In the 13th century, Marco Polo saw many wonderful things in China. One of the things he discovered was money made of paper. People in the West did not have such kind of money until the 15th century. However the Chinese began to use it in the 7th century.
Paper was invented by a Chinese man called Cai Lun almost 2,000 years ago. But it was not made in Europe until the year 1100. Four hundred years later, a German discovered that he could make the best paper from trees. After that countries rich in forests, such as Canada, Sweden, America, Finland became the most important ones in paper making.
Paper can be used in many ways. The common uses include newspapers, magazines and books. But do you know that paper can be used for keeping warm? In Finland, the farmers wear paper boots to keep their feet warm in the snow. And even houses can be insulated (使绝缘) from heat or cold with paper.
However, we have to understand that paper still comes from trees now. If we keep on wasting so much paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth someday in the near future. Every day people throw away about 2,800 tons of paper in our city. It takes 17 trees to make one ton of paper. This means that we are cutting down nearly 48,000 trees every day. The fact is that it takes more than 10 years for a tree to grow.
So we must start saving paper right now. We can use both sides of every piece of paper. We can make useful things out of used paper. We can use china cups instead of paper ones. When shopping, we can use fewer paper bags and reuse them if we have some.
In short, we should keep a balance between using paper and protecting trees, and do it now before it is too late.
1. When did people in the West have paper money?| A．In the 5th century. | B．In the 13th century. |
| C．In the 7th century. | D．In the 15th century. |
| A．Because it had a large population. | B．Because it was a large country. |
| C．Because it had lots of forests. | D．Because it was a rich country. |
| A．Keeping warm. | B．Making newspaper. |
| C．Reducing waste. | D．Making books. |
| A．Seventy trees are needed to make one ton of paper. |
| B．Marco Polo found money made of paper in China. |
| C．Used paper can not be used again. |
| D．It takes five years for a tree to grow. |
| A．Save Paper | B．History of Making Paper |
| C．Information of Paper | D．The Use of Paper |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Curiosity and chance combined to result in some famous accidental inventions around the world.
Gunpowder
Chinese alchemists had tried for centuries to invent something that could make people live forever. Many experiments used a chemical called saltpeter. In the year 850 A.D., a group of alchemists mixed saltpeter with sulfur and charcoal. The mixture burst into flames. The explosion injured the alchemists. It also burned down the house they’d been working in. The Sung Dynasty soon used the new powder in the wars. Chinese soldiers shot ‘flying fire’—arrows（箭）with small tubes filled with gunpowder—at enemies. Gunpowder did the exact opposite of making people live forever. Today, it’s still the basis for most weapons.
Penicillin
Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming made an unexpected discovery in 1928. He’d been experimenting with a plate of bacteria（细菌）. One day, he discovered that it had been made dirty by mold（霉菌）. He also noticed that the bacteria around the mold had died. More experiments showed that the mold killed many of the bacteria that made people sick. Fleming had accidentally discovered one of the first antibiotics（抗生素）! He named his discovery penicillin, for the mold that had led to the discovery. Two other scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, created a new version of penicillin. It was used to treat people. The three men won the 1945 Nobel Prize for their life-saving work.
Hook-and-Loop Fasteners（魔术贴）
Swiss engineer George de Mestral went hunting one day in 1941. His pants were covered in burs（刺果）by the time he returned home. He was curious about how the burs stuck to his clothes. When he examined one under a microscope, he saw that the bur had tiny hooks that caught in the loops of cloth. He decided to design a fastener that could do the same thing. At first, nobody took his two-piece ‘hook-and-loop’ fastener seriously. NASA, however, realized its value. It was perfect for holding objects in place during gravity-free space flights. Since the 1960s, clothing companies have been using Velcro（a French word meaning “Hook-and-Loop”）, too.
1. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 means gunpowder___________.| A．did harm to people’s health |
| B．seemed to be useful medicine |
| C．could be used to make weapons |
| D．ended people’s lives in the wars |
| A．gunpowder | B．weapon | C．penicillin | D．Velcro |
| A．Penicillin saved lots of lives. |
| B．Chinese alchemists were killed in the explosion. |
| C．All inventions are the results of curiosity. |
| D．NASA refused to use Velcro at first. |
| A．Hopeful Inventions | B．Surprising Inventions |
| C．Dangerous Inventions | D．Useless Inventions |
【推荐2】Inventions change how we live, work, play and think about what’s possible. Every year, TIME magazine lists the 100 best inventions. What did the magazine choose this year? Let’s take a look.
Easier to read
Reading can be a big challenge for tens of millions of people. They may have poor vision （视力）or reading difficulties. But OrCam Read can help them! This is the first reading pen with a smart camera and an AI system. After scanning（扫描）a page of text with the click of a button, it can read the text aloud to the user. You don’t need to connect it to the Internet. You can use it offline at home, work, school, or even in stores when you need to read a price tag（标签）.
Sweet idea
Honey is produced by bees. But today’s beekeeping business is not good for these hard-working insects（昆虫）. Bee farmers may kill them after harvesting（收获）honey because it’s cheaper than feeding the bees through the winter. To save bees, US company MeliBio has found a way to make the world’s first bee-free honey. They used synthetic biology（合成生物学）to create honey directly from plants. This kind of honey tastes just like the real one, and it is healthy, too.
Keep you calm
When you feel angry or unhappy, what do you do about it? Scientists say you can try to calm others. This can help you calm down. That’s why Purrble was invented. This bear-like toy has 9 sensors. It has a quick “heartbeat” and can respond（反应）to your touch. As you hold and pet it, its heartbeat slows. And it purrs（发出咕噜声）like a cat. It sounds like it really enjoys your touch! Through petting Purrble, you will realize your own feelings and learn how to feel calm yourself.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. How should people with reading difficulties use OrCam Read?
| A．Use it to scan text they need to read. | B．Use it to scan pictures they can’t see. |
| C．Connect it to a small camera. | D．Connect it to the Internet. |
| A．Bees can do what they want. | B．Spend less money feeding bees. |
| C．Bees can be set free after working. | D．No bees are needed for honey. |
| A．It is made from real honey. | B．It is not good for human health. |
| C．It has the same taste as real honey. | D．It helps farmers make more money. |
| A．Its sensors can sense your anger. | B．It can touch you with its hands. |
| C．Its purrs can slow your heartbeats. | D．It can help you know your feelings. |
| A．OrCam Read. | B．The new kind of honey. | C．Purrble. | D．Bear-like cats. |
【推荐3】On Oct 11, a robot history was made when Ai-Da, a humanoid (人形的) robot artist talked at a meeting in the UK. The meeting was about “A Creative Future”. It looks at challenges for today’s artists and how they can paint as robots develop, said Sky News.
Ai-Da paints using cameras in her eyes and robotic arms. She “thinks” and answers questions using AI algorithms (算法). She has painted the late UK queen and her work was on show in the museum.
Describing herself, Ai-Da told us that “I depend on computer programs and algorithms” and “although not alive, I can still create art”.
Surprisingly, at the meeting, Ai-Da “slept” and had to be restarted. But her ability to draw pictures and answer questions is real time shows the huge developments of AI. These are developments that will continue.
One person who seems interested in this is Elon Musk. He is planning on making his own AI robots for his company, TESLA (特斯拉). TESLA’s humanoid robot, named Optimus, came to our world at Tesla’s AI Day on Sept 30. TESLA showed videos of their robot doing simple tasks like carrying boxes and watering plants, said CNN.
With robots becoming more and more part of our daily lives, we may have to learn to live with them. But will people be happy to have these robotic friends or will they feel threatened (威胁的) by them? As Ai-Da said in the meeting, “Robots can be both a threat and an opportunity.”
根据短文内容，判断句子正（T）、误（F）.1. On Oct 11, Ai-Da made a robot history by talking at a meeting in the UK.
2. Ai-Da paints using AI algorithms.
3. The huge developments of AI won’t continue.
4. Optimus can do simple tasks like carrying boxes and watering plants.
5. With more and more robots in our daily lives, we needn’t learn to live with them.
【推荐1】At the age of 12, Romario Valentine is famous around the world. Why? Because he wrote a book named Protect Our Planet:Take Action with Romario.
Romario is a boy from Durban in South Africa. He is famous around the world for his tree planting and beach clean-up projects. He thinks people should learn to protect the environment from a young age. And a book can guide kids with information on how to protect the planet. But when he went to the library to borrow such books, he found most books about that were not easy to read, especially for children at his age. So Romario made a big plan—to write his own book. He hoped the book could help more children find a way to protect the environment.
Then it was time to carry out the plan. In the beginning, Romario decided to talk about water, animals, reuse and plastic pollution in the book. Then came the most difficult part—putting his ideas on paper, and making time to do research. Romario spent a lot of time and energy on them. But he made it after all with the help of his parents.
Finally, the book came out in September 2022. It’s popular among kids. “This book is quite fun,” says a young reader. “You can find some exciting scientific experiments (实验) and art activities. You can learn what jobs a child can do to protect the environment from it. It’s very helpful.”
Now Romario is still working to change the world. What does he plan to do next? We cannot wait to see it!
1. Why did Romario write his own book?| A．To encourage people to plant a lot of trees. |
| B．To make people borrow books in the library. |
| C．To teach children to carry on with the projects. |
| D．To help children learn to protect the environment. |
| A．He got help from his teachers. | B．He worked hard for his book. |
| C．He wrote the book for the old. | D．He put his ideas on paper easily. |
| A．The book. | B．The plan. | C．The project. | D．The environment. |
| A．Romario’s Plan for Organizing Activities |
| B．Romario’s Research for Cleaning the Beach |
| C．Romario’s Project on Scientific Experiments |
| D．Romario’s Book on Protecting the Environment |
【推荐2】①On July lst, Shanghai introduced a new garbage sorting policy（垃圾分类政策）. Now let’s learn the garbage sorting and recycling（回收）in other countries around the world.
②Germany: There are big machines in supermarkets. You can put bottles in the machines and get money back. You can get one or two yuan per bottle. People like this because they can get money and protect the environment at the same time.
③Japan: A trash truck（垃圾车）comes to people’s doors to pick up their garbage. It plays music when it’s coming. There are eight or more kinds of garbage. If you sort any of them wrong, you will get a notice on your door.
④Indonesia（印度尼西亚）: People can take buses for free if they give plastic bottles（塑料瓶）to bus stations. An hour long bus ride costs three large bottles, five medium bottles or 10 plastic cups. But the bottles must be clean.
1. In which country, you can get money back if you put bottles in the machines?| A．China. | B．Japan. | C．Germany. | D．Indonesia. |
| A．Some money. | B．Plastic bottles. | C．A notice. | D．Music. |
| A．①—②③④ | B．①②—③④ | C．①②③—④ | D．①—②—③④ |
| A．A New Garbage Sorting Policy in China |
| B．How to Sort Garbage |
| C．Garbage Sorting and Recycling around the World |
| D．The importance（重要性）of Garbage Sorting |
Japan is one of the cleanest countries in the world. What are its secrets?
In Japan, people have to pay for their garbage. If they have a lot, or their garbage is difficult to treat, they have to pay more. They also have to pay for things they no longer need, like old TVs and fridges. This makes people think before they throw away.
There are few garbage cans in Japanese streets. People take their garbage home and sort through it carefully. They also have different ways of treating different kinds of garbage. People turn old chopsticks into paper. They burn some garbage to make fertilizer(肥料). People even use garbage to make more land area.
Japan has set a good example to the rest of the world. If people in every country did the same, we would be able to do something about our environmental problem.
What can we do to help the environment? Here are some ideas.
Reduce!
Check it out. Buy products with less packaging (包装).
Buy less and create less garbage. We shouldn’t buy things we don’t need.
Reuse!
Be creative and make use of garbage. For example, you can make a photo frame(边框) out of buttons, and other small pieces of garbage.
Recycle!
Ask your family and friends to use recycled products.
Be helpful. Is there a recycling center near your home? If so, ask your family and neighbors to recycle.
1. What does the underlined word “treat” probably mean in Chinese?
| A．治疗 | B．丢弃 | C．处理 |
| A．the secrets of Japan’s being a clean country |
| B．what we should do to help the environment |
| C．different kinds of ways to make use of garbage |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. |
| A．Throw away all the garbage. |
| B．Go shopping more often and buy things we don’t need. |
| C．Ask our family and friends to use recycled products. |
| A．People in Japan should pay for their garbage. |
| B．There are many garbage cans in Japanese streets. |
| C．We can recycle the garbage by burning all the buttons. |
Thousands of years ago, the Chinese invented tea. Today, it is part of people’s daily life not only in China, but also in the rest of the world. Without question, tea plays an important role in our daily life. Every May 21 is International Tea Day. Largest tea-producing countries Annual production (tons) in 2021  China India Kenya Sri Lanka Turkey 2,414,802 1,252,174 473,000 349,308 243,000 Who drinks the most tea No. 1: Turkey In Turkey, people drink an average of 3.16 kg of tea every year! Though only recently introduced in the 20th century, tea has become the most popular hot drink in Turkey. It is because coffee costs rise and tea becomes a cheaper choice. No. 2: Ireland Ireland sits in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean and it is quite cold there. People need cups of hot tea to get through the gray, foggy winters. The yearly average consumption (消耗) here is 2.19 kg per person. No. 3: the United Kingdom People in the UK drink an average of 1.94 kg of tea every year. Tea drinking in the UK began in the 18th century. British people are well-known for their custom of “afternoon-tea”. |
| A．3 | B．5 | C．7 | D．10 |
| A．tea is a cheaper choice for them | B．tea is a traditional drink for them |
| C．they think tea tastes better than coffee | D．drinking hot tea helps them keep warm |
| A．To encourage people to often drink tea. |
| B．To explain why tea has grown in popularity. |
| C．To describe the role tea plays around the world. |
| D．To compare the tea productions of different countries. |
【推荐2】People living in big cities are often busy and tired. Many of them would like to spend some relaxing time in small villages (村庄). There are lots of great villages in the world. Read and learn about some of the world’s most beautiful villages.
Reine
Reine is a fishing village in Norway. There are only about 300 people living in the village. The village is small, but it sees visitors from all over the world every year. The village is very beautiful. It is near the sea and has mountains around it. There, one can go fishing, biking, or hiking (远足) during the day, and spend the night at a Rorbu, a traditional (传统的) kind of fisherman’s house, or camping (宿营) out under the stars.
Hani Village
Hani Village is in China’s Yunnan Province. There live more than 800 people. This village lies on a mountain. Around people’s houses are not busy roads but green trees, and there are no noises but birds’ singing. Walking around the village for just a few hours, visitors can enjoy seeing the traditional Hani houses and learn about the life of the Hani people. Also, when visiting, a person cannot miss the village’s famous rice terraces (梯田). They are very beautiful.
Bibury
One of the most beautiful small villages in England is Bibury. There are about600 people in this village. It sits on the River Coln. Along the river, there are many stone (石头) buildings. These buildings have a long history and show visitors the past of this village.
1. The village Reine is in ________ .| A．China | B．Norway | C．the UK | D．the USA |
| A．quiet and small | B．small but noisy | C．quiet and beautiful | D．beautiful but noisy |
| A．Rivers | B．mountains | C．stone buildings | D．wood houses |
| A．Travel. | B．Arts. | C．Science. | D．Sports. |
【推荐3】When you open a certain mobile app, there’s usually an open-app advertisement (广告) that gets in your way. Some of these ads can send you to another app if you shake your phone a bit. And this has been causing heated discussion online recently.
These open-app ads act like “doors”—no matter which app you open, you may always end up in those apps that have more ads. During online shopping festivals, for example, users are usually led to shopping apps like Taobao and JD.
There are already a number of regulations (法规) on this problem. A regulation that came out in December 2022 gave specific rules for how these “shake-to-open” ads should operate. It said that the rotation angle (旋转角度) of the phone should be larger than 35 degrees, and the time spent shaking the phone should be longer than 3 seconds. Starting from May, the ads must have a clear button (按钮) to let users to close them.
However, putting these regulations into action can be difficult. The total number of apps is large, making it hard for authorities to look into every app. There were at least 2.59 million apps released (发布) in January and February alone, reported Nanfang Daily.
However, this shouldn’t be the reason for the mobile apps to step out of these “lines” and take advantage. That way, what all the platforms (平台) really get is people’s complaints. Over 90 percent of users strongly dislike such open-app ads, according to the Jiangsu Consumer Council. Such ads hurt an app’s reputation (声誉) because fewer users may want to use them after being taken to other apps too many times. To get real recognition (认可) from users, the apps should respect their choices and provide them with ads that they can choose to click on only if they want to.
1. What does the phrase “gets in your way” mean in Paragraph 1?| A．prevents you from entering the app. | B．leads you to another app. |
| C．forces you to buy something useless. | D．steals your personal information. |
| A．apps that have open-app ads |
| B．apps that open-app ads lead to |
| C．apps that were discussed heatedly recently |
| D．apps that many people go shopping online with |
| A．ads in the apps should be totally stopped |
| B．people don’t need to shake hard to open ads |
| C．people should easily find where to close the ads |
| D．apps with open-app ads will be closed |
| A．it’s difficult to manage the app developers |
| B．users really need these open-app ads |
| C．apps have more new ways to present ads |
| D．it’s hard to regulate a large number of apps |
| A．More ads will give apps good reputations. |
| B．Users mind products more than ads in apps. |
| C．Apps should let users decide whether to open the ads. |
| D．Apps have earned too much money from open-app ads. |
