【推荐1】The first newspaper were handwritten sheets which were posted in pubic places. The earliest recorded newspaper was started in Rom in 59 BC. In the 700’s the world’s first printed newspaper was developed in China. The paper was printed from carved(雕刻的) wooden blocks and sent out among the citizens. Europe didn’t have a regularly(定期的) published newspaper until 1609, when one was started in Germany.
The fist regularly published newspaper in the English language was printed in 1620. In 1621, an English newspaper was started in London and was published weekly. The first daily English newspaper was the Daily Courant, which didn’t appear until March 1702.
In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed the first American newspaper in Boston. But the local(当地的) government soon stopped its publication. In 1704, John Campbell started The Boston News-letter, the first newspaper to be published daily in America. By 1760, the whole America had more than thirty daily newspapers. There are now about 1800 daily papers in the United States.
Today, as a group, English language newspapers have the largest circulation(发行量) in the world. The largest circulation for a newspaper, however, is that of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, which sells over eleven million copies every day.
1. The first English newspaper printed and sold every day appeared _________.

A．in 1620

B．at the beginning of the 18th century.

C．at the end of the 17th century

D．in 1609

2. As suggested by the article, which of the following newspapers have the largest umber of readers in the world?

A．Italian language newspapers.

B．German language newspapers.

C．English language newspapers.

D．Japanese language newspapers.

3. Which title best gives the main idea of the passage?

A．The World’s First Newspaper.

B．The First Daily Newspaper in American.

C．History of Newspaper.

D．A Remarkable Man-Benjamin Harris.

【推荐2】If there is one thing I’m sure about, it is that in a hundred years from now we will still be reading newspapers. It is not that newspapers are a necessity. Even now some people get most of their news from television or radio. Many buy a paper only on Saturday or Sunday. But for most people reading a newspaper has become a habit passed down from generation to generation.

The nature of what is news may change. What basically makes news is what affects our lives—the big political stories, the coverage of the wars, earthquakes and other disasters, will continue much the same. I think there will be more coverage of scientific research, though. It’s already happening in areas that may directly affect our lives, like genetic (基因的) engineering. In the future, I think there will be more coverage of scientific explanations of why we feel as we do—as we develop a better understanding of how the brain operates and what our feelings really are.

It’s quite possible that in the next century newspapers will be transmitted electronically from Fleet Street and printed out in our own home. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it will happen in the future. You will probably be able to choose from a menu, making up your own newspaper by picking out the things you want to read   — sports and international news, etc.

I think people have got it wrong when they talk about competition between the different media. They actually feed off each other. Some people once foresaw that television would kill off newspapers, but that hasn’t happened. What is read on the printed page lasts longer than pictures on a screen or sound lost in the air. And as for the Internet, it’s never really pleasant to read something just on a screen.

1. In the writer’s opinion, in the future, ___________.

A．more and more people will watch TV

B．newspapers will cover more scientific research

C．more big political affairs, wars and disasters will make news

D．newspapers will not be printed in publishing houses any longer

2. From the passage, we can infer that _____________.

A．the writer believes some media will die out

B．television will take the place of the newspaper

C．newspapers will stay with us together with other media

D．newspapers will win the competition among the different media

3. The underline phrase “feed off” in the last paragraph means “ ___________”.

A．depend on	B．compete with
C．fight with	D．kill off

4. What is the best title for this passage?

A．The Best Way to Get News	B．Make Your Own Newspaper
C．The Changes of Media	D．The Future of Newspaper

【推荐3】There are hundreds of thousands of publishers across the world, and millions of books get printed every year. Moreover, a book can be printed by several publishers.     1    

To overcome the problem of identifying books, publishers have come up with a unique numbering system. For instance, if 50,000 copies of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are printed by a publisher at one time (called an edition), all of them are identified by one number code.     2     Your address begins with your house number, street, locality, state and ends with a statement of the country where you live. An ISBN book number achieves a similar aim of identifying and tracing a book.

If you pick up any book, turn it around you will see a number which looks something like this - ISBN 90-70002-23-5. This is called the ISBN number. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Numbering.     3     The ISBN number is divided into four groups that are separated by a space or a hyphen.

The first part of the ISBN identifies the country and is called the Group Identifier.     4     The second part is called the Publisher Prefix. The Publisher Prefix is used to identify the publisher of the book. The publisher prefix may contain up to seven digits.

The third part identifies the title and the edition of the book and so is called the Title Identifier, which may consist of up to six digits.     5     Since you can have the same book from the same publisher but with different editions, the Title Identifier helps to differentiate between them.

The fourth and the final part is called the Check digit, a single digit (from 0 to 9) used to check whether the given ISBN number is correct or wrong. If an ISBN number is incorrect, this means that the book is a version printed illegally.

A．It may consist of up to five digits.

B．So what can the ISBN number do for you?

C．This makes the task of identifying a book very difficult.

D．It is a numbering system that is used to describe the book.

E．Book publishers often come out with newer and updated versions of earlier books.

F．This number code is like your home address that can only be shared by your parents and siblings.

G．The ISBN numbering system helps book stores and book publishers to handle, categorize, store and identify books easily.

【推荐1】It seems that we are one step closer to finding alien life and maybe a future home for humanity. Scientists from NASA have found a new solar system filled with planets that look like the Earth and could even support life.

The group of seven planets, which orbits a star called Trappist-1, is 39 light years away from the Earth in the constellation of Aquarius(水瓶座). And three of them are in the “habitable zone” - the area around a star where water is most likely to be found. This is important because water is necessary for life.

“This is an amazing planetary(行星的) system - not only because we have found so many planets, but because they are all surprisingly similar in size to the Earth”, astronomer Michael Gillon from the University of Liege in Belgium told The Independent.

Trappist-1 is a “dwarf star(矮星)” which is colder and shines dimmer than our sun. If a person were on one of the seven planets, everything would look a lot darker than usual. The amount of light heading toward our eyes would be about 200 times less than we get from the sun, according to The Independent.

Because of that, Trappist-1, together with many other dwarf stars, was never on the list of places where scientists looked for alien life. But Michael Gillon, lead researcher behind the discovery, decided to give dwarf stars a chance. He built a telescope in Chile to observe 60 of the closest dwarf stars, and it turned out that Trappist-1 was worthy of the effort.

The researchers hope that they can spend more time watching the newly found planets to learn more about them. Even though more research is needed before determining whether these planets could really support life, the discovery is still encouraging. It shows just how many Earth-size planets could be out there.

“[The discovery] gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when,” NASA scientist Thomas Zurbuchen told The Telegraph.

1. What can be learned about the new solar system from the text?

A．It contains a sun and planets like the Earth.

B．Seven planets move around Trappist-1.

C．Water can be found on all of the planets.

D．There are aliens on the planets.

2. Why is this new planetary system amazing?

A．The size of the planets is similar to that of the Earth.

B．It has the same number of planets as our solar system.

C．Scientists have found alien life in the new solar system.

D．The planets are more suitable for humans to live than the Earth.

3. Why didn't other scientists observe dwarf stars?

A．It is impossible to find alien life on the planets of Trappist-1 and other dwarf stars.

B．Scientists did not find a good place to observe dwarf stars according to the passage.

C．Trappist-1 and other dwarf stars don't provide as much heat and light as our sun can.

D．Scientists have observed dwarf stars, but they failed to find the possibility of survival.

4. What does the underlined word “dimmer” mean?

A．Stronger

B．More powerful

C．Less bright

D．Less beautiful.

5. What is the main idea of this text?

A．Scientists have found a second Earth.

B．People will move to another Earth soon.

C．Scientists are planning to explore another planet.

D．A new solar system may become home for humans.

【推荐1】Let’s look at some inventions that had their roots in the UK.

The bagless vacuum cleaner（吸尘器), James Dyson,1979

There are some things we don’t know we need until someone invents them. For example, the bagless vacuum cleaner. James Dyson came up with the idea after spending a lot of money on an expensive cleaner that simply pushed dirt around.

Most of us would have given it up, but Dyson went on to change the basic principle of a vacuum cleaner --- an idea that hadn’t been challenged for 100 years --- by designing a system that removed the necessity of the bag for good. His final version took five years of research.

However, when Dyson first approached manufacturers (制造商) with his idea, he couldn’t interest them. But he didn’t give up and set up a factory in Wiltshire in 1993 to produce them himself. Two years later, Dyson’s products were outselling the competition.

The Mini Alec Issigonis, 1959

While the Americans were driving supersize Cadillacs, Britain famously went in the opposite direction and came up with a small car.

Alec Issigonis was responsible for the design and made a name for himself in motoring history with its launch (投放市场) in 1959 for the British Motor Corporation(BMC).

The Mini’s success wasn’t overnight. Many thought it “strange”, but it developed into a love affair with the British that’s never decreased, helped by the fact that many stars loved it.

The London sewage system, Joseph Bazalgette, 1865

Like any major city, London has always produced large amounts of waste. Give thanks to Joseph Bazalgette, an engineer who developed a far-reaching underground sewage system. It changed the process of getting rid of waste by dumping it into the Thames River. Even more impressive was his idea to construct pipes that would function for nearly 150 years and still be large enough to meet the need of the increasing population. As he said, “We’re only going to do this once.”

1. Which of the following is true according to James Dyson’s experience?

A．He invented the first vacuum cleaner.	B．He enjoyed immediate success.
C．His idea attracted many manufacturers.	D．His product became a bestseller.

2. The Mini won its popularity _____.

A．soon after its launch in 1959

B．because it was advertised by stars

C．with the help of some famous people’s preference

D．because people lost interest in supersize cars

3. The underlined sentence in the last paragraph shows Bazalgette was _____.

A．cautious	B．confident
C．far-sighted	D．strong-minded

【推荐2】Around the world, banana plants are dying at an alarming rate. They are being attacked by a form of Panama disease called Tropical Race 4 (TR4). TR4 is a fungus (真菌) that lives in soil. It infects banana plants through the roots and moves into the stems where it prevents water and nutrition from reaching the plants’ leaves. The plants turn yellow, and then they dry up and die.

Farmers, experts, and industry leaders have feared that TR4 would hit Latin America and the Caribbean, where about 85% of bananas exported worldwide are grown. On August 8, 2019, those fears came true. Colombia declared a national emergency as cases of TR4 were confirmed at six banana farms in the country. It can take six months to a year for farmers to spot TR4 in a field of banana plants. By then, it's hard to treat the disease. Farmers can only try to keep it from spreading. But TR4 spreads easily with increased human transportation, travel, and trade, from plant to plant and from farm to farm.

Part of the problem is that 99% of bananas exported are of the same variety: Cavendish. This is helpful for the banana industry to grow more bananas when they grow only one kind, which means they can make more money. But a lack of diversity is not good for nature. All Cavendish bananas are genetically the same, so, when a disease such as TR4 strikes, they are all equally vulnerable.

This isn't the first time in history that bananas have been in danger. Before the 1950s, nearly all the bananas grown for export were of one variety: Gros Michel. Then Panama disease hit. The banana industry needed a replacement, so it turned to a different type of banana: Cavendish, which was resistant to Panama disease. Even if we find a way to resolve today' s banana crisis (危机), could history repeat itself, yet again, in decades to come?

1. How does TR4 kill banana plants?

A．It destroys the roots of banana plants.	B．It eats up banana plants’ stems and leaves.
C．It consumes all nutrition for banana plants.	D．It blocks the banana plants’ nutrition transport.

2. What is the most basic in fighting TR4?

A．Finding TR4 as soon as possible.	B．Keeping Cavendish from spreading.
C．Developing new medicines for TR4.	D．Planting varieties of fruits besides bananas.

3. What does the underlined word “vulnerable” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Very resistant.	B．Easily hurt.
C．Quite safe.	D．Hardly productive.

4. What can we know about growing bananas from the text?

A．Most exported bananas are grown in North America.

B．Almost all exported bananas are Cavendish bananas.

C．Cavendish bananas aren’t resistant to Panama disease.

D．Gros Michel will replace Cavendish as exported bananas.

【推荐3】Video calls are a common occurrence, but have you imagined being able to touch the person on the other end of the line? Scientists are making this a reality.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales, Australia, have invented a soft skin stretch device （SSD）, a haptic （触觉的）device that can recreate the sense of touch. Haptic technology mimics （模 仿）)the experience of touch by stimulating localized areas of the skin in ways that are similar to what is felt in the real world, through force, vibration （振动）or motion.

Vibration is the most common haptic technology today and has been built into many electronic devices, such as one attached to the back of a touch pad in laptops, which simulates a button clicking. However, haptic feedback with vibration becomes less sensitive when used continuously. The existing technology also has great difficulty recreating the sense of touch with objects in virtual environments or located remotely, according to Mai Thanh Thai, lead author of the study.

The new technology overcomes issues with existing haptic devices. The research team introduced a novel method to recreate the sense of touch through soft, artificial “muscles”.

“Our three-way directional skin stretch device, built into the fingertips of the wearable haptic glove we also created, is like wearing a second skin - it's soft, stretchable and mimics the sense of touch - and will enable new forms of haptic communication to improve everyday activities, said Thanh Nho Do, senior author of the study.

It works like this: Imagine you are at home and you call your friend who is in Australia. You wear a haptic glove with the SSDs and your friend also wears a glove with integrated 3D force sensors. If your friend picks up an object, it will physically press against your friend's fingers. And their glove with 3D force sensors will measure these interactions. The force signals can be sent to your glove so your device will produce the same 3D forces, making you experience the same sense of touch as your friend.

The haptic devices could be applied in various situations, allowing users to feel objects inside a virtual world or at a distance. This could, be especially beneficial during such times like the COVID-19 pandemic when people rely on video calls to stay connected with loved ones. Or it could be used in medical practices. Doctors can feel a patient's organ tissues with surgical （手术的）tools without touching them.

1. What can we learn about the SSD?

A．It takes the shape of a glove.

B．It mainly uses vibration technology.

C．It is a soft electronic glove made of animal skins.

D．It makes virtual haptic communication possible.

2. What does Paragraph 6 mainly talk about?

A．The advantages of the new haptic glove.

B．The applications of the new haptic technology.

C．An explanation of how the haptic device works.

D．A personal experience of using SSDs during a call.

3. What's the main purpose of the text?

A．To encourage the use of a new product.

B．To inform readers of a new invention.

C．To compare different kinds of existing haptic devices.

D．To introduce the development of haptic technology.

4. How could the new haptic device benefit people?

A．It could replace video calls as a way to communicate.

B．It could be used for recreating organ tissues.

C．Users could feel remote objects in a realistic way.

D．Doctors could perform surgeries from a distance.

【推荐1】On some level, offices exist to inspire in-person collaboration. But many of the basic technologies that employees now used to work together often encourage them to work virtually independent of one another.

“They wear their headphones—headphones are the new walls—to signal they are involved in high-concentration work and not available for chat,” says Stowe Boyd, a social critic whose research focuses on the future of work.   

Such behavior is indicative of a wider workplace trend. As office-communication technologies have become more advanced, more and more employees are avoiding direct interaction with their co-workers. Experts say this is a shift that is likely to continue. Emerging technologies even suggests a future—perhaps decades away, but maybe sooner—in which offices are populated by employees who engage in virtually no work-focused, face-to-face contact whatsoever.

It isn’t to say co-workers won’t connect. Even as employees make the transition to “individual” work, they may begin to communicate in new ways that are as engaging as real-life interactions. Virtual reality, for example, could “hold 3-D meetings around a digital meeting table where employees are not physically in" says Martin Ford, an author who studies artificial intelligence and robots, among other things.

What’s the upside of a chat-free future, in which colleagues work together in close physical space but never need to talk person-to-person? For one, it may make work experiences more efficient by stopping gossipy distractions that can get in the way of serious affairs. It also may safeguard employees from physical disturbance, a growing workplace concern, says Jamais Cascio, an author and futurist.

But there are possible problems. Virtual environments have the potential to reduce social inhibitions (抑制), which could lead to conflicts. It’s also possible that technology will create a more impersonal atmosphere. Without the water cooler-style chat that can make work life more vibrant—research suggests informal office jokes can boost productivity—office relationships could start to resemble the interactions we have with strangers in public spaces.

Eventually, some experts believe, with technologies making their way into offices, humans may remove themselves from the workplace altogether, though not in the sense that they will be replaced by robots, as many have predicted.

1. According to Stowe Boyd, what can be widely seen in workplaces?

A．Technologies are used as a barrier against casual chat.

B．Direction interactions are resisted but cannot be avoided.

C．In-person collaboration is the best way to promote efficiency.

D．Face-to-face contact is the guarantee of high-concentration work.

2. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．Coworkers prefer to keep closely connected.

B．Employees engage in developing far-away relationships.

C．Technologies allow for new forms of office-communication.

D．3-D meetings have completely replaced real-life interactions.

3. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the passage?

A．To forecast a new workplace trend caused by technologies.

B．To encourage employees to make better use of technologies.

C．To stress the importance of combining work and technologies.

D．To introduce the effects of technologies on how employees interact.

【推荐2】Scientists say they’ve developed a system using machine learning to predict when and where lighting will strike.The research was led by engineers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.

European researchers have estimated that between 6,000 and 24,000 people are killed by lightning worldwide each year. The strikes can also cause power outages, destroy property, damage electrical equipment and start forest fires. For these reasons, climate scientists have long sought to develop methods to predict and control lightning. In the United States and other places, ground-based sensing devices are used to identify strikes as they happen. But, no system has been created to effectively predict lightning.

The system tested in the experiments used a combination of data from weather stations and machine learning methods. The researchers developed a prediction model that was trained to recognize weather conditions that were likely to cause lightning.

The model was created with data collected over a 12-year period from 12 Swiss weather stations in cities and mountain areas. The data related to four main surface conditions: air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed.

The atmospheric, data was placed into a machine learning algorithm (算法), which compared it to records of lightning strikes. Researchers say the algorithm was then able to learn the conditions under which lightning happens.

Amirhossein Mostajabi is a PhD student at the institute who led the development of the method. He said, “current systems for gathering such data are slow and complex and require costly collection equipment like radar or satellites.”

“Our method uses data that can be obtained from any weather station,” Mostajabi said. “This will improve data collection in very remote areas not covered by radar and satellite or in places where communication systems have been cut,” he added.

The researchers plan to keep developing the technology in partnership with a European effort that aims to create a lightning protection system. The effort is called the European Laser Lightning Rod project.

1. Why have climate scientists tried to predict and control lighting?

A．To collect relative data.

B．To reduce the destruction lightning has been causing.

C．To create a scientific system.

D．To do research in relation to machine learning.

2. The four mentioned surface conditions include all the following EXCEPT________.

A．air pollution

B．wind speed

C．relative humidity

D．air temperature

3. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Lighting.

B．The system being tested.

C．The atmospheric data.

D．The machine learning algorithm.

4. What can we learn about Mostajabi from the passage?

A．He developed the method and the system himself.

B．He thinks the current systems are too slow and simple.

C．He is a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

D．He believes their system does much better in data collection.

5. Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?

A．Lightning Causes Huge World Wide Damage.

B．Scientists Test Systems to Predict Lightning.

C．Machine Learning Has Made New Breakthrough.

D．A New Approach Has Improved Data Collection.

【推荐3】Up till about 130 years ago, newspapers in the United States attracted only the most serious readers. They used no illustration (插图) and the articles were about politics or business.

Two men changed that - Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World and William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal. Pulitzer bought the New York World in 1883. He changed it from a traditional newspaper into a very exciting one overnight. He added lots of illustrations and he told his reporters to write articles on every crime they could find. And they did. One of them-a woman reporter, even pretended she was mad and was sent to a hospital. She then wrote many articles about the poor treatment of patients in those hospitals where mad men were kept.

In 1895, Hearst came to New York from California. He wanted the Journal to be more exciting than the world. He also wanted it to be cheaper, so he lowered the price to a penny. Hearst attracted attention because his newspaper headings were bigger than anyone else’s. He often says, “Big print makes big news.”

Pulitzer and Hearst did anything they could to sell newspapers. For example, Hearst sent Frederic Remington, the famous illustrator, to draw pictures of the Spanish-American War. When he got there, he told Hearst that no fighting was going on, Hearst answered, “You provide the pictures. I’ll provide the war.”

1. What kind of news did American newspapers carry 130 years ago?

A．Only serious matters.	B．All kinds of exciting news.
C．Crimes and mad people.	D．The treatment of patients in hospital.

2. What can we know about the woman reporter in the second paragraph?

A．She helped Joseph Pulitzer buy the New York Journal.

B．She was forced to be mad and was sent to a hospital.

C．She learned a lot about the real life of the mad patients in hospital.

D．She made the newspaper from traditional to exciting.

3. What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．The difficulties that the newspaper owners faced.

B．Two most famous reporters of the United States.

C．Newspaper owners were fond of crimes and war.

D．Two important men changed newspapers greatly