What time is it? There are many ways you can find out the time. You may have a watch on your wrist (手腕). You can look at a clock on the wall. You can listen to the radio, watch TV or ring a number on the telephone to get the time. But do you know the history of how people tell the time?
It has not always been easy to know the time. A long time ago people looked at the sun to tell the time. They could tell the time of the day by looking at the sun in the sky: morning, afternoon or evening.
Around the year 1400, people began to use the hourglass(沙漏). It’s made of glass with some sand in it. It’s wide at both ends, but narrow in the middle. The sand ran from one end to the other in one hour. At the end of every hour, people turned the glass over and began again.
Hundreds of years later a machine called clock was invented. After that people made small clocks, so that they could carry them in their pockets. Then, during World War Ⅰ men started wearing their watches on their wrists. It was more easily to tell the time. Now almost everyone wears a wrist watch.
The history of telling the time | |
| People could tell the time by | |
| Around the year 1400 | People used the hourglass which was made of glass with some sand in it. The sand took an |
| After 1400 | People |
| During World War Ⅰ | People wore watches on their wrists. It was |
相似题推荐
Have you ever counted the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number? Your number has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. That’s because China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world. Why is that?
The 11 digits can be divided into three parts. Each part has a different meaning. The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service provider you are using. For example, 135 is for China Mobile Communications Corporation (中国移动) and 188 is for China Unicom (中国联通). The fourth to the seventh digits tell you where the number is registered (注册). And the last four digits are random (随机的).
The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the largest population in the world. We once had 10 numbers. But as our population grew, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we have used 11 digits since 1999. Eleven digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers. That’s enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China.
And mobile phone numbers can be recycled. Usually, the service provider will reuse a canceled number after three to six months. If you call a number that you haven’t contacted for a long time, you may find that its owner has changed.
Besides China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they cannot create as many numbers as we can. Countries like the United States, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada’s mobile phone numbers are perhaps the shortest in the world: they use seven digits.
1题完成句子；2、3题简略回答问题；4题找出并写下第四段的主题句；5题将文中画线句子译成汉语。
1. The first three mobile phone numbers tell us
2. How long have we used 11 digits in our mobile phone number?
3. What countries use 11-digit mobile phone numbers now?
4.
5.
Do you play with your phone before bedtime? You may want to read a book instead. According to a US study, looking at screens at night can cause us to sleep badly.
In the evening, our bodies make melatonin (褪黑素). Melatonin helps us feel sleepy and relaxed. It’s an important part of our sleep cycle (周期). Our electronic screens stop that cycle from working normally (正常地).
Why? Phones, computers and TVs make blue light. Blue light stops our bodies from making melatonin. Even just a little bit of blue light can have an effect (影响). Eight minutes of blue light can keep your brain “awake” for an hour, according to the study. Even if you fall asleep, you may have lots of dreams. Your brain won’t have a good rest.
It’s even worse if you play an exciting game before bed. Games make our hearts beat faster, so we have a harder time falling asleep. Then, when we fall asleep, we don’t get enough “deep sleep”.
1. Does melatonin help us feel sleepy and relaxed?
2. What do phones, computers and TVs make to stop our bodies from making melatonin?
3. How long can eight minutes of blue light keep our brain “awake”?
4. Do you think you have enough sleep? Why or why not?
【推荐3】When Dr Karen McComb came to Amboseli Park, her first task was to learn the names of the one hundred or so elephants most often seen.
Scientists working in the park have learned to study elephants by watching them up close. They have a list of almost one thousand elephants. There are records for all of the elephants born since 1972.Amboseli was a good place for Dr McComb to study animal communications. Elephants were a great subject because their lifestyle depends on communication.
Dr McComb and her team had learned a lot about elephant communication, but they kept on thinking about one puzzling (困惑的) watch. Some families were better at distinguishing (区别) calls of friends from those of strangers.
What made some families smarter than others? The scientists searched their records for an explanation. To their surprise, there was only one factor (因素) of importance: The “smartest” families always had the oldest grandmothers. A family, as it did in all other activities, waited for some signal (信号) from the grandmother when they heard a strange contact call. And older, more experienced grandmothers were better at telling whether other elephants were strangers or friends just by their calls.
That was an important discovery. It showed how an elephant family depends on the experience of the grandmother.
1. How do scientists working in the park study elephants? (no more than 5 words)2. What did Dr McComb study? (no more than 3 words)
3. What did Dr McComb and her team do for an explanation? (no more than 4 words)
4. Who does everyone in elephant families listen to? (no more than 3 words)
5. What does an elephant family depend on in all the activities? (no more than 5 words)
【推荐1】Young Inventor Creates Plastic from Fish Scales
Lucy Hughes, a 24-year-old English inventor, has used fish skin and scales(鳞）to create a new kind of plastic that will break down in about six weeks. Her invention won 2019 James Dyson Award, which was created by the famous English inventor James Dyson to encourage students to try to use their creativity to solve problems in the real world.
Lucy Hughes studied how to design products at the University of Sussex in England. As a designer, she knew a lot about how wasteful many products are. Plastic bags, for example, are often used once for a short time and then thrown away. She decided to challenge herself to make something out of waste instead
The University of Sussex isn't far from the coast. Ms. Hughes spent some time studying the fishing business and the waste from fish that were thrown away. After some tests, she decided that the fish skin and scales seemed like the most likely parts for her product. She tried more than 100 different experiments before getting things just right. Ms. Hughes called her finished product "MarinaTex". It solves two problems: the single-use plastic and fish waste.
MarinaTex is clear and feels like plastic, but it's stronger than normal plastic that is of the same thickness. It is also cheap to make since it's made from fish waste. The process of making MarinaTex also doesn't use much energy. Most importantly, MarinaTex doesn't take hundreds of years to break down. On its own, it breaks down in four to six weeks.
For winning the contest, Ms. Hughes will earn f,30, 000. Her school will get f,5, 000. She is looking forward to moving ahead with her idea. She hopes the award money will help her with the process of getting MarinaTex into use as quickly as possible. She thinks that one of the best uses for MarinaTex will be in some kinds of food packaging.
1. What did Lucy Hughes create?____________________________________________________________________
2. How many experiments did Lucy Hughes try?
____________________________________________________________________
3. What problems does MarinaTex solve?
____________________________________________________________________
4. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?
____________________________________________________________________
5. How will Lucy Hughes possibly spend the award money?
____________________________________________________________________
【推荐2】请阅读下面短文，根据短文内容，在方框内的缩写文章中，填入与短文意思最符合的单词，并将答案写在答题卡相应的位置上。每空一词。
If wearing Google Glass—a pair of smart glasses—on your face isn’t cool enough, you might want to take a look at Nokia’s new skirt. It’s made of 80 mobile phones! It’s believed to be the world’s first smart skirt and has been shown at London Fashion Week. The smart skirt was created by the mobile phone company, Nokia. It’s not easy to make a smart skirt. It took three months to complete it. The biggest challenge in making the skirt was getting all of the mobile phones on the skirt, and allowing all the mobile phones to work together.
The screens are all connected to a computer. As the skirt moves, the screens change color and the skirt looks like silk. That’s not the only trick. The mobile phones are also connected to a hidden camera in the wearer’s hat. The screens can show what the wearer is seeing.
Unsurprisingly, the skirt won’t be making its way to shops. Instead, it’s more of an art piece. Nokia said they wanted to find a way to connect the smart technology and fashion together. “We used drawings, 3D printing, and programming languages to ‘build’ the skirt,” explained Nokia.
Nokia created a smart skirt which is made of 80 mobile phones. It was shown at London Fashion Week as the world’s first The skirt looks like Nokia doesn’t want to sell the smart skirt. |
【推荐3】Technology and Books
What did people read before books and e-books? People started writing thousands of years ago. They cut pictures in stones. They wrote marks on wet clay (泥土). In Egypt, people wrote on papyrus (草纸) for other people to read. Papyrus was made from reeds (芦苇) that grew along the river. Papyrus was rolled up into a scroll (卷轴).
Hundreds of years ago, people started using parchment (羊皮纸). It was made from sheepskin. Pages of parchment were made into a book. Much later, books were made of paper. Every book had to be written out by hand. Then, in about the year 1455, Johannes Gutenberg made a printing press. It printed copies of a book more quickly.
E-books appeared around 1998. The letter “e” stands for electronic (电子的). You store and read e-books on an electronic device (设备). E-books use computer technology.
1. In Egypt, people wrote on papyrus2. Hundreds of years ago, people started to
3. Much later, every book had to be written out
4. The letter “e” in E-books stands for
5. You can
Some people like hiking in the forest. But what to do if you get lost in the forest? Here are some things you can do. If you go into the forest with your friends, stay with them. If you don’t, you may get lost. What should you do if you really get lost? You should sit down and stay where you are. You mustn’t try to find your friends. Let them find you. If you want your friends to find you, you need to stay in one place. You can also shout three times. Then stop. Then shout three times again. Keep up shouting. Always three times together. When people hear you, they will know that you need help and where you are.
If you don’t think that you can get help before night comes, you should make a little house with some small trees and branches (树枝) or something else. And make yourself a bed with leaves and grass. When you need some water and you have to leave your little house to look for it, don’t just walk away. Leave small branches or something else on the way and then you can find your way back easily.
1. If you get lost in the forest, what should you do? (no more than 10 words)2. How many times should you shout each time to let people know you need help? (no more than two words)
3. What can you use to make a bed in the forest? (no more than 3 words)
4. 请把划线句子翻译成汉语。
5. 请给短文拟一个恰当的标题。(no more than 10 words)
What will our future be like? No one knows, but most people think that robots will be part of our lives. Will they be friendly or unfriendly? So far, robots haven’t caused us any problems. They work for us like servants all the time. They help us do dangerous and difficult work.
People are surprised at the rapid development of robots. In a few years, perhaps robots will think on their own, just as people use their brains and act for themselves. However, once robots can think for themselves, problems may appear. One scientist warns that if robots start to think for themselves, they will no longer want to be our servants, but our masters. The scientist also warns that if we are lucky, they might treat us as we now treat our pets; if we are not lucky, who knows what will happen? Perhaps there will be a war between human beings and robots.
1. Who knows what our future will be like?2. What kind of work do robot help us do now?
3. What will possibly happen with the rapid development of robots in a few years?
4. If you had a robot, what would you like it to do for you? Why? (at least 20—30 words)
Are you looking for something fun and would you like to help other people in your spare time? Then join us to be a volunteer. We are a non-profit organization (非营利性机构). We have volunteer jobs for people of all ages. Anyone from 12-year-old children to people in their seventies can become a volunteer of us.
You can help people in many ways. Schools need help with taking care of children while their parents are working. Hospitals need volunteers to look after children while their parents are seeing a doctor. Animal lovers can help take care of those dogs and cats without houses. There is something for everyone.
“As a volunteer, I don’t want to get anything. Seeing the children’s happy faces, I’m happy, too! It really makes me satisfied,” said Carlos, an old woman of 66 who comes from London. “I often help older people learn how to use computers.” Said another volunteer at the age of 18.
If everyone helps out a bit, we’ll have a better world to live in. Is it interesting? Call us at 181-0858-6789, or you can visit our website: www.163.volunteer.
1. The purpose of the organization is to2. A boy who is 11 years old
3. If you like to work in hospitals, you can help
4. Carlos said it made her satisfied
5. The writer tells
