【推荐1】Imagine 50 years from now. Imagine the perfect school.
Getting to school is already difficult because of traffic. In 50 years' time, it will be even more difficult. A solution is needed. Imagine there is a big cyber-school, but the classes are in many different places, both in the suburbs and the city. You would never need to walk more than 10 minutes to get to school.
Once you get there, there is no teacher speaking at the front of the class. Instead there is a large screen playing a video of the teacher. There is a classroom helper who walks around helping you with your problems. You can get the best teaching there, and you have a helper who can help you understand your work. You listen to the teacher for only 15 minutes. Then you work in teams to do group projects and solve problems together.
The days of pen and paper are gone. You each have your own computer and you do all your work and tasks on it. After classes finish, you can stay there and talk with your school friends.
You each have a locker to keep your personal things. There is a fridge to keep your lunch and a microwave to warm it. There are sofas to sit on when it's time to read a book.
Your class would always be cool in summer and warm in winter. There is solar and wind power on the roof of the building. Each room is kept at a comfortable temperature automatically.
The school of the future is high-tech, but it is a friendly place to be!
1. Nowadays it is difficult to get to school because of      .

A．the terrible traffic

B．the bad weather

C．the long distance

2.       walks around to help you with your problems in class.

A．A school friend

B．A computer teacher

C．A classroom helper

3. You can      after listening to the teacher for 15 minutes in class.

A．watch a fun video

B．begin the group projects

C．talk with your friends

4. From the passage, we know the FALSE statement is      .

A．each student has their own computer at school

B．it's neither too hot nor too cold in each classroom

C．you can use a fridge to keep and warm your food

5. What's the best title for this passage?

A．The school of the future

B．The teacher in the future

C．The traffic in the future

【推荐3】

When the traffic lights turn red, we will stop driving a car or crossing a street. Why is red used for traffic lights instead of other colors?

As we know, scattering(散射)happens when light goes through the air. For the same media(媒介), if the wavelength is long, the scattering will be short. If the wavelength is short, the scattering will be long.

Of all lights we can see red has the longest wavelength, so the scattering is the weakest. That means the red travels far. In fact, it travels faster on rainy days.

Using the red light can help drivers in farther areas see the lights. It helps drivers slow down or stop in time. If drivers don’t see the red light until they are close, they may not be able to stop the car in time. An accident may happen. Red can also excite people. We can act more quickly when we see the color red. In a word, red lights help drivers stop in time and help prevent accidents.

1. When the traffic lights turn _______, we will stop driving a car.

A．red

B．green

C．yellow

D．dark

2. According to the passage, the scattering of the red light is the _______.

A．longest

B．weakest

C．farthest

D．strongest

3. The underlined word “wavelength” in Paragraph 2 means _______ in Chinese.

A．波浪

B．光波

C．波长

D．波幅

4. What can the red light help drivers do?

A．It can help drivers in farther areas see the lights.

B．It helps drivers slow down or stop in time.

C．It can make the drivers act more quickly.

D．All the above.

5. Which of the following is the best title?

A．Why do accidents happen?	B．How does the red light travel?
C．Why do we use red traffic lights?	D．What is scattering?

【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。

If you visit London, you’ll see not only buses and cars, but also many bikes on the road.     1     First, it’s very cheap to buy a bike. Second, riding a bike can save time. You often have to wait（等待）30 minutes for a bus. What’s more, there are many other people waiting for the bus.     2    

I went to work by bus for about four years.     3     Then one day, about two years ago, a friend of mine said, “I go to work by bike. Why don’t we go together（一起）?”

“My bike is old,” I answered, “and there are so many cars on the roads.     4    ” Don’t be afraid,” said my friend. “If you follow me, you’ll be fine.”

    5     Although（尽管）we went slowly, we arrived early. Now I don’t feel scared. I love going to work by bike.

A．I’ll feel scared.

B．I often arrived at my office late.

C．I don’t like to get up early.

D．It’s not easy to find a seat（座位）.

E．Do you go by bus or by train?

F．Why are there so many bikes?

G．The next day I bought myself a new bike.

【推荐3】A: Hi, Sally. You look unhappy. What’s wrong?
B: Hi, Bob.     1    
A: What happened?
B: This morning I got up late. When I got to the bus stop, the bus had left     2    
A: Oh, you had to wait for about 20 minutes.
B: Yes, and on the way I found that I had left my keys at home.
A:     3    
B: Right. And when I got to school, I found my classmates weren’t at school. They had gone to help clean up the City Park. But I forgot we were going to do that.
A:     4    
B: Yes, and I had to stay at school the whole morning. When I had a physics class in the afternoon, I found that I had forgotten to bring my physics homework.
A: That’s too bad.     5    
B: OK, I will.

A．But you couldn’t go back home again.

B．So you returned home to get your keys?

C．So you missed a chance to be a volunteer.

D．But I like to be a volunteer.

E．You should be more careful next time.

F．I’ve had a really bad day.

G．So I had to wait for another bus.

【推荐1】Getting started

How many machines does your family own? What machines do you use every day? Can yow live a life without machines?

Let’s read

When I was a boy, we had a tiny television set. It only had one channel. Still, I would always be in my chair when cartoons came on.

The one I liked best was The Jetsons (《杰森一家》), a cartoon full of fantastic machines that could do anything. I always smiled or even laughed when I watched it and dreamed that one day I would have machines like this to do all my work, so I could just sit back and relax.

Now my life is full of machines like these, but I seem to have more to do than ever. Just today I had to spend most of the morning downloading a new copy of my word list so I could write better. When I first started out, I wrote my stories online. Last week, I spent most of another morning trying to get my new coffee maker to work right. I seem to be swimming in a sea of new rules and problems that come with “new technology”.

Now don’t get me wrong. Computers and machines have done a lot to help all of us. I just want us to be able to use them without them using us. We always seem to be busy because we’re spending most of our time using these machines.

I hope that in the future, machines can be more user-friendly so we needn’t spend all our time on them. With machines we can live an easier life, but they can never take place of the time to spend with family and friends.

1. Why did the writer talk about his childhood cartoon at first?

A．Because he thought of the happiest time he ever had.

B．Because he introduced the best cartoon, the Jetsons.

C．Because he gave readers a dream for their future lives.

D．Because he would tell us something about machines.

2. According to the passage, which is “new technology”?

A．New coffee makers.	B．Word list.
C．Old TV sets.	D．Online stories.

3. What is the writer’s opinion on machines?

A．It’s quite easy to learn the new rules of machines.

B．People cannot use machines as well as they hope.

C．Machines are useless and helpless in the future.

D．We’ll have no time with friends because of machines.

4. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．More than machines	B．Machines online
C．Machines and humans	D．Future machines

【推荐2】The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics were more than a sporting event. They were also a showcase (展示) for science and technology. High-tech gear (设备) is helping athletes become “faster, higher, stronger”. Let’s look at some.

The fastest ice	The National Speed Skating Oval (跑道) is said to have “the fastest ice”, because 12 new Olympic records and one world record were set there. The secret is a new ice-making technology. Liquid carbon dioxide (液态二氧化碳) is put under the ice. It can keep temperature changes on the ice surface within half a degree. That keeps the ice flat. Flat ice is easier to skate on.
“Seeing” the wind	In events like freestyle skiing and ski jumping, the direction and speed of the wind can have a big effect (影响) on an athlete’s performance. A Chinese research team developed a system to measure (测量) wind. The system uses AI technology. It allows athletes and coaches to “see” the wind with real-time data (数据) on their pads, and decide when and where to jump.

1. How many world records were set on the National Speed Skating Oval?

A．Thirteen.

B．Twelve.

C．Eleven.

D．One.

2. What’s the function (功能) of the new ice-making technology?

A．To keep the ice cool.	B．To keep the ice flat.
C．To keep the ice clean.	D．To keep the ice hard.

3. What has a big effect on the athlete’s performance according to the passage ?

A．The speed of the athlete.	B．The style of the athlete.
C．The direction of the road.	D．The direction and speed of the wind.

4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Freestyle skiing can’t be influenced (影响) by wind.

B．AI technology is used to measure the speed of athletes.

C．Athletes and coaches can’t see the real-time data on their pads.

D．High-tech gear is helpful in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

5. In which section (部分) of a newspaper can we find the passage?

A．Science

B．Culture

C．Travel

D．News

【推荐3】

Can you imagine building a house with your own sweat（汗）, tears and even blood? This is what astronauts might do on Mars in the future.

Scientists at the University of Manchester, UK, have made a new type of brick. It is made from human blood, urine（尿液）, sweat, tears and simulated Mars soil（模拟火星土）. The protein（蛋白质）from human bodies is like the “glue”. It holds the soil together. Scientists say it’s 300 percent stronger than bricks we use today.

Why do we need to do this? Well, if we want to build houses on Mars, we need lots of bricks. But it costs 13 million yuan to send just one brick to Mars. So scientists are thinking: maybe we could use something in our bodies!

Scientists say that six astronauts could make 500 kilograms of such bricks in just two years. Later they can build bigger houses for more astronauts to go there and live. Together, they can build even more houses!

1. What did scientists at the University of Manchester do?

A．They built a house to keep astronauts’ sweat and tears.

B．They used human sweat and tears to make a new type of brick.

C．They found a new type of brick on Mars.

D．They made a smart house.

2. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?

A．How strong the bricks usually are.

B．What the new brick is made from.

C．How much it costs to make a brick.

D．What kind of bricks are good for building houses.

3. What does the word “glue” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．细菌

B．积木

C．胶水

D．支架

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Some astronauts began to make the new bricks.

B．Scientists are planning to live on Mars.

C．It might take years to build a house on Mars.

D．Astronauts need 500 kg of bricks to build a house.

5. Why did scientists make this new kind of brick?

A．Because it saved some space on Earth.

B．Because it cost less money than sending bricks to Mars.

C．Because it was the astronauts’ experiments in space.

D．Because it was from the astronauts’ bodies.

6. What can be a title for the article?

A．Body-building tech.	B．Travelling in space.
C．Ways of building a new house.	D．Adventures on Mars.

【推荐2】Since 2005, office workers in Japan have been allowed to wear T-shirts and shorts to work, instead of business suits and ties. Why? The answer is simple. The government is trying to reduce the use of air conditioners.

Although air conditioners make our lives easier in hot weather, they can be bad for the environment. The coolers use a great deal of electricity to function and add to the effects of global warming.

But it is a vicious (恶性的) cycle. As temperatures rise, there will be more need for air conditioning.

Pawel Wargocki, an expert at the Technical University of Denmark, told The New York Times: “The air conditioning causes a huge problem to global climate and energy use.” He added, “More and more air conditioners are used. It’s very dangerous.”

We can’t live with air conditioning. But the thing is, we can’t live without it either. Scientific studies have shown that if indoor temperatures are high in hot weather, people will suffer from certain health problems and have a lower productivity.

For example, when air conditioners were turned down in Japanese offices, the room temperature rose to 28 or higher. As a result, workers started getting headaches, and feeling sleepy.

They couldn’t give all their attention to work and their productivity dropped by 2 percent, which means they did 30 minutes less work each day, according to Shinichi Tanabe, a professor of architecture at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan.

So the best way to balance our comfort with environmental awareness is to change our expectations. Most of the time, it’s not that the room is too hot, but that we are used to it being cooler.

“The temperature many Americans find most comfortable indoors in summer —21C— feels uncomfortable to most Europeans, who find it too cold.” said Michael Sivak, professor at a University of Michigan, US. He said it is because Europeans care more about the environment and are willing to accept a bit more heat in summer.

Also, we can try to change our daily behavior. Open the windows to let air in, for example. Turning on the air conditioner is not the only way to make us feel comfortable.

1. What did the Japanese government do to reduce the use of air conditioners?

A．To allow the workers to wear T-shirts to work.

B．To stop the workers from using air conditioners.

C．To let people accept a bit more heat in summer.

D．To ask people to open windows to let air in.

2. The writer probably agrees that ______.

A．most people will be sick without air conditioners

B．global warming is mainly caused by air conditioners

C．people have to be used to living without air conditioners

D．we should change our expectations to protect environment

3. We can learn from the passage that ______.

A．Japanese office workers are less productive in summer

B．Americans care less about environment than Europeans

C．People in Denmark believe air conditioners are dangerous

D．Europeans accept a bit cooler than Americans in summer

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Protect Environment: Is it time to change business suits?

B．Protect Environment: Is it time to focus on temperature?

C．Protect Environment: Shall we change our expectations?

D．Protect Environment: Shall we stop using air conditioners?