Most of you may think of clams (河蚌) as part of a big meal. But these little things can do an important job: testing the cleanness of water, including people’s drinking water.
The main water station in Warsaw, Poland, offers water to millions of people there. It uses eight clams to help test the water every day, reported The Economist.
Clams are very sensitive (able to find very small changes quickly) to water pollution. If the water is not clean enough, the clams will close their shells (壳). People in the water station connect (连接) their shells to a computer system (系统). When four or more clams close their shells at the same time, the workers can get a tip from the computer quickly.
To make sure the clams are always sensitive to the environment, the workers choose some new ones to work for them every three months. “This works well and it helps protect people’s drinking water,” the water station said.
1. What important job can clams do according to the passage?2. How many clams do the water station in Warsaw use every day?
3. What will the clams do if the water is dirty?
4. How often do the workers choose new clams to work for them?
5. What do you think of the clams’ work?
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【推荐1】At night, you fall asleep while listening to beautiful music. In the morning, you are woken up by the singing of birds outside. You can enjoy all of these things because of one important organ—the ears.
You may wonder: How do the ears work? The ear has three different parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The outer ear is the part you can see. It collects sound around you. The sound then travels through the middle ear, the inner ear and then to your brain.
Your ears never stop working, even when you are asleep! Your ears continue hearing sounds, but your brain just ignores (忽略) them. That’s why you might sometimes wake up suddenly in the middle of the night—your brain heard something but your brain didn’t pay attention to it since you were asleep.
But ears do more than hear. They help you keep your balance, too. In the inner ear, there are organs that are filled with liquid (液体) covered in small hairs. When you move your head, the liquid and hairs move, too. They send messages to your brain about the position of your head.
More surprisingly, ears even help with tasting food. Of course, you don’t actually taste food with your ears. But there are nerves (神经) running through the middle ear that connect the tongue to the brain.
If something wrong happens to your ears, you might have a hard time telling different flavors apart according to People’s Daily.
The ears are truly important organs with many functions. Everyone should make sure to protect their ears as well as they can.
根据上面短文内容填空（每空不限一词）。
1. From the passage, we know that there are
2. Sound travels through
3. We hear with our
4. Ears also help us
5. Ears even help with tasting food. There are nerves running through the middle ear that
【推荐2】On Sunday, April 22, people all over the world take times out to appreciate（珍惜）the earth that we all share. It’s Earth Day a special day to learn about our planet（星球）and how to take care of it.（1）On Earth Day, some people listen to speeches about the environment. Others help clean up their offices or save water and electricity at home. Your parents may even decide to take a day off from driving their cars.
The idea for Earth Day came from a US Senator（参议员）, who was worried about population and the health of plants and animals. And the idea quickly caught on（流行起来）. In 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated. More than 20 million people in cities all over the US took part in. （2）Since then, Earth Day has been used to educate people about their role in taking care of our planet.
Now, Earth Day has become a global celebration. In 1990, 200 million people from 140 countries took part in clean-ups, trees planting and other environmental events on Earth Day.
1. 将文中画线的1小题的句子翻译成汉语。2. 将文中画线的2小题的句子翻译成汉语。
3. When is Earth Day?
4. What is Earth Day?
【推荐3】The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League（联盟） in America every year. The champion of the National Football Conference（NFC）competes against the champion of the American Football Conference（AFC）（体系）to decide which is the best team in the country. Super Bowl is far more than a sporting event. The mix of America’s biggest institutions (体系):sports, TV, advertising and entertainment makes the Super Bowl an American cultural phenomenon.
The Super Bowl is usually held on the last Sunday of January or the first Sunday of February. That day is called Super Bowl Sunday. For years, it has been the most watched one-day sporting event in the US and it gradually has become an unofficial national holiday. The average viewing rate of Super Bowl reached to 44. 9 percent in 2019.
Super Bowl Sunday sees more parties than any other day during the year. Young people are no exception to the party spirit. They gather to watch the game on TV. The Super Bowl is the third biggest eating day in America—behind Christmas and Thanksgiving. Fans host Super Bowl parties by filling their living rooms with junk food and drinks. Guests may arrive dressed in their team’s T-shirt and carrying beer to share.
Knowing that the Super Bowl has the attention of millions of Americans, companies pay big money for game-time advertising. In 2019, the advertising cost set a record-＄5. 3 million for 30 seconds. The Super Bowl has developed to a TV selling season sandwiched between after﹣Christmas sales and Valentine’s Day.
Another tradition of the Super Bowl is the Halftime Show, which presents at the half time break between the second and third quarters. The Super Bowl Halftime Show is the most-watched musical event of the year. So it is also called the Americans’ Spring Festival Gala. Non﹣football fans tune （调台） in to the Super Bowl for the most famous musicians’ performances during halftime. As the top performers, Travis Scott and Big Boy gave impressive live show for the audience in the Super Bowl Halftime Show 2019. The show represents a link between American football and pop culture and helps broaden the television audience and nationwide interest.
Americans view the Super Bowl as a National Day of revelry （狂欢）. Although people may watch it for different reasons, there is one thing for sure—they can find their own pleasure in it.
1. What is the Super Bowl?2. When is the Super Bowl usually held?
3. How do fans usually host Super Bowl parties?
4. Why is the Halftime Show called as the Americans’ Spring Festival Gala?
5. What makes the Super Bowl more than just sport?
【推荐1】Have you ever forgotten where your socks are when you wake up in the morning? Can you remember what you ate for lunch a week ago? You may think that being forgetful is not a good thing. But now you should be thankful.
Scientists found that forgetting is actually a key part of learning. Getting rid of(去除) unnecessary information can help our brains work better.
What kind of information is unnecessary? Scientists say that this may have something to do with the environment you live in.
The environment is always changing, so our brains may require us to remember less. For example, a supermarket salesgirl meets many people every day and will probably only remember them for a short time. But a designer who often meets his or her customers will remember longer.
That’s because there is a special area in our brains called the hippocampus(海马体). It plays an important role for humans in learning and remembering. When new information goes into the hippocampus, it renews our old memories. This could explain why you forget so much information when you were very young.
However, being forgetful is not always good. When you don’t have enough sleep, you may have a hard time remembering new information. Sleep helps the brain store and keep information.
1. Whether the information is necessary depends on the2. The hippocampus is important for us to
3. We can’t clearly remember something because the hippocampus can
4. If you are short of sleep, it is probably
5. What do you think of being forgetful in life? Why?
Dian cha (点茶) is a tea art from the Song Dynasty (960—1279). It begins with pouring water over fine powdered (粉状的) tea, and then adding more hot water, whisking (搅动) it with a bamboo whisk. It is believed that the art later spread to other parts of East Asia.
Han Zheming has been interested in the culture of the Song Dynasty since childhood because of his mother. In 2016, Han began learning more about the tea culture of the dynasty and tried to bring the art of dian cha to life.
The 40-year-old man has used tea and a spoon to create nearly 200 patterns (图案) based on ancient paintings over the past six years. (4) “Dian cha gives people a stronger sense of occasion (仪式感) than drinking tea itself,” he said.
“Drawing” on the tea foam (泡沫) is not a simple thing. It is quite different (3) ①________ traditional paintings. Creating patterns on the tea foam is careful but quick work. “Usually, it (3) ②________ people about a year to be able to do it,” Han added. The whole process has to be finished within 10 minutes. It is perfect when the tea’s temperature is around 40℃.
To spread dian cha culture, Han has made some videos on social media platforms, (3) ③________ Bilibili and Douyin. These videos show us the process of tea-whisking and drawing. Some of his videos have even received more than 300,000 views.
1. Where did dian cha later spread after it appeared in the Song Dynasty?2. Who inspired (启发) Han Zheming to learn the culture of the Song Dynasty?
3. Fill in each blank in the passage with a proper word.
①
4. Translate the underlined sentence in the third paragraph into Chinese.
5. After reading the text, are you interested in dian cha? Why or why not?
Iceland is a northern European country with amazing natural beauty and oceans around. There are lots of volcanoes (火山). It has a short summer which lasts from June to August. The long winter starts from September and ends next May.
Summer in Iceland is a golden season for tourists. Every year, people from all over the world come here to see the beautiful sights and enjoy the exciting whale-seeing (观鲸).
In winter, when people in Iceland complete their daily work, they will have a lot of special activities to spend the long dark night. Skating, riding snow motorbikes and having parties can really make an exciting night. After all the fun, a hot bath must be the first choice to relax. There are also story-telling activities for children, which can teach them to be strong and kind.
Because of a long cold winter, Iceland has a short growing season. Food problem was always a headache for Iceland in the past. It had to buy most of its food from other countries. Later, when farmers learned to use lights and underground heat to grow crops (庄稼) all year round in the greenhouse, things changed a lot.
Living in such a nice environment, most people in Iceland live a happy life. According to a survey about happiness made each year in Europe, Iceland is always among the top 3.
根据短文内容完成下列小题
1. What does “It” refer to in the first paragraph?
2. When do visitors usually come to enjoy whale-seeing?
3. How can people spend an exciting night?
4. Why does Iceland have a short growing season?
5. According to the passage, what kind of life do people in Iceland live?
