60-metre hillside on a railway which is worked by using the weight of water. At the top of the mountain you will enjoy beautiful views to the distant coastline. Then interactive displays show the power of wind, water and sun, while showing you what can be done in an ordinary household to reduce your influence on the planet.
There was no soil when the project was started, so we created our organic gardens using our own home-made soil. You can enjoy woodland walks or even notice spring flowers growing on the roofs of environmentally-friendly buildings.
In 2006 we opened our new eco-adventure playground for children, and we also run workshops where they can make models and become inventors of the future by putting wind, water or solar power into their own designs.
The Centre for Alternative Technology is open all year round and has good rail, road and cycle links. In fact we offer a 50% reduction on the admission price if you arrive by bicycle. There is wheelchair access for disabled visitors—telephone us in advance if you would like assistance.
1. What’s the main purpose of setting up the Centre for Alternative Technology?| A．To provide people with relevant experience. |
| B．To teach people how to reduce energy costs. |
| C．To show the hard condition for early experiments. |
| D．To encourage people to develop alternative technologies. |
| A．learn to create their own organic gardens |
| B．appreciate the views of distant mountains |
| C．visit exhibitions of alternative technologies |
| D．enjoy woodland walks on the top of buildings |
| A．A literary essay. |
| B．A research report. |
| C．A historical novel. |
| D．A science website. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahal or the Louvre.
Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure—a surprising and exciting trip. They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals. Others learn about people of the past.
Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Murmansk, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day.
Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball”. They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows orcas. We call orcas “Killer Whale” , but they’ re really dolphins—the largest kind of dolphin. These beautiful animals travel together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earthwatch is studying how this happens.
Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorini. This explosion was more terrible than Krakatoa or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompei. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past.
Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earthwatch vacation is for you.
1. The Tai Mahal may be ________.| A．a shopping center | B．a hotel | C．a dancing ball | D．a place of interest |
| A．may not spend much time on sightseeing | B．won’ t meet some difficulties or hardships |
| C．can’t enjoy themselves | D．can’t learn something |
| A．join the team to Hawaii | B．join the team to the Far North |
| C．join the team to Washington | D．join the team to Greece |
| A．exciting | B．beautiful | C．large | D．clever |
【推荐2】Want to take your holidays in Egypt to experience its unique history and civilisation? Here's a perfect package for you: 4 Nights/5 Days, Cairo-Aswan-Nile Cruise-Luxor.
Tour Information
Low season | High season | |
Price for the whole trip | $899(Three-star hotels) | $1,099(Three-star hotels) |
$1,399(Five-star hotels) | $1, 599(Five-star hotels) | |
| Site entrance and guide fees are included. All prices are per person based on double room occupancy. | ||
Day 1: Arrival in Cairo
You'll be met by our guide at Cairo International Airport, who'll take you to your hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Day 2: Pyramids Sphinx
At 9: 00 am, you' ll take a drive to the great wonders of the world: the Great Pyramids of Giza and the legendary Sphinx. Then you will visit Egyptian Museum. After concluding your visit to all the major sites.Cairo, you'll be transferred to the railway station to take the 8: 00 pm overnight sleeper train to Aswan.
Day 3: Aswan
You will start at 10: 00 am with a visit to the Aswan High Dam-one of the biggest dams in the world, and then a visit to the Elephantine Island and the Philae Temple. In the late afternoon, you'll check in to your Nile Cruise, have supper and spend the night on board.
Day 4: Kom Ombo Edfu, Esna Lock
You’ll set sail via Kom Ombo, Edfu and Esna Lock, where there are a great many historical sites,to Luxor where you dock(停靠)for the night and you sleep aboard the ship.
Day 5: Luxor, Cairo
You’ll check out the Nile Cruise and then visit the Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings and theValley of the Queens. After that, you'll be transferred to the railway station to head back to Cairo whereyou’ll fly back home with amazing stories and unforgettable memories.
1. If you choose a three-star hotel in high season, how much should you pay for the trip?| A．$2,198 | B．$1.599 | C．$899 | D．$1,099 |
| A．Nights 1&2 | B．Nights 2&3 | C．Nights 3&4 | D．Nights 1&4. |
| A．The Aswan High Dam. | B．The Great Pyramids of Giza. |
| C．The Valley of the Kings. | D．The Elephantine Island. |
【推荐3】Welcome to Arundel Castle which is situated in West Sussex, England. The castle has a history of nearly 1000 years and has welcomed visitors traveling from all over the world. Arundel Castle also plays a starring role in many films.
The Gardens
The White Garden is planted with soft white Iceberg Roses, and Snow White Lilies.
The Rose Garden is newly planted with lovely old-fashioned English roses that are at their very best in June and July.
The Organic Kitchen Garden produces a wide range of seasonal fruit and vegetables, pears, cherries and apples.
The Castle Shop
In the Castle Shop, you will discover a wide and interesting range of gift ideas for everyone. It offers gifts and souvenirs designed to appeal to all tastes and pockets. Foods, china, books, and stationery (文具)are all available. Many are sold in this Castle Shop only.
At Arundel Castle we pride ourselves on supporting local suppliers and actively encourage environmentally friendly products.
The Arundel Festival 2014
Saturday 16th to Monday 25th August
The annual Arundel Festival gets bigger and better every year. It is one of the most amazing, diverse and easily accessible arts festivals in the UK, offering a mix of visual arts, music, theatre and street entertainment.
Parking
Coaches and mini-buses can drop off at the main Castle entrance in Mill Road and park in the main town car park that is opposite the Castle entrance. Please inform us when making your booking of how many parking permits are required.
1. When visiting the castle, you can___.| A．get old-fashioned English roses as gifts | B．see how the local gifts are being made |
| C．get seasonal fruit and vegetables for free | D．buy eco-friendly products in the Castle Shop |
| A．In Mill Road | B．Inside the Castle |
| C．In the main town car park | D．At the main Castle entrance |
| A．10 days | B．One week | C．16 days | D．One month |
【推荐1】California researchers developed a glove with electronic sensors that can translate American Sign Language into English in real time through an app on your smartphone.
Unlike previous gloves, the new one is light, inexpensive and long-lasting. The device could help solve the problem of communication between signers and non-signers. Hopefully, this may open up an easy way for people who use sign language to communicate directly with nonsigners without needing someone else to translate for them.
The team worked with four people who are deaf and use ASL and had them repeat gestures up to 15 times while wearing the glove-like device, at the same time teaching a machine how to recognize them.
The glove has thin sensors made from “electrically conducting materials” that run up each finger and turn the movements into signals. These signals are sent to a “dollar-coin sized” circuit board placed on the person's wrist, which then wirelessly moves them over to a smartphone.
The system was able to recognize 660 hand movements and finger placements that stand for each letter in the English alphabet, different phrases and each number. The algorithm recognized the correct signs about 99% of the time, and in less than one second- or about at one word per second.
However, researchers said the glove would need to learn more vocabulary and be able to translate signs faster in order to be sold in stores.
1. Who is the new glove designed for?| A．Translators. | B．Deaf people. | C．English learners. | D．Sign language users. |
| A．How it works. | B．What it is made up of. |
| C．How reliable it is. | D．What benefits it has. |
| A．Enlarge its size. | B．Change its appearance. |
| C．Extend its service life. | D．Improve its performance. |
| A．A travel website. | B．A science newspaper. |
| C．A fashion magazine. | D．A project handbook. |
Recent decades have seen China make many scientific achievements. One of them is the development of its space program. Chinese people have gone to space while Chinese robots have landed on the moon and soon will reach Mars.
On Oct 15, 2003, the nation carried out its first manned space mission, sending Yang Liwei on a 21-hour journey around Earth in the Shenzhou V spacecraft. Chinese astronauts have traveled more than 46 million kilometers in
space and conducted more than 100 experiments. According to government plans, the nation will start putting together its first manned space station around 2020. The multi-module station, named Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, is expected to be up and running by 2022. It's planned to have a useful life of about 15 years, says the China Academy of Space Technology.
China has launched four lunar probes (探测器) since 2007. The latest and most remarkable, the ongoing Chang'e 4 mission, is the first attempt by any nation to observe the moon's far side, which never faces Earth. In early December 2018, the Chang'e 4 robotic probe was lifted atop a Long March 3B rocket, making a soft landing on the moon's far side on Jan 3. The next step in China's lunar exploration agenda, the Chang'e 5 mission, is coming up. It will land a rover (月球车) to collect soil samples and bring them back to Earth. If the mission is successful, it will make China the third nation to bring back lunar samples, after the United States and Russia.
Now, China aims to explore deep space. Mars will be the key concentration of China's future deep-space plans. Researchers are preparing for the country's first exploratory mission to the red planet, scheduled for 2020. According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), China's first Martian probe will look at the Martian soil, environment, atmosphere and water. In the next part of China's Mars program, a larger probe will go to the red planet around 2030，according to Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the space administration.
1. What do we know about the Heavenly Palace?| A．It's the second manned space station for China. |
| B．It is expected to be up and running by 2020. |
| C．It is planned to be used about 15 years. |
| D．It has conducted more than 100 experiments. |
| A．China has launched four lunar probes since 2007. |
| B．Chang'e 4 softly landed on the moon's far side. |
| C．Chang'e 5 will land a rover to collect soil samples. |
| D．China has become the third nation to bring back lunar samples. |
| A．manned space mission | B．lunar probes |
| C．space station | D．Mars exploration |
| A．The development of space program in China. |
| B．Chinese robots have landed on the moon's far side. |
| C．China has made great scientific achievements. |
| D．China aims to explore deep space. |
【推荐3】As Artificial Intelligence （AI） becomes increasingly sophisticated （先进的，尖端的）, there are growing concerns that robots could become a threat （威胁）． This danger can be avoided, according to computer science professor Stuart Russell, if we figure out how to turn human values into a programmable code.
Russell argues that as robots take on more complicated tasks, it's necessary to translate our morals （道德） into AI language.
For example, if a robot does chores around the house, you wouldn't want it to put the pet cat in the oven to make dinner for the hungry children． "You would want that robot preloaded with a good set of values," said Russell.
Some robots are already programmed with basic human values. For example, mobile robots have been programmed to keep a comfortable distance from humans. Obviously there are cultural differences, but if you were talking to another person and they came up close in your personal space, you wouldn't think that's the kind of thing a properly brought-up person would do.
It will be possible to create more sophisticated moral machines, if only we can find a way to set out human values as clear rules.
Robots could also learn values from drawing patterns from large sets of data on human behavior. They are dangerous only if programmers are careless.
The biggest concern with robots going against human values is that human beings fail to do sufficient testing and they've produced a system that will break some kind of taboo（禁忌）.
One simple check would be to program a robot to check the correct course of action with a human when faced with an unusual situation.
If the robot is unsure whether an animal is suitable for the microwave, it has the opportunity to stop, send out beeps （嘟嘟声）, and ask for directions from a human. If we humans aren't quite sure about a decision, we go and ask somebody else.
The most difficult step in programming values will be deciding exactly what we believe is moral, and how to create a set of ethical （道德伦理的） rules． But if we come up with an answer, robots could be good for humanity.
1. How do robots learn human values？| A．By interacting with humans in everyday life situations． |
| B．By picking up patterns from massive data on human behavior． |
| C．By following the daily routines of civilized human beings． |
| D．By imitating the behavior of properly brought-up human beings． |
| A．Keep a distance from possible dangers． |
| B．Do enough testing before taking action． |
| C．Start its built-in alarm system at once． |
| D．Stop to get advice from a human being |
| A．Determine what is moral and ethical． |
| B．Design some large-scale experiments． |
| C．Set rules for man-machine interaction． |
| D．Develop a more sophisticated program． |
