【推荐1】When she was 14 years old, Remya Jose’s life was turned upside down by a family crisis (危机). Remya’s mother was ill and her father had to care for her. As a result, she and her twin sister had to do the housework including washing clothes. What’s worse, the Jose family couldn’t afford an electric washing machine. Instead, the two girls had to do the washing all by hand in the local river, and then carried everything back to their home—a task that took several hours.

Being a student interested in engineering, Remya wanted to make a washing machine which could be used without electricity. She started studying electric washers to learn how they worked. Remya then designed (设计) a machine that used bicycle pedals (踏板) and chains (链条).

Through various difficulties, Remya’s invention worked! She had created her own human-powered washing machine, and now the task that used to take several hours took only 30 minutes. Remya’s washing machine was chosen from among 25,000 products as India’s best invention! She was given India’s National Award.

The story of the young woman’s creative invention has spread around the world. “Remya Jose made a difference,” said Jeanine Thomas of The Borden Project, “Her invention saves time and money for the world’s poor. Her story shows that with creativity, one person can improve the lives of many.”

1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?

A．Remya’s washing machine.

B．Remya’s family background.

C．Remya’s school and homework.

D．Remya’s interests and hobbies.

2. Remya and her sister’s main problem was ________.

A．their parents were too busy

B．they couldn’t get good education

C．their home was far from the river

D．they spent much time washing clothes

3. What did Remya use to make a washing machine?

A．Bicycle pedals and chains.	B．Electronic technology.
C．Much money and time.	D．Information technology.

4. With ________, one can improve the lives of many people according to Jeanine Thomas’ words.

A．energy

B．teamwork

C．creativity

D．hard work

5. Where is the passage most probably taken from?

A．A magazine.	B．A sports newspaper.
C．An English dictionary.	D．A medical report.

【推荐2】The International Space Station(ISS) is a science lab in space, where there are six people now. Usually astronauts stay in the ISS for five or six months. Can you imagine how boring it is to live in a tight(紧凑的) space with just five other people for six months? CIMON 2, a floating(浮动的) computer, was created to work there for three years to help astronauts. It was sent to the ISS on December 5th, 2019.

CIMON was created with two jobs in mind. One is helping astronauts with tasks. The other is trying to be “someone” astronauts can talk to. It is a robot with a face which was created by the European airplane company, Airbus. It has no arms or legs, but it can move where it needs to go.

Helping astronauts is easy for CIMON—it can see, hear, understand, and speak. Its “mouth” is a loudspeaker that can be used to talk or play music. The brains behind CIMON were provided by IBM, a computer company famous for training computers to understand human speech. CIMON can understand not just what people say, but what they mean. If astronauts ask it for instructions or information, CIMON can answer the astronauts, or use its screen to display pictures or documents(文件), if needed. CIMON also has several cameras, which can take pictures and videos to help astronauts keep records of experiments or other important actions.

The more difficult part of CIMON’s job is being a companion for the astronauts. The first CIMON could understand what people were saying and mastered more than 1,000 sentences, but it was not enough. CIMON 2 has been improved so that it can find out how people are feeling. The creator hopes CIMON will be a calm, trusted friend that astronauts can talk to when they don’t want to talk with others. This could be especially important if tension(紧张气氛) in a group of astronauts causes them to stop thinking clearly.

1. The underlined “it” in Paragraph 1 refers to ________.

A．a science lab

B．ISS

C．an astronaut

D．CIMON 2

2. According to the passage, CIMON 2 probably looks like ________.

A．

B．

C．

D．

3. The advantage of CIMON 2 is that it can ________, compared with the first one.

A．take pictures and videos	B．understand people’s feelings
C．show its feelings freely and clearly	D．say and play music

4. From the passage, we can learn that ________.

A．it is boring for astronauts to stay with a robot

B．more CIMONs will be sent to the ISS to help astronauts

C．CIMON is expected to help astronauts make good decisions

D．CIMON need to help astronauts sweep the floor

5. The best title for the passage is ________.

A．CIMON 2 Reached the ISS Successfully

B．Meet CIMON 2, a “Floating” Space Robot

C．CIMON 2 Makes Space Travels More Interesting

D．CIMON 2 Understands People’s Feelings

【推荐3】Every school day, we use schoolbags to carry all of our things to school. They are a big part of our lives. But have you ever thought about the history of the schoolbag?

In the Han Dynasty, students in old-style private schools used bamboo boxes to carry books to school. People consider the bamboo boxes to be the earliest schoolbags. There were usually two or three layers（层）in the box. Kids put different things like books, brushes, ink stones and paper in the boxes.

Hundreds of years later, people developed a new kind of schoolbag called the “budai”, or the “hip-pocket”. The budai was lighter than the bamboo box. With the founding of China, military rucksacks（军用帆布包）became popular. Many people carried them when they were in school. Ask your grandparents or parents about these bags. Maybe they can tell you about their experiences of carrying them when they were in school.

A new style of schoolbags has appeared in recent years. Many of them have colorful and fashionable designs on them, such as pictures of cartoons or pop stars. Some students pull wheeled bags filled with heavy textbooks and others carry backpacks because they are more comfortable to use.

Schoolbags are still changing. Can you imagine what future schoolbags will be like?

根据短文内容选择最佳答案。
1. The underlined words “ink stones” in the passage mean “________” in Chinese.

A．绿矾

B．砚台

C．石头

2. Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A．Schoolbags have changed a lot.

B．The budai was heavier than the bamboo box.

C．Military rucksacks were popular in the 1950s.

3. To carry heavy textbooks, students would like to use ________.

A．wheeled bags

B．military rucksacks

C．the “budai”

4. Some students pull wheeled bags and others carry backpacks according to the passage because ________.

A．many of them have colorful and fashionable designs on them

B．they are lighter

C．they are more comfortable to use

5. What is the passage mainly about?

A．To introduce the importance of schoolbags.

B．To explain why we use schoolbags.

C．To introduce the development of schoolbags.

【推荐1】What do you usually do in your free time? Do you watch short videos on some apps? According to the China Internet Network Information Center, the number of short video users reached 773 million (百万) in March, 2020. That is, about 86% of all Chinese Internet users are watching or making short videos, or both! If you say short videos are only popular in China, you are wrong. TikTok has more than 800 million users around the world.

Many users like short videos. They say the videos not only make them relax, but also teach them useful skills (技能). “I love watching Lao Qiao’s short videos on my phone,” Francis, one of the short   video users, says. “Lao Qiao is a famous cook and his videos are my favorite ones. From his videos, people can learn how to make Shanxi noodles in no time at all.”However, quite a few people think short videos are not that good. “There are many other ways to relax, like watching movies, reading books and playing sports,” they say. “All of them are more meaningful to people.”                                                                        

What’s more, if people start watching the short videos, they can hardly stop. There are always new ones waiting for them, so they always spend hours on them. Some educators say people should not spend much time on short videos. “Most of them are just for fun,” they say. “They don’t teach people to think or to improve themselves. It’s not good for the people, and not good for society (社会), either.”

1. From the first paragraph, we know that ________.

A．children around the world like watching short videos

B．people spend much time watching short videos

C．short videos are popular around the world

D．TikTok is the first short video app in China

2. The writer talks about Francis in Paragraph 2 to ________.

A．describe how much he loves using his phone

B．tell readers how he learns to make videos

C．ask readers to watch Lao Qiao’s short videos

D．show people can learn something through short videos

3. The underlined word “ones” in Paragraph 3 refers to ________.

A．movies and books	B．other ways to relax
C．useful skills	D．short videos

4. What do the educators ask us to do?

A．Make full use of short videos to have fun.

B．Try not to spend much time on short videos.

C．Make some short videos about life by ourselves.

D．Use short videos to do something meaningful for society.

【推荐3】There was a fire in the factory at about 1: 40 a. m. A reporter interviewed some people about it this morning.

Reporter: What were you doing when the fire broke out?

Tom: I’m Tom, the manager of the factory. I was preparing a report when I got the phone call from Jim. I quickly drove to the factory. The firefighters (消防员) were putting out the fire when I got there. They arrived several minutes before me.

Jim: My name is Jim. I am one of the workers here. I was on duty last night. I smelled something burning. When I went out, I saw smoke coming from the window of the workshop (车间). I called 911 and our manager at once. And they both arrived quickly.

Jeff: I’m Jeff, a firefighter. We drove to the factory as soon as we got the phone call at 1: 47 a. m. We arrived at about 1: 55 am and soon put it out. No one died or got hurt in the fire. It’s dry these days. We think all the families and factories should be more careful.

1. What was the manager doing when Jim called him?

A．Sleeping.

B．Watching TV.

C．Preparing a report.

D．Driving the car.

2. Who discovered the fire first?

A．Tom.

B．Jim.

C．Jeff.

D．The reporter.

3. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．Tom arrived at the factory first.	B．The reporter was working when the fire broke out.
C．Jeff said it was dry these days.	D．Jim helped the firefighters put out the fire.

4. What don’t we know about the fire?

A．The cause.

B．The place.

C．The time.

D．The casualty figures (伤亡人数).

【推荐2】It seems food deliverymen (送货员) are always in a hurry. They wear blue, red or yellow helmets (头盔) and many of them don’t follow traffic rules. They drive on the wrong side of the road and run red lights. They use mobile phones while driving.

These reckless (鲁莽的) behaviors have caught the public’s attention. In the first half of 2017, food deliverymen had 76 traffic accidents in Shanghai, according to Shanghai Public Security Bureau. That means every two and a half days, a food deliveryman will die or get hurt on the road.

What makes deliverymen take such risks? The strict rules of the food delivery service companies and the anxious customers may be the answer.

Many companies will fine (罚款) a deliveryman up to 2, 000 yuan, if he fails to deliver an order on time, reported China Daily. Fines also go to those who get bad reviews from customers.

To solve the problem, food delivery service companies need to improve their incentive stems (激励制度), noted CRI Online.

Some cities are also taking action. Shanghai has asked companies to train their deliverymen on traffic rules and safety. Now in Shenzhen, if a deliveryman gets caught breaking traffic rules more than twice, then he will be banned (禁止) from driving food service delivery vehicles for a whole year.

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. What do we know about food deliverymen from the first paragraph?

A．Many of them always break traffic rules.	B．They work very hard to earn more money.
C．They use mobile phones to help them drive.	D．They often go the wrong way while sending food

2. How often do deliverymen have a traffic accident in the first half of 2017 in Shanghai?

A．Every day.	B．Every two days.
C．Every two and a half days.	D．Every 76 days.

3. What do you think of the delivery service company?

A．They have strict rules.	B．They are bad to their customers.
C．They are anxious about the deliverymen.	D．They always take customers into consideration.

4. What does the last paragraph tell us?

A．Deliverymen in Shenzhen have been forbidden to drive if they break traffic rules.

B．Deliverymen in Shanghai have been asked to get trained on traffic rules and safety.

C．Some cities have asked food delivery service companies to improve the incentive stems.

D．Some cities have taken actions to close delivery service companies to solve the problem.

5. What’s the best title of the passage?

A．Fast food slows down.	B．Take care while driving.
C．Changes of food delivery.	D．Online food service.

【推荐3】Ordering takeouts is very popular nowadays because it is convenient. More than 60 percent of the people in China order takeout food at least twice a week. If people don’t want to eat out, they can just order takeouts on the smartphone and wait for it to be delivered (送达). What about people living in ancient times? Did they eat takeouts?

In fact, there was takeout as far back as the Song Dynasty. According to history books, Emperor Xiaozong (1127—1194) liked to order takeouts late at night. His servants then went around the city to pick up the dishes and bring them back to the palace.

Ordinary (普通的) people also ordered takeouts. Restaurant waiters would go out into the streets and shout out which dishes could be ordered that day. After hearing the waiters, people could then place an order. Later, delivery workers would bring food to their homes. In the famous Song Dynasty painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival (《清明上河图》), a takeout worker can be seen on a delivery with food in hand.

People at that time even had a special meal box for takeout dishes. It was a long wooden box with several layers. People also used warming plates made of two layers of porcelain (瓷). Hot water could be put between them to keep dishes warm.

1. According to the passage, takeout has a long history of about _________ years.

A．900

B．1100

C．1500

D．2000

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

A．Many people like to order takeouts nowadays because it is very cheap.

B．Only the Emperor could order takeouts in ancient times.

C．People can see a takeout worker in Along the River During the Qingming Festival.

D．People used special plastic boxes for takeout dishes in ancient China.

3. Which can be the best title for this passage?

A．The emperor who liked takeouts.	B．Takeouts in Ancient China.
C．The advantages of ordering takeouts.	D．The way to order takeouts in ancient China.