Scientists say they’ve developed a new system(系统). It can use “machine learning” to predict when and where lightning(闪电) will strike(闪击). The research was led by engineers from Switzerland.
European researchers have estimated(估算) between 6, 000 and 24,000 people are killed by lightning worldwide each year. The strikes can also cause power cuts, destroy houses and start forest fires. For these reasons, some climate scientists have studied to develop methods to predict and control lightning. But no system has been created to effectively predict lightning.
The new system is being tested in the experiments(实验). It used a combination of data(数据资料) from weather stations and machine learning methods. The researchers developed a prediction model. It was trained to tell weather conditions that were possible to cause lightning.
The model was created with some data. The data was collected over a 12-year period from 12 Swiss weather stations in cities and mountain areas. The data related to(与……有关) four main surface conditions: air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity(相对湿度) and wind speed.
The atmospheric(大气的) data was put into a machine learning algorithm(计算程序), 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 who led the development of the new system. He said, “Common systems for collecting such data are slow and complex, and they require expensive collection equipment(设备) like radar or satellites (卫星).”
“Our system uses data that can be gotten from any weather station,” Mostajabi said. “This will improve data collection in the areas which are not covered by radar and satellites or in places where communication systems have been cut,” he added.
1. According to the passage, the strikes can’t cause ________.| A．power cuts | B．earthquakes |
| C．forest fires | D．the death of people |
| A．The lightning strike. | B．The system being tested. |
| C．The machine learning algorithm. | D．The atmospheric data. |
| A．Where weather stations should be built. |
| B．How the machine learning algorithm works. |
| C．The advantages of the new system in data collection. |
| D．The new system has effectively predicted lightning in faraway areas. |
| A．Its prediction model has been tested for 12 years. |
| B．It has been put into use in cities and mountain areas widely. |
| C．The new system requires expensive collection equipment to collect data. |
| D．It uses machine learning to predict the time and places of lightning strikes. |
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So far, 95% of the reconstruction projects（重建项目）have been completed. Nearly 3,000 schools, 1,000 hospitals and more than 5 million homes have been built. Now everyone has been provided with a home, a job and social security（社保）.
Dong Xinjun, a villager in Qingchuan, said volunteers from Zhejiang taught him how to grow mushrooms and now he makes about 3,000 yuan more than before every year.
Zhu Lihu, the headmaster of a village primary school in Qingchuan, told us that teaching equipment had been greatly improved. Now they have new classrooms, a library and a computer room with 20 computers.
On May 8th, 2011, Premier Wen Jiabao made his 10th visit to Sichuan Province after the earthquake. He visited a lot of middle schools and neighborhoods. At Beichuan Middle School, Premier Wen embraced a student named Zheng Haiyang, who lost both of his legs in the earthquake. The students told Premier Wen that their new school was very beautiful. And they would never forget that it was built with the hearts and strength of people across the whole country.
Premier Wen believes that the people in Wenchuan have a “strong will” and a “bright future”. They will never back down, but stand bravely on this land.
1. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Nearly 1,000 schools have been built. |
| B．Dong Xinjun makes about 3,000 yuan every year. |
| C．Zhu Lihu’s new school has a new large gym. |
| D．Zheng Haiyang is a student of Beichuan Middle School. |
| A．Put arms around him in a loving way. |
| B．Shook hands with him in a friendly way. |
| C．Bowed to him in a very polite way. |
| D．Smiled at him in a very kind way. |
| A．By giving facts and examples. |
| B．By comparing different places. |
| C．By describing people’s looks. |
| D．By using volunteers’ words. |
【推荐2】Maybe you know floods, droughts, earthquakes, sandstorms and so on. But have ever heard of typhoons（台风）?
Typhoons are some of the worst storms, usually around the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. Most happen in July, August and September.
How does a typhoon happen? When lots of sea water gets hot in the summer sun, it evaporates into the air. This makes the air hotter. When the air gets warm enough, 1 . It fills the space that is left. After the air gets warmer, it starts to move quickly, making wind. The wind goes in circles, and it keeps moving higher in the sky. The warmer the air gets, the quicker the wind moves. And when the wind moves faster than 30 meters a second, a typhoon begins.
A typhoon has two parts, One is called the “eye”. In the eye, the wind does not move so fast. The other part is the wall of clouds around the eye. This is where the strongest with and hardest rains are.
Typhoons are very dangerous. In 2004, Typhoon Yunna killed 164 people in Zhejiang, and 24 people were missing. In May 2006, Typhoon Pearl hit Guangdong and Fujian, and thousands of houses were damaged.
What to do when a typhoon hits:
Stay inside, Close all the windows and stay away from them.
Try to bring all of your things inside. Strong winds could even blow away your bikes!
Listen to the radio or TV for important information.
If you’re told to go to a safer place, do so right away.
1. Typhoons often happen| A．in the hot season | B．in the cold season |
| C．only in China | D．under the sea |
| A．A | B．B | C．C | D．D |
| A．close all the windows | B．listen to typhoon news |
| C．stay outside with our bikes | D．stay inside the strong house |
| A．the knowledge of typhoon | B．the eye of a typhoon |
| C．the most dangerous typhoon Yunna | D．the names of typhoon |
| A．The warmer the air gets, the slower the wind moves. |
| B．In 2006, Typhoon Peal killed 164 people in Zhejiang. |
| C．The strongest winds and harder rains are in the eye of typhoon. |
| D．A typhoon will happen when the wind goes faster than 30 meters a second. |
【推荐3】The fire at Notre Dame Cathedral（巴黎圣母院）in Paris has raised questions about the condition of thousands of other historic buildings across Europe.
Some people say the fire last month was a wake-up call, not just for Europe, but the whole world. Large fires have long robbed humanity of knowledge, art and treasures. One example is the fire at the famous library of Alexandria in northern Egypt about 1700 years ago.
In 2015, the German engineering company Siemens found that Scotland had about 10 serious fires a year, while England lost at least twelve listed buildings a year. In Germany, 70 historic buildings have been destroyed since 2000.
And all too often, fires happen while old buildings are being repaired. Experts say that what is needed is continuous attention and maintenance(维护). These steps, if taken, could help avoid the need for major repairing work.
But regular attention and maintenance costs money.
Part of the problem comes from the shortage of money provided by governments after the 2008 financial crisis (金融危机). As a result, governments are increasingly looking for rich companies to keep up these historic buildings.
“We do need more money, but this is a shared duty for governments, businesses and citizens across Europe,” said an officer from the European Union.
Some say world-famous monuments like Notre Dame are the driving force behind tourism and should get more respect. People have noticed the importance of such respect.
“Historic buildings are a gold mine(矿). You cannot explore it and then just leave the mine and go to another one. It is something you really have to value,” the officer said.
1. After the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, more attention is paid to ________ .A．European governments  | B．famous libraries |
| C．engineering companies | D．the old buildings |
| A．robbers | B．fires | C．money | D．tourists |
| A．attention and maintenance | B．careful repairing work |
| C．enough respect from people | D．serious financial crisis |
| A．citizens around the world | B．the European governments |
| C．rich European businesses | D．the whole European society |
| A．value historic buildings | B．donate plenty of money |
| C．pay attention to big fires | D．avoid exploring mines |
【推荐1】About two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. But we can only drink or use less than 1% of it because most of the water is salty ocean water or frozen polar ice.
We all know that everyone needs safe drinking water. Unluckily, about 1.1 billion people do not have it. “Every morning, my main worry is water,” says a woman who lives in New Delhi, India.
Some places of the world are drying up. By 2050, there will be 9 billion people in the world. It means we need much more water. However, as we know, the drinkable water on Earth is getting less and less. So it’s necessary for us to use water wisely. And we need to save water from now on.
Las Vegas, Nevada, gets less than 4 inches of rain per year. City leaders make laws to help save water. People and factories will have to pay more money for their drinking water if they waste it. The laws are now working. Las Vegas uses less water today than it did in 2002.
1. Less than _________ of the earth’s water can be drunk or use.| A．2/3 | B．1/3 | C．1% | D．2% |
| A．We will have 9,000,000,000 people in the world in 2050. |
| B．We can’t waste water. |
| C．There is little water in New Delhi. |
| D．Less than 4 inches of rain falls in Las Vegas every year. |
| A．fit to eat | B．fit to drink |
| C．not fit to drink | D．not fit to eat |
| A．Because there are more and more people on Earth. |
| B．Because some areas of the world have too much rain. |
| C．Because some places have little rain. |
| D．Because we have less drinkable water but more people. |
| A．Water | B．Earth’s Water |
| C．Drinking Water | D．Save the Water |
【推荐2】Babies don’t learn to talk just from hearing sounds. They are lip (唇) -readers too. It happens during the stage when a baby’s babbling (咿呀声) gradually changes from unclear voices into that first “mama” or “dada”. The baby in order to do like you has to find out how to shape their lips to make that particular (特别的) sound they are hearing, according to developmental psychologist David Lewkowicz of Florida Atlantic University, who led the study.
Apparently it doesn’t take them too long to understand the movements that match basic sounds. By their first birthdays, babies start changing back to look you in the eye again. It offers more evidence (证据) that quality (高质量的) face time with babies is very important for speech development more than turning on the latest baby DVD. But Lewkowicz went a step further. He and his student Amy Hansen Tift tested nearly 180 babies, groups of them at ages 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months.
How? They showed videos of a woman speaking in English or Spanish to babies of English speakers. They found that when the speaker used English, the 4-month-olds gazed (凝视) mostly into her eyes. The 6-month-olds spent equal amounts of time looking at the eyes and the mouth. The 8 and 10-month-olds studied mostly the mouth. At 12 months, attention started changing back toward the speaker’s eyes.
But what happened when these babies who were used to English heard Spanish? The 12-month-olds studied the mouth longer, just like younger babies. They needed the extra information to recognize the unfamiliar sounds. That fits with research into bilingualism (双语) that shows babies’ brains adjust themselves to distinguishing (区别) the sounds of their native language over other languages in the first year of life. The continued lip-reading shows the 1-year-olds clearly still are fit for learning. Babies are so hard to study that this is “a fairly heroic data set”, says Duke University cognitive neuroscientist (神经学家) Greg Appelbaum, who found the research so attractive that he wants to know more.
1. According to the first paragraph, babies ________.| A．like to figure out how to shape their lips | B．learn to talk just from hearing the sounds |
| C．might get its voice “mama” by lip reading | D．communicate with parents through gestures |
| A．Playing baby DVD nearby. | B．Teaching babies to read English. |
| C．Speaking with babies face to face. | D．Speaking different languages in front of babies. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．carry on further research in baby learning |
| B．learn more about adults’ language learning |
| C．develop popular baby DVDS to earn more money |
| D．teach parents how to improve babies’ language skills |
| A．Babies Have Different Ways to Talk |
| B．Babies Try Lip-reading in Learning to Talk |
| C．Babies Are Suitable to Learn Two Languages |
| D．Babies Can Easily Accept Foreign Language |
【推荐3】Do you like ice cream? Ice cream has a very long history and it is a popular daily food today. Do you know where ice cream came from? There are so many different stories about the beginning of ice cream.
One of these stories said that Marco Polo saw ice cream when he was travelling in China. He brought a recipe (食谱, 配方) for ice cream and introduced it to Italy in the 1500s.
On that trip, Marco Polo discovered not only ice cream, but also eyeglasses and spaghetti. Those things made Marco Polo very famous. Then in the 1600s, France and Spain made forms of ice cream. In the late 1600s, England made its own recipe of ice cream. When and how was ice cream introduced to America? The first record of using ice cream as a dessert in America is from the 1700s. The first ice cream shop in America opened in New York City in 1776. At first, ice cream was called “iced cream”. But now we just call it “ice cream”.
1. This article is about ________ in the world.| A．famous Italian | B．the history of ice cream |
| C．American food | D．the history of spaghetti |
| A．Korea | B．India | C．China | D．Italy |
| A．New York | B．Boston | C．New Jersey | D．Chicago |
①People ate ice cream for dessert in America.
②Marco Polo introduced ice cream to Italy.
③The French started to eat ice cream.
④The English made their own ice cream recipe.
| A．③-①-②-④ | B．②-③-④-① | C．④-①-②-③ | D．①-④-②-③ |
【推荐1】“Too much sitting is shown to be connected with health problems and bad study performance in students,” says Taija Juutinen Finni, a professor of health sciences.
▲ Jumping and playing with a ball can be fun ways to draw younger kids’ attention. You could also mix study and sports, helping both seem less boring. “In maths, students could do some exercises, and then perform as many jumps as the last answer,” Dr. Juutinen Finni says.
Whenever possible, get outside. Not surprisingly, young people move more when they’re outdoors. In a 2019 study of almost 6,500 children in 12 countries, they did more exercise when they went outside than they stayed indoors.
Young people should also aim (以……为目标) to be strong, and some of them, especially teenagers, may be more pleased to do weight training than to go family dancing.
“If your kids don’t want to walk, run or ride bikes but like to lift a weight, you can let them do some push ups and jumps!” Dr. Juutinen Finni says. “Resistive work like these is safe for kids,” she adds. “And it can be done with little or no equipment.”
Young people could also allow their friends or parents to join in for competition (比赛). “But it’s important for parents to remember that they shouldn’t try to be the PE teacher,” says AliMc Manus, a professor of health and exercise. “If we pay attention to how exercise should or must be done, it will be yet another thing to make many parents feel they are failing and children and teenagers feel low.”
1. Which of the following can be put in the ▲ ?| A．What is the bad influence of too much sitting? |
| B．How do we encourage young people to be more active? |
| C．Doing sports every day greatly improves people’s sleep. |
| D．Parents play an important part in their children’s growth. |
| A．Children shouldn’t jump indoors. |
| B．Children should avoid exercising outdoors. |
| C．Students should take exercise with their parents. |
| D．Students could do sports for taking breaks from study. |
| A．Family dancing | B．Walking, running or riding bikes |
| C．Climbing or playing with a ball | D．Doing push-ups and jumping |
| A．Spending more time with kids | B．Teaching kids how to compete |
| C．Trying not to always think about rules of exercise | D．Telling kids to listen to the PE teacher carefully |
| A．Getting Kids to Move More. |
| B．How to Be a Good PE Teacher. |
| C．Too Much Sitting and Jumping Can Be Harmful to Kids. |
| D．Resistive Work May Be More Popular among Teenagers. |
【推荐2】Willpower helps us to keep studying and working hard. It allows us to say no to the extra sweet after a meal. We may not achieve our goals if we fail to control ourselves, so scientists have been studying willpower for many years.
One of the main theories (理论) of willpower is the energy model of self-control. According to it, the brain can provide limited power, which can be used up. Nobody is disciplined all the time. When an act of self-control weakens our will, we’ll feel tired because of the decrease of blood sugar as we face another challenge.
This model has great influence, but Northwestern University’s Daniel Molden doesn’t agree with it. His team has been using a new experiment to test the role of carbohydrate metabolism (碳水化合物代谢) in self-control.
Daniel’s team questioned the finding that self-control lowers blood sugar levels. Volunteers ate nothing and had their baseline blood sugar level tested. Some completed high self-control tasks, while others did low disciplined tasks. Later, all volunteers had blood sugar tests and did another self-control challenge.
The results were interesting. Volunteers who completed the challenging task showed less willpower in the following task. This agrees with the energy model. However, their blood sugar did not fall. It showed that willpower didn’t increase carbohydrate metabolism.
The energy model suggests that using up sugar can bring back self-control. Daniel’s team tested this idea by having volunteers rinse (清洗) their mouths with water mixed with sugar, spitting (吐出) it out like mouthwash. Others rinsed with the artificial sweetened water that was similar to a sugary drink but provided no energy. Later, all volunteers participated in a second task requiring self-control.
The results disagreed with the energy model once again. Those who rinsed with the artificial sweetened water showed lower willpower. However, rinsing with the sugary water seemed to bring back volunteers’ lost willpower, more than the artificially sweetened water. This study showed that only the sugary rinse could bring back self-control.
Scientists believe that inspiration is the reason why self-control is back. They believe the mouth “senses” the carbohydrates in the mouthwash, which may tell that a reward (奖励) is coming. Sensing that an energy increase is coming, the brain is active to put in extra effort. In short, the sugar inspires—rather than offers energy for—willpower.
If inspiration can be refilled with something as simple as a mouthwash, this opens different possibilities for new researches in the future.
1. What does the word “disciplined” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Relaxed. | B．Surprised. | C．Self-controlled. | D．Self-satisfied. |
| A．carbohydrates inspire willpower | B．challenging tasks increase willpower |
| C．mouthwash gives inspiration to brain | D．self-control lowers blood sugar levels |
| A．The ways to test the role of sugar. | B．The influences of the sugary drink. |
| C．The introduction of the energy model. | D．The role of carbohydrate metabolism. |
| A．complete challenging tasks | B．have some sweetened food |
| C．reward others with gifts | D．keep balanced blood sugar level |
【推荐3】The biggest secret about inventing is that anybody can do it! Perhaps this sounds crazy, but it’s true. Maybe you have the wrong idea about inventing, so read on to discover the truth.
Wrong idea NO. 1: An invention has to be something new.
Inventing means creating something new, but the idea could come from something that already exists（存在）. The Wright brothers, for example, got the idea for building a “flying machine” from watching birds.
Wrong idea NO. 2: Inventors are born, not made.
There are a lot of factors（因素）that make inventions possible. Take Mozart for example. He was born with an endowment for musical composition. But other factors were also important for his creativity. His father was a music teacher, and Mozart practiced for hours every day, from the time he was four years old. Einstein said that “being a genius was 1% talent and 99% hard work”!
Very successful creators don’t give up when they get something wrong. As one inventor said, “A failure is the right answer to the wrong question.”
Wrong idea NO. 3: Inventors are always old people.
Don’t believe that you can’t invent something when you are young. Here are two examples of young inventors: Louis Braille went blind when he was a child. When he was fifteen, he invented a system of reading and writing for blind people that is still used in most countries today.
As a young man, George Nissen was watching some artists performing in a show. He watched how they fell into the safety net and then jumped back up again. This gave him an idea and he invented the trampoline（蹦床）.
1. ________ got the idea for building a “flying machine” from watching birds.| A．Mozart | B．George Nissen | C．Louis Braille | D．The Wright brothers |
| A．态度 | B．品质 | C．天赋 | D．能量 |
| A．Anybody can do inventing. |
| B．Inventors are born, not made. |
| C．Inventors are always old people. |
| D．An invention has to be something completely new. |
| A．How to Perform in a Show | B．Be a Composer |
| C．How to Help Blind People | D．Be an Inventor |
