【推荐1】Commuting to and from work can be a nightmare. Cars advance slowly in stop and go traffic, crawling from one traffic jam at stoplights to the next. At peak rush hour especially, there is no chance of sailing through a series of green lights. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence, German researchers have found a way to reduce time spent at the crossroads.

Called the KI4LSA project and funded by the Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the innovation is being tested. Scientists first studied algorithms taken from a busy intersection to learn about traffic patterns and where improvements were most needed. Then, the technology, using high-resolution cameras and radar sensors, more precisely captured the actual traffic situation and detected the average speed of the cars and their waiting times. Finally, the AI uses deep enhanced learning algorithms to calculate the best switching behaviour for the traffic lights and determine the best phase sequence to shorten waiting times at the crossroads.

The results are encouraging when it is being tried out at a busy intersection in Lemgo, Germany. The intelligent lights are said to improve traffic flow by 10 to 15 percent, which results in money saved; the EU estimates that traffic jams create economic damage that adds up to 100 billion euros a year. Aside from reducing commuting time, these traffic lights will reduce noise and CO2 emissions from cars waiting at the crossroads.

Another exciting development in this research is the K14PED project, which studies pedestrians crossing the crossroads. Using AI as well as a 3D points cloud, researchers can identify how many people are waiting at a pedestrian crossing and whether some of the disabled or elder people will need extra time to cross the street. Such a needs-based system could reduce pedestrian waiting time by 30 percent, which could then decrease jaywalking (乱穿马路) by 25 percent.

Researchers are optimistic that it will be adopted by many countries after the tests in the German towns of Lemgo and Bielefeld. This technology is exciting news for pedestrians and drivers alike. It encourages safety, protects the environment, and may even give you more time to enjoy your morning coffee before heading off to work!

1. Why is AI used in the KI4LSA project?

A．To study traffic algorithms to control CO2 emissions.

B．To detect road conditions to reduce jam or speeding.

C．To remind people to pass in sequence for a shorter wait.

D．To adjust traffic signals to ensure efficiency at the crossroads.

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

A．The intelligent lights serve the mere purpose of reducing commuting time.

B．The better traffic flow is improved, the less economic damage is caused.

C．The more cars are waiting at the crossroads, the more noise is reduced.

D．The effect of traffic jams is heavier on environment than on economy.

3. What is the function of K14PED project?

A．It monitors traffic conditions at intersections.

B．It helps to estimate the number of jaywalkers.

C．It ensures flexible crossing time for pedestrians.

D．It improves the speed of vehicles on busy roads.

4. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．The intelligent lights offer a blessing to transportation.

B．The AI technology is bound to be a promising industry.

C．Attentive traffic service lends a helping hand to seniors.

D．Digital traffic systems mark the beginning of smart cities.

【推荐2】根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Japan’s famously diligent workers spend more hours at the office than employees in almost any other country. Authorities have a message: Stay home.     1     . Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend Olympic and Paralympic events in Tokyo during the 2020 Games, putting additional pressure on the city’s already notoriously crowded commuter routes. Officials also hope that promoting working from home during the Games will encourage a more easy-going approach in a country known for its cases of karoshi, or death from overwork.

On July 22, one year before the Games, Tokyo rolled out a month-long “Telework Days” campaign, with government offices and private businesses committing to avoiding peak commuting hours.     2     . The government has been urging employers to be more flexible, hoping to help parents and others caring for elderly relatives to better balance their work and home responsibilities. Officials hope the campaign will show firms that employees can actually “work even more effectively” when they stay home.

    3     . Such as concerns over the security of sensitive information, the difficulty of controlling working conditions and the fact that corporate culture stresses the importance of face-to-face communication.

Experts and government officials hope that Olympic efforts to expand telework might serve as something of a legacy for the Games. “Tokyo 2020 is a chance to actively introduce telework, which can create a stress-free lifestyle,” said Azuma Taguchi, a professor of engineering at Chuo University.     4     . And he also urged to take serious measures to tackle Olympic traffic.

    5     . “This is a chance to make telework a legacy of the Games that will take root” in Japanese society, Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said in a recent forum to promote flexible work. And some officials are hoping that a more open-minded approach to work could encourage people to take “workstations” — working remotely from far-flung locations with attractive leisure options.

A．Workstations have already appeared in Japan.

B．The concept isn’t completely unfamiliar in Japan.

C．The efforts have also run up against various barriers.

D．Tokyo tells workers to stay home to enjoy a new lifestyle.

E．The aim is to avoid traffic chaos during next year’s Olympics.

F．He warned of potentially “fatal traffic jam” if action is not taken.

G．Others also see the Games as a chance to break existing work habits.

【推荐3】The race to introduce the first commercial flying taxi is officially on. Google, Boeing and Porsche are among 20 companies testing their machines, laying the groundwork for wider production and starting to encourage government officials to bring autonomous all-electric vehicles into the skies in just a few years. Lilium, a German start-up company, has raised more than US $100 million from investors. Its prototype（雏形）jet—which is still seeking certification from European regulators（欧洲监管机构）—is able to take off and land like a helicopter, and is quiet enough "to land in some areas that are traditionally off-limits to aircraft"—even midtown Manhattan.

However, the possibility of air vehicles over New York already represents a clear and present danger to public safety. New York skies are already filled with helicopters. Since 1983, there have been at least 30 helicopter crashes in the city. "There are several challenges to overcome before commuters（上下班往返的人）are flying through the air," said Dalvin Brown in USA Today. Many of the vehicles now being imagined require "magical electric batteries that doesn't exist—yet." The best that anyone can do right now with an electric battery is 20 minutes of flight. An even bigger obstacle（障碍）is gaining approval（批准）from the FAA（American Federal Aviation Administration）, which has strict rules and guidelines for small aircraft, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That's why the first practical commercial tests of autonomous taxis are likely to be outside the US, said Jeremy Bogaisky on Forbes.com. "EHang became the first company to receive approval from Chinese aviation regulators to establish an autonomous air-taxi service in Guangzhou." To succeed in the US, air taxi companies will need much more than that. Taking a small aircraft through the regulatory forest of safety certification to production can cost US $75 to US $100 million.

1. Which is special about the Lilium prototype jet，according to the passage?

A．It's the most expensive model.

B．It's already available on the market.

C．It's suitable for midtown Manhattan.

D．It's suitable to be used in cities.

2. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?

A．The problems to overcome.	B．Public concerns about safety.
C．Related official policies.	D．Potential market risks.

3. Which of the following best describes the approval process for everything from safety to production?

A．Quick and economical.	B．Strict and expensive.
C．Difficult and time-saving.	D．Unsafe and impractical.

【推荐1】About three decades ago,   China was known as the “Bicycle Kingdom”. But the two­wheel way of transport's popularity began to fade, with many bikes soon replaced by their fuel­powered competitors.

But recent months have seen a revival of the bike across China, with an increasing number of people choosing to cycle   instead of driving to schools, to workplaces or to do sightseeing. The introduction of bike­sharing systems has brought the trend to   a new level.

People can unlock the shared bikes by simply using their smartphones. The bikes are equipped with GPS and can be left anywhere in public for the next user. They're popular among many Chinese people as they provide an effective solution to the “last mile problem”，   which refers to the final leg of a person's journey.

However, the systems have also led to problems such as   illegal parking, damage and theft. Last month, two nurses in   Beijing were placed under arrest for five days for putting locks on two shared bikes.

“Bike­sharing is a greener method of transport and provides a user­friendly experience，” said Liu Xiaoming, vice­minister of transport. “But it's a combination of online and offline business. Operators are usually strong in online services, but lack offline business experience, which causes problems.”

Now, Chinese service operators are trying to handle these problems. For example, a bike­sharing company called Mobike sets a 100­point credit score for each user, with points taken in the case of bad behavior. Once a score drops below 80, bike rental is increased to 100 yuan per 30 minutes, up from 0.5－1 yuan.

1. The underlined word “revival” in paragraph 2 probably means ________.

A．survival	B．recovery
C．existence	D．popularity

2. The bike­sharing systems are popular because ________.

A．they are very effective

B．they can be picked up anywhere

C．they are equipped with GPS

D．they help to solve the “last mile problem”

3. To solve the problems of illegal parking, damage and theft, operators need to ________.

A．offer stronger online services

B．combine online and offline business

C．provide credit scores for users

D．obtain more offline business experience

【推荐2】With 17 million residents and 23 million bicycles，the Netherlands already has more bikes than people.    1     .

The Dutch government recently announced that it will invest $ 390 million in cycling infrastructure to get 200，000 more people commuting(通勤)by bike in three years’time.Fifteen routes will be developed into“cyclist freeways”，25，000 bike parking spaces will be created and more than 60 bike storage facilities will be upgraded.

“     2     ，”says Stientje van Veldhoven，state secretary for that department，who is spearheading the project.

It’s not that people aren’t already cycling in the Netherlands.In 2016，over a quarter of all trips made by Dutch residents were by bike.But only 25％of those trips were work—related，compared to 37％which were made for leisure.    3     .

According to van Veldhoven，more than 50％of people in the Netherlands live less than 15 kilometers from work，and more than half of commuters’car trips are under 7.5 kilometers long—a distance that“can easily be covered by bike，”she says.

    4    .The Netherlands currently rewards commuting cyclists with tax credits of $0.22 per kilometer.Companies and employees would agree on the distance of a person’s cycling route.

However，this is currently a little—known benefit not supported by many employers，according to the infrastructure ministry.That’s something the government is hoping to change by better promoting the scheme and getting more companies on board.    5     .The government is urging employers to provide better facilities for commuting cyclists，such as showers at the office，according to the ministry.

A．The rest were for school，shopping，or other activities

B．To get people to ditch their cars，money is being laid on the’table

C．Now，it wants to get even more cyclists on the roads—and will pay people to do it

D．Today the Netherlands is known for its cycling culture，but that hasn’t always been the case

E．My ambition is to ensure that people can easily get to work or school，or visit family and friends

F．The Netherlands is now one of the few countries that takes cycling seriously as a mode of transportation

G．There are already 11 major employers in the Netherlands committing to measures such as financing employees’ bikes

【推荐3】In the United States，a company is working on a project that could change the way we think about public transportation.Its planned system would move people around in steel tubes.Those passengers would be traveling at speeds of up to 1,200 kilometers per hour.

The futuristic steel tube transportation system is called Hyper1oop.Workers plan to test the system next year in a specially built community called Quay Valley.The town will be powered entirely by energy from the sun.

The Hyperloop transport system is the idea of businessman Elon Musk.Dirk Ahlborn is head of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.He says his company has taken Mr.Musk’s idea and is developing a system that will be safe，environmentally friendly and fast.

“It’s 100 percent solar powered…we’re not going to get up to 760 miles per hour，but we believe we can actually break the records that are existing right now.”

This means that a four-hour drive from Los Angeles，California to Las Vegas，Nevada，could someday take only 30 minutes by Hyperloop.The system involves a series of capsules that float inside a long tube.These containers would not need to travel along a pathway or track.The system has been designed to operate above or below ground.

“Inside the tube you create a low pressure environment very similar to an airplane that’s at high altitudes.So now the capsule travelling inside the tube doesn’t come up against as much resistance，and therefore can travel really fast with very little energy.”

Dick Ahlborn and his company will use an eight—kilometer track in Quay Valley to find the best way to set up passenger traffic and repair capsules.A larger system will cost an estimated six to $10 billion to build.If Mr.Ahlborn and his company succeed，we may one day see these very fast Hyperloop capsules speeding through tubes around the world.

1. Which of the following is true of Hyperloop?

A．It will travel along a pathway or track.

B．It will use more energy than current trains.

C．There is a high pressure inside the tube of it.

D．A series of experiments on it will be carried on.

2. We may learn from the text that

A．Dirk is worried about the speed of Hyperloop

B．Hyperloop has been built in the United States

C．Hyperloop will be powered by energy from the sun

D．Hyperloop has reached to 760 miles per hour

3. What does the underlined word“containers”in Paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Systems.

B．Capsules.

C．Tubes.

D．Airplanes.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Hyperloop Is Closer To Reality	B．Hyperloop Will Test At Quay Valley
C．Elon Musk’s Idea Is Under Discussion	D．Hyperloop Travels Around The World

【推荐1】Look and listen, and that concert poster just might be singing. Engineers have designed antennas（天线）that can turn everyday objects, from posters to clothing, into radio stations. Anyone walking or driving by can tune in and hear what’s on. The devices use radio waves, but they don’t generate their own. They hijack（劫持）the same waves that carry music and news to your smartphone.

Vikram Iyer co-led the project with Anran Wang, a graduate student in computer science and engineering. The two got the idea for their invention by paying attention to what was already around them. “It’s the ideal way to minimize the power consumption for any kind of communication,” notes Iyer. Their research had focused on new types of wireless communications that won’t require much energy. They wanted something that would work outdoors in a city. Then they realized the air is already filled with wireless communications in the form of radio stations.

Radio waves carry energy at the speed of light from tall transmission towers to radios in cars, phones and homes. These waves of the antennas take in existing radio waves and change them slightly. Those changes add new sound information. The changed waves are then sent back out into the world where people can listen in. So the device only needs enough power to change the waves, not to generate them.

The scientists tested their device with a poster. It advertised a Seattle concert by Simply Three. People standing almost 4 meters away from the poster could use FM receivers on smartphones to listen to all songs of the band’s music, Those in cars as far as 18 meters away could use car radios to pick up some parts of the songs

The technology could even extend to clothes. Iyer, Wang and their team turned the shirt into an antenna. It let the shirt talk to the wearer’s smartphone. If a sensor in the shirt tracked a person’s heart rate during exercise, for instance, the antenna could transmit those data to the wearer’s phone.

1. The underlined word “generate” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to “       ”.

A．promote

B．repair

C．produce

D．recycle

2. Which of the following is one advantage of the new antennas?

A．They save energy.

B．They are small-sized

C．They can be used in villages.

D．They can improve radio signals.

3. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The way the antennas take in radio waves.

B．The working principle of the antennas.

C．The benefit people can get from the antennas.

D．The situation where the antennas can be used

4. What can be inferred from the text?

A．The antennas can be available at present.

B．Vikram Iyer created the antennas with much money.

C．The antennas cannot be used in the students dormitory and classroom.

D．The closer people stay to the antennas, the stronger signals they pick up.

【推荐3】An online supermarket company—Ocado in the UK, has recently displayed a robotic hand that can pick fruits and vegetables!

When an embryo (胚胎) is in the womb, the very first sense it develops is touch. The sense of touch is also the one that lasts the longest—as we get older and our vision and hearing begins to weaken, touch still remains. Humans use their touch to protect themselves, to create emotional relationships with other people, and to experience pleasure. Can you imagine life without it?

The sense of touch comes from a network of nerve endings and special touch receptors on the surface of the skin. While there are different kinds of touch receptors (感受器), they help us judge pressure, texture and vibrations (震动). They are located in our fingertips, palms, soles of our feet, face, lips and tongue.

When we touch something, the mechano-receptors perceive the touch and through a network of nerves, send signals to the brain. This informs the brain about the location of the touch, the amount of force used, and the speed at which it was used.

Several different techniques have been tried in the past to create such a robotic hand—using three fingers. But this latest design by SoMa copies the human hand. The gripper (夹具) is made up of flexible materials which grasp onto the thing based on its size and shape. Then air pressure is used to control the movement of the robotic fingers to pick objects safely and without causing damage.

The next step would be for the robot to judge how ripe the fruits and vegetables are, and apply pressure accordingly. Members of the research team are currently working on adding computerized vision to the robots, so that they can see what they are gripping.

Does all this mean robots can replace people? According to Ocado, it helps improve productivity by removing some of the repetitive tasks done by humans.

1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．The brain.	B．The touch.
C．The nerve.	D．The signal.

2. What is focused on in the second paragraph?

A．The important role of touch.	B．The origin of touch
C．The process of transporting touch.	D．The disappearance of touch.

3. What is the special feature of the latest robots?

A．They can tell whether the fruits and vegetables are ripe.

B．They can see what they’re taking hold of.

C．They can grasp things according to their shapes and sizes.

D．They can take the place of people in work places.

4. What might be the best title for the text?

A．A Robotic Hand for Picking Fruits	B．A Robot Made of Flexible Materials
C．A Sense of Touch for Robots	D．A Robotic Hand with a Gentle Touch

【推荐1】Microsoft announced this week that its facial-recognition system is now more accurate in identifying people of color, touting （吹嘘）its progress at tacking one of the technology’s biggest biases （偏见）.But critics, citing Microsoft's work with immigration and Customs Enforcement ,quickly seized on how that improved technology might be used. The agency contracts with Microsoft for cloud-computing tools that the tech giant says is largely limited to office work but can also face recognition.

Columbia University professor Alondra Nelson tweeted. “We must stop confusing 'inclusion5 in more 'diverse' surveillance （监管）systems with justice and equality.”

Facial-recognition systems more often misidentify people of color because of a long-running data problem: The massive sets of facial images they train on skew heavily toward white men. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study this year of the face-recognition systems designed by Microsoft, IBM and the China-based Face found facial-recognition systems consistently giving the wrong gender for famous women of color including Oprah Winfrey, Serena Williams, Michelle Obama and Shirley Chisholm, the first black female member of Congress.

The companies have responded in recent months by pouring many more photos into the mix, hoping to train the systems to better tell the differences among more than just white faces. IBM said Wednesday it used 1 million facial images, taken from the photo-sharing site Flickr, to build the "world's largest facial data-set" which it will release publicly for other companies to use.

IBM and Microsoft say that allowed its systems to recognize gender and skin tone with much more precision. Microsoft said its improved system reduced the error rates for darker-skinned men and women by "up to 20 times,n and reduced error rates for all women by nine times.

Those- improvements were heralded （宣布）by some for taking aim at the prejudices in a rapidly spreading technology, including potentially reducing the kinds of false positives that could lead police officers misidentify a criminal suspect.

But others suggested that the technology's increasing accuracy could also make it more marketable. The system should be accurate, "but that’s just the beginning, not the end, of their ethical obligation,” said David Robinson, managing director of the think tank Upturn.

At the center of that debate is Microsoft, whose multimillion-dollar contracts with ICE came under fire amid the agency's separation of migrant parents and children at the Mexican border.

In an open letter to Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella urging the company to cancel that contract, Microsoft workers pointed to a company blog post in January that said Azure Government would help ICE “accelerate recognition and identification.” “We believe that Microsoft must take an ethical stand, and put children and families above profits,”the letter said.

A Microsoft spokesman, pointing to a statement last week from Nadella, said the company's "current cloud engagement” with ICE supports relatively anodyne （温和的）office work such as calendar, massaging and document management workloads.” The company said in a statement that its facial-recognition improvements are “part of our going work to address the industry-wide issues on bias.”

Criticism of face recognition will probably expand as the technology finds its way into more arenas, including airport. stores and schools. The Orlando police department said this week that it Would not renew its use of Amazon. Com's Rekognition system.

“Companies have to acknowledge their moral involvement in the downstream use of their technology,” Robinson said : “The impulse is that they're going to put a product out there and wash their hands of the consequences. That’s unacceptable”.

1. What is “one of the technology's biggest biases ”in Paragraph 1?

A．Class bias.	B．Racial discrimination.
C．Professional prejudice.	D．Regional difference.

2. What can we know about the improvement of facial-recognition technology?

A．It is due to the expansion of the photo database.

B．Justice and equality have been truly achieved.

C．It has already solved all the social issues on biases.

D．Migrant parents and their children can be reunited.

3. What is the focus of the face-recognition debate?

A．Data problems.	B．The market value.
C．The application field.	D．A moral issue

4. What is David Robinson's attitude towards facial-recognition technology?

A．optimistic.	B．Approval.
C．Skeptical.	D．Neutral.

5. We can infer from the last paragraph that ______.

A．companies had better hide from responsibilities

B．companies should not launch new products on impulse

C．companies deny problems with the technical process of facial-recognition system

D．companies should be responsible for the new product and the consequences

6. Which can be the suitable title for the passage?

A．Fears of facial-recognition technology	B．The wide use of Microsoft system
C．The improvement of Microsoft system	D．Failure of recognizing black women

【推荐2】Swiss researchers said Monday they have developed a wireless camera system to monitor vital signs in premature babies, a move that could replace uncomfortable and highly inaccurate skin sensors (传感器) which produce false alarms in up to 90 percent of cases, mainly set off by the baby’s movement.

“This is a cause of discomfort for the babies, because we have to check on them every time,” said Jean-Claude Fauchere, a doctor at University Hospital Zurich’s newborn clinic.

His hospital is preparing to begin tests of a new, contactless system created by researchers at the EPFL polytechnical university in Lausanne and at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology.

The system designed in Switzerland should allow premature babies kept warm in incubators (恒温箱) to be medically monitored using highly sensitive cameras that detect the newborn’s pulse by analyzing its skin color, which changes so slightly every time its heart beats.

“Breathing is monitored by measuring movements of its chest and shoulders. At night, infrared (红外线的) cameras take over, and monitoring can be carried out non-stop,” the statement said.

The visual system was designed by CSEM researchers, who chose cameras sensitive enough to detect minute changes in skin color, while the EPFL researchers designed algorithms (运算程序) to process the data in real time.

“We ran an early study on adults, where we looked at a specific part of skin on their foreheads,” EPFL doctoral student Sibylle Fallet said. “With our algorithms we can track this area when the person moves, and use tiny changes in their color to determine the pulse,” she said. “The tests showed that the cameras produced practically the same results as conventional sensors.”

Once the system has been widely tested on premature babies, it could one day replace skin sensors altogether, the schools said.

1. What is the advantage of the wireless camera system?

A．It is light and painless.	B．It is mobile and effective.
C．It is cheap and convenient.	D．It is comfortable and accurate.

2. What is the key for the wireless camera to monitor a premature baby?

A．Its non-stop measurement.

B．Good condition of incubators.

C．Its sensitivity to sense skin color change.

D．The algorithms to process the data in time.

3. It be inferred from what Sibylle Fallet said that .

A．their early study on adults was successful

B．the system has been used on premature babies

C．the visual system can sense the people’s pulse

D．the wireless cameras will replace conventional sensors

4. What’s the schools’ attitude towards the visual system?

A．Doubtful.

B．Optimistic.

C．Unconcerned.

D．Uncertain.

【推荐3】Japanese automaker Toyota has announced plans to create a model “city of the future” to test and develop new technologies. The project will involve “building a complete city from the ground up” at the foot of Japan’s Mount Fuji. The company announced the plans during the yearly CES technology show in Las Vegas, Nevada.   

Toyota calls the project “Woven City”. It is meant to be a model for creating “smart cities” around the world. A smart city is an area developed with high-speed internet connectivity to link major information and communication systems. These systems-powered by data and sensors-can improve living conditions relating to things like energy, transportation and health.   

Smart cities can be designed to greatly cut human-caused pollution, reduce traffic problems and create new uses for internet technology to affect everyday life. The Woven City will aim to be a “living laboratory” for technologies including self-driving systems, robotics, smart homes and artificial intelligence.   

The city will be built on land where an automobile factory currently operates. The city will cover about 70 hectares of land and is designed to hold around 2,000 people. Residents could include Toyota employees and visiting researchers. The city will have its own police officers, fire and emergency services and schools. The city’s main electrical power will come from hydrogen fuel technology. The city is planned to be fully sustainable, with buildings made mostly of wood. Buildings will be made with solar equipment to produce additional electricity.

1. What do we know from Paragraph 2?

A．The explanation of a smart city.	B．The living conditions in the future.
C．Clean energy for “city of the future”.	D．The importance of communication systema

2. Which is mentioned in Paragraph 4?

A．When Woven City will be completed.	B．Who will be allowed to live in Woven City.
C．Why solar energy will be used in Woven City.	D．How a car factory will be changed into Woven City.

3. Which of the following best describes the traffic in streets of Woven City?

A．Safe.

B．Rapid.

C．Intelligent

D．Comfortable

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Way Human Beings Will Live in the Future

B．World-Leading Technologies of Toyota’s Smart Home

C．“City of the Future” to Be Built to Test New Technologies

D．Great Changes Brought by the Internet in Our Future Life