Scientists have created an underwater robot that can tell different kinds of pollution at the bottom of the sea. The robot will help clean-up teams find the rubbish and give them a chance to remove the things that can cause the most harm to the environment.

The robot, which weighs nearly 100 pounds and uses special cameras to take 3D pictures, was created by a team at Skarv Technologies.

The researchers put their work to the test at a lake. First, the robot swam up and down in rows at about six feet above the lake bed, collecting information with the special cameras. Then a computer turned the information into a map, which showed different kinds of rubbish in different colors.

A total of 3, 894 objects were found in the lake and divided into different kinds. “There’s too much rubbish,” a member of the Skarv Technologies team, Fossum, told New Scientist. “There’s somewhere around 165 to 300 tons of rubbish in the lake.”

It is not always possible for clean-up teams to remove all the rubbish they find underwater, because there is something more important to clean. The robot will be used to help the teams find the most harmful things. And the teams spend their time, efforts and money in removing them first. “Glass isn’t really polluting,” said Fossum. “So if you know there’s an area with a lot of glass, you probably can ignore (忽视) that. Instead, you should pay more attention to the things that are putting heavy metals (金属) into the environment.”

Besides helping to check the pollution, the robot can also tell the positions of animals in the sea. It can avoid hurting the animals while the clean-up teams remove the rubbish.

【推荐2】阅读下面短文，并按要求完成问题。

Paper, as one of the four great inventions in China, is used everywhere in our daily life. It is very common, but it plays an important when we need it.        

People developed writing in ancient times, they mainly made ropes to record things. At first, ancient people wrote something on oracle bones (甲骨), wood and silk were also discovered and used during the Spring and Autumn Period. Paper was made because it was cheaper and lighter.

Nowadays, paper is quite helpful and necessary in our life. A large amount (数量) of ancient information was kept because of this invention. It is the carrier of writing and painting. Painters use it to describe the beauty of the world, printing paper, toilet paper and so on.

阅读短文，根据其内容完成以下任务：

任务一：根据短文补全下面句子。

任务二：回答问题。

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任务三：阅读第三段，再列举一条paper的用途。

【推荐3】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.

English homework may be boring for many students. But last Friday, students in our class had interesting and special homework. Our English teacher, Mrs. Lin, asked us to write an English letter to ourselves in the future. Mrs. Lin said she got the idea from Steve Jobs’ time capsule (时光胶囊) . In 1983, Jobs buried his time capsule, and the capsule was opened in September, 2013. That was 30 years ① l________.

So what will you write about to your future self? Everyone was surprised and whispered (窃窃私语) about it.

“You can set a standard (标准) of life you are willing to live by. And write about ② h________ you will make your dream come true. Then you can bury the letter and wait for 20 years to open it again,” Mrs. Lin told us.

It was really interesting! Some students wanted to be a policeman. Some would like to sing songs and become stars. In my letter, I wrote “I hope to be a doctor”. I want to cure (治愈) people and I won’t ask for much money, just like my dad. Of course, ③I wrote about some things I would do in the coming years. For example, I would read more books and learn two foreign languages in my 20s.

Can we realize our dream? ④让我们等着瞧吧！

【推荐2】Close your eyes and imagine you are living in the next two centuries or more. You’ll be living in a world filled with smart robots, which will help you to take care of your children, or your elderly parents in your home. You’ll live much longer thanks to the medicine made by genetic (基因的) science. And mankind may be going farther in space than ever before—you will be living on the Moon or Mars.

How should we view the changes that wait for us in the future? Should we be optimistic (乐观的) about the years ahead, or worried about what the future holds? Some scientists and experts are having a discussion about how technology, science and society will develop in the future.

“I’m looking forward to the day when more technology will come to my life,” says John Searle, a professor at the University of California Berkeley Philosophy, “because I think further research in such areas as genetics, physics, chemistry and medicine will help us to live longer and happier.”

Hugh Herr, at MIT’s Biomechatronics Group, says, “The growing role of technology in our lives is a big problem. Machines taking over what humans do is not a good thing. The long-term future we are building will have no space left for human beings because computers are much better than humans.”

Sandstorms have been a major disaster for many Asian countries for centuries. Scientists have tried many ways to solve this problem and in China, a mass campaign has been started to help solve it.

Sandstorms are strong, dry winds that carry sand. They are often so thick that you cannot see the sun, and the wind is sometimes strong enough to move sand dunes. The four main places in the world where there are sandstorms are Central Asia, North America, Central Africa and Australia. Ren Jianbo from Inner Mongolia described a terrible sandstorm he experienced as a child in the desert. “To have been caught in a sandstorm was a terrible experience,” he said. “There was nothing to be done. It was the most frightening and the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in. You just had to hope you’d survive. I thought I was going to disappear under the sand.”

Northwest China is part of the sandstorm centre in Central Asia. Sandstorms begin in desert areas. Sandstorms in China appear to have increased in recent years as a result of “desertification” (沙漠化). This is a process (过程) that happens when land becomes desert because of climate changes and because people cut down trees and dig up grass.

Sandstorms sometimes affect Beijing. Citizens wake up to an orange sky and strong winds that cover the city in a thick, brown-yellow dust. The storms sometimes continue all day and traffic moves very slowly because the thick dust makes it difficult to see. So when it comes, people are advised by experts not to go out. If they have to, they’d better wear masks.

The desert is only 250 kilometers away from the west of Beijing. To prevent it coming nearer, the government is planting trees. Already the government has planted more than 30 billion trees and plans to continue planting for the next five years.

【推荐3】    1     We go to school every day and enjoy our school life. School life is usually full of fun, and the school seems to be the safest place in the world.

    2     But do you know that our school life could be dangerous if we are not careful enough? How do we make the school safer and keep us away from danger? Here are some tips for us to be safe in an easy way.

    3     For example, we must remember some important rules on the playground. Before we do sports, we need to do some warm-up activities. And after that we should drink some water.

    4     In the classroom, we need to learn how to behave well. Don’t run in the hallways. We mustn’t fight with or run after each other. And teachers need to keep an eye on the students after class and stop them from running. We students should remember not to be naughty (淘气的) and get ourselves into trouble.

    5     What’s more, we can have some practice to learn to protect ourselves from a fire. In this way, we can know where to go if there is a fire in our school. We should learn to use the fire extinguisher (灭火器) too. I don’t think we should put out a fire on our own, because it is too dangerous for young students. Well, I think all of us should think more of our safety in school and be careful.

School life is usually full of fun, and it     6     that the school is the safest place in the world. But sometimes our school life could be dangerous. There are ways that can help us be safe and keep away from danger     7    . We should remember to do some warm-up activities     8     we do sports on the playground. We need to learn how to behave well. For example, don’t run in the     9    . We mustn’t fight with or run after each other. It can be dangerous. What’s more, we can have some practice to learn to protect     10     from a fire. I think we should think more of our safety in school and be careful.