Can you imagine people will enjoy a mouth-watering, delicious ribeye steak (肉眼牛排) without harming a single animal? Aleph Farms, a food-tech company, just created the world’s first 3D-printed ribeye steak. The thick and juicy slab (厚片) smelt and tasted just like a steak. But unlike any steak found on a menu or store shelf today, this one didn’t come from a slaughtered animal.
Scientists printed it with a machine which is much like a standard 3D-printer. The difference is that this printer used cells (细胞) as a form of living ink. The technology includes the printing of real living cells that are grown in a lab. They are given nutrients (养分) and kept at a temperature that lets them keep growing.
Interest in this kind of new meat has grow n in recent years, partly because the technology shows it is possible. Supporters say that if meat can be printed, then no animal would need to lose its life to become people’s food. So, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the 3D-printed steak.
However, we can’t get this new meat on the store shelf yet. Making meat this way is much harder and costs more than raising and killing an animal. One of the most expensive parts is the cell-growth medium (培养基). This mix of nutrients keeps the cells alive and dividing. If scientists can find lower-cost methods, we’ll be in with a chance of getting beef without killing.
1. What does the underlined word “slaughtered” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Wild. | B．Magic. | C．Wounded. | D．Killed. |
| A．It was grown from living cells in the lab. | B．It was given nutrients by killing an animal. |
| C．It was produced by a standard 3D-printer. | D．It was kept at a low temperature to grow. |
| A．doubtful | B．hopeful | C．curious | D．disappointed |
| A．Because it’s not easy to grow cells needed to produce it. |
| B．Because it takes long to keep the cells alive and dividing. |
| C．Because it’s difficult and expensive to make this new meat. |
| D．Because it’s hard and expensive to raise and kill an animal. |
| A．The development of 3D-printed steak. | B．The introduction of 3D-printed steak. |
| C．The delicious taste of 3D-printed steak. | D．The advantages of 3D-printed steak. |
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36-year-old Joey Chestnut won the Hot Dog Eating Contest with a world record of eating 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes in Brooklyn, in New York City, on July 4, 2020.
The Hot Dog Eating Contest started by Major League Eating (MLE) has been on for years. There were about 35 million viewers online in the US and Canada this year.
For coronavirus safety, the 5 eaters stood at a nine-meter-long table, compared to the typically 15. All the eaters wore face masks right up to their first bite. At last, Chestnut beat others with great difficulties.
Chestnut started competitive eating in 2005 while he was a university student in California. His first major victory came that spring when he wolfed down three kilograms of fried vegetables in 11 minutes and 30 seconds. He won the right for his first hot dog-eating contest two months later and ate 32 hot dogs.
By 2011, Chestnut began to focus full-time on training, perfecting the skills pausing his fast eating with short drinking of water.
Over the past years, Chestnut has become the greatest competitive eater of all time, breaking 49 records officially recognized by MLE. Among them are 141 hard-boiled eggs in eight minutes and 121 cakes in six minutes.
Chestnut won lots of money from the competitions, and he gave the money to charity programs. Chestnut said, “My biggest goal is to win enough money to build and fix my old primary school. I first discovered I had a talent for eating, so I’d like to give something back.”
1. ________, a lot of people watched the contest online in the US and Canada.| A．For a serious competition | B．For a new record | C．For coronavirus safety |
| A．Chestnut broke 49 records of eating hot dogs |
| B．Chestnut and the other 4 eaters joined the competition last year |
| C．Chestnut has been a competitive hot dog eater for over 15 years |
| A．1.80 meters | B．2.25 meters | C．3.75 meters |
| A．Why did MLE hold this competition? |
| B．How many records did Joey Chestnut break? |
| C．When did Joey Chestnut start eating hot dogs? |
① having lots of views ② his talent for eating ③ the love of much money
④ full-time training ⑤ his young age ⑥ his biggest goal
| A．①②③ | B．③④⑤ | C．②④⑥ |
Where does our food come from?
Once upon a time carrots were purple, there were no pineapples in Asia or lemons in America, and many people thought potatoes were poisonous（有毒的）. Many types of fruit and vegetable grew only in one place. So how did they spread all over the world?
Changing colors
Five thousand years ago, carrots only grew in Afghanistan and most were purple. Only a few were orange as they are today! Farmers in the Netherlands were looking for a fruit or vegetable to represent their king, William of Orange, and orange carrots were just what they were looking for—they became the ancestors（祖先）of all modern carrots.
At home in the mountains
Many plants only grow in certain places on Earth, often deep in the jungle. The home of potatoes is in the mountains of the Andes in South America. Bananas come from Papua New Guinea and lemons grow wild in China.
World travel
But once people realized that many of these plants were good to eat, they took them far from the places where they grew. Fruit, in particular, attracted thirsty travelers. Many Arab businessmen transported different fruits and vegetables around the world, such as oranges, which they took from Asia to distant countries such as Spain. The Spanish returned from South America with many new types of food, including chocolate, chili and corn.
Some unusual uses
People often had problems deciding what to do with these new fruits and vegetables, or used them for different purposes from today. Carrots were used not as food but as medicine to protect people from poison or even (it was believed) to make people fall in love. The first tomatoes and pineapples were grown not as food but to make the garden look pretty. And many people were worried about potatoes—although they are good for us, their leaves are poisonous and poorer people believed they could be used for black magic. In Germany, people only began eating potatoes when the king ordered that people who did not eat them would have their ears and noses cut off!
And today…
Today, we are so used to our different types of food that we don’t think about where they came from. We are trying to know the roots（根源）of them. But for each pineapple, potato or carrot we eat, there is a long history!
1. Who chose orange carrots to represent their king?| A．Arab businessmen. | B．Farmers in the Netherlands. |
| C．William of Orange. | D．People from Afghanistan. |
| A．Chilies. | B．Bananas. | C．Lemons. | D．Oranges. |
| A．They used to be considered a symbol of love. |
| B．Orange potatoes were popular in ancient times. |
| C．They were once used to protect people from poison. |
| D．Germans didn’t eat them until their lives were under threat（威胁）. |
| A．Unusual uses of food | B．Finding the roots of food |
| C．The ways of spreading food | D．How to change the colours of food |
【推荐3】There was a young man who lived in Mengzi ,Yunnan. He was very smart ,but he didn’t like studying at first . His beautiful wife wanted him to study hard , so she made the young man live in a nice park. Then she cooked for him at home and every day she crossed a bridge to the park. It took a long time to get there , and she found the food cool when she got there. So she cooked a bowl of hot soup and took some rice noodles and meat there.
The young man found the food hot and delicious, and also liked it very much , and then he studied hard. His wife was very happy. She told this to other people and the meal was popular soon. People call it “Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles.”
根据短文内容，判断下列句子的正（A）误（B）。
1. The young man liked studying very much at the beginning.
2. His wife was very beautiful.
3. His wife crossed a bridge to get to the park.
4. The young man didn’t like rice noodles.
5. “Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles” is hot and delicious.
【推荐1】A research team from China’s Northwest University is developing facial recognition (面部识别) technology to identify (识别) thousands of Sichuan golden monkeys that live in Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province.
Similar to human facial recognition, the technology that is used to identify monkeys uses their facial features to create a database (数据库) that includes every monkey.
“When the system is fully developed, we can connect it with cameras set up in the mountains. The system will automatically (自动地) recognize the monkeys, name them and analyze (分析) their behavior,” said Zhang He, a member of the research team.
“For each monkey, we have 700 to 800 image samples, and the rate of successful recognition is 94 percent,” Zhang added.
Compared with facial recognition technology for humans, facial recognition technology for monkeys is more complicated because monkeys have hairier faces. The color of their hair causes them to get mixed up in their environment. These make it harder for computers to do the job.
“The wild environment is complicated, and golden monkeys do not cooperate with the process in the same way humans do. It is difficult to take high-quality pictures and videos of them, which are needed to improve the system,” said Li Baoguo, leader of the research team.
Currently, there are about 4,000 golden monkeys living in Qinling Mountains. They are typical animals that live in the forest at an altitude of 1,500 meters to 3,300 meters all the year round. The team’s goal is to successfully identify every monkey that lives there.
1. Which of the following is TRUE about facial recognition technology for monkeys?| A．It is bought by China’s Northwest University. |
| B．It works better than human facial recognition. |
| C．It needs to be connected to cameras to work. |
| D．It only requires analyzing 700 to 800 pictures of every monkey. |
| A．easy | B．difficult | C．excited | D．simple |
①image samples ②hairy faces ③hair color ④the environment
| A．②③ | B．①④ | C．①② | D．③④ |
| A．has already been fully developed |
| B．has a high rate of successful recognition |
| C．is similar to human facial recognition |
| D．needs high-quality pictures to improve |
| A．A scientific study of monkeys in Qinling Mountains. |
| B．The use of facial recognition technology for studying monkeys. |
| C．The difficulties of using facial recognition technology for monkeys. |
| D．Different ways to identify monkeys in Qinling Mountains. |
【推荐2】You pick up your phone and stare at it. The screen unlocks at once. But it won’t do that for anyone else. The phone knows who you are. It recognizes the shape of your face. Welcome to the world of the latest iphone. It comes with a feature called Face ID.
Your face isn’t the only characteristic you can use as a password. Many smart phones already accept fingerprint recognition. Other safety systems check the shape of the ear, patterns in the eye, or the way a person walks. All of these characteristics called biometrics (生物识别技术) are unusual enough to identify someone.
People like using biometrics for safety because they’re easy. You can’t misplace or forget your own face. They’re also usually very safe. It’s hard to copy another person’s body parts. But it’s not impossible!
And the face may be one of the easiest body parts to copy. Most teens post plenty of photos online. These could probably help someone hack into(入侵) a safety system. In 2016, researchers at the University of North Carolina collected available Facebook photos. They used them to build 3D models of faces. Then they showed these fake faces to five different facial recognition systems. Four out of five let the cheater in. (Face ID wasn’t part of the test)
Once a biometric password has been stolen, you can’t easily change it. You can’t get a new face! There’s one more thing of Face ID that worries experts. It would be easy for someone else to hold your phone in front of your face to unlock it. For example, an angry sister or brother might do this to hack into your accounts.
Some people won’t worry about all that. It’s just so cool to use Face ID. As for me, I am always glad to use the new technology as long as it can make our lives easier and better. What do you think? Is it a good thing to you?
1. Which of the flowing body parts can be used as biometrics?①hair ②eye ③mouth ④ear ⑤face ⑥fingerprint
| A．①②③④ | B．②③④⑤ | C．②④⑤⑥ | D．①③⑤⑥ |
| A．giving examples | B．showing pictures | C．using numbers | D．answering questions |
| A．People have to pick up the phone and stare at it to unlock it. |
| B．The face is easy to be copied with the help of photos. |
| C．Biometric password can’t be easily changed if it has been stolen. |
| D．It would be easy for someone else to hold your phone in front of your face to unlock it. |
| A．your phone can recognize anyone’s face |
| B．Face ID of smartphones may cause some trouble |
| C．you can easily change the stolen biometric password |
| D．all the people worry about the safety of recognition system |
| A．It’s fashionable to use Face ID | B．It’s dangerous to use Face ID |
| C．It’s safe and easy to use Face ID | D．It’s a new technology worth trying. |
Fu Gui, 33, was re-connected with his birth parents after using ‘Baby Come Home’, a Chinese website that helps people find their missing children. Thanks to an online facial recognition system.
This is the first time in China a missing child and their parents have been re-connected with the help of facial recognition technology. The cutting-edge artificial intelligence(AI) technology(人工智能技术)was developed by Baidu, and has been used by ‘Baby Come Home.’ The system was launched on ‘Baby Come Home’ in March and contains thousands of pictures of missing children across the country.
Fu Guis family members had never stopped looking for him in the past 27 years. As his father
recalled, Fu Gui was born in Chongqing in 1984 and went missing in 1990. To find his son, the man uploaded Fu Gui’s information to ‘Baby Come Home’ with a picture of Fu Gui when he was four. In 2009, Fu Gui also started looking for his family, registered (注册) on the same website and uploaded a childhood picture of himself at the age of ten.
With the help of Baidu's AI technology, ‘Baby Come Home’ was able to quickly analyse the 60,000 pictures in its database(数据库). The system would first compare the faces in the target and source images, then choose 30 profiles (侧面像) that best fit the descriptions. In Fu Gui’s case, his childhood picture was chosen by the system to be one of the 30 that looked most like Fu Gui.
A DNA test was carried out to compare Fu Gui’s biological information with his parents. The test confirmed that the two parties were a match. The re-connection of the Fu Gui and his parents marked the first case in China for a missing child and their family to be matched with the help of
facial recognition technology. We think more and more missing children will find the family to their birth parents.
1. How old was Fu Gui When he went missing?
| A．4 years old | B．6 years old | C．10 years old | D．27 years old |
| A．Fu Gui’s parents kept looking for him when he went missing |
| B．Fu Gui who found his birth parents from facial recognition technology is the first one in China |
| C．Fu Gui began to look for his birth parents in 2009. |
| D．The DNA test confirmed that the two parties of Fu Gui and his father were not a match |
| A．Fu Gui found his birth parents | B．The use of facial recognition technology |
| C．The use of Baidu’s AI technology | D．‘Baby Come Home’ |
【推荐1】Imagine you are opening your own company and want to hire a manager. There are two people who are both skilled and experienced, so who would you rather choose: Julia Watson or Shobha Bhattacharya? Chances are that you would prefer Watson, right? But why?
“Easy names are thought to be more well known to you and less dangerous,” Eryn Newman, a scientist from New Zealand, told Scientific American. As a result, people with easier names are often supposed to be more trustworthy.
Newman and her teammates did an experiment. They picked 218 different foreign names, including difficult-to-pronounce ones like Yevgeni Dherzhinsky and easy names like Bodo Wallmeyer. They then put a statement with each name, like “turtles aren’t able to hear” and “giraffes cannot jump” and asked volunteers whether they thought the statements were true. The results showed that statements connected to easier names were thought to be more believable than those of difficult names, no matter what the truth really was. But Newman pointed out that this effect can change depending on where volunteers come from. For example, a British man may find “Yevgeni Dherzhinsky” hard to pronounce while Russian people could say it without effort.
In fact, an earlier study has already found that our opinions about products can be affected by their names. For example, we’re likely to think of a kind of food with an easier name as safer and a project with an easier name helps people make more money, according to Medical Daily.
Newman hopes that this finding can make us better see our biases. When we give opinions based on feelings rather than facts, we can sometimes cause serious problems.
For example, we may choose to believe certain eyewitnesses simply because their names sound more trustworthy even if they are actually lying. Or we may not chose excellent people who apply for the job because of their “difficult” names.
Now, if you could make that decision again, would you still prefer Julia Watson to Shobha Bhattacharya?
1. According to the passage, people with easy names ________.| A．are often given more trust | B．like doing things with less danger |
| C．can finish their work well | D．have more experience to be a manager |
| A．statements of easy names were more often thought to be true. |
| B．volunteers from different countries wouldn’t affect the results. |
| C．Newman and his teammates chose 218 volunteers to join in it. |
| D．the result showed giving opinions by feeling hardly caused problems. |
| A．crazy | B．strange | C．wrong | D．useless |
| A．Easy Names Winning out | B．How to Choose a Good Name |
| C．Right Ways to Give a Name | D．Don’t Choose Difficult Names |
【推荐2】Meet Techno-Boy
1. Harry Hunker looks like an ordinary boy. He goes to school with ordinary children, but they don’t know who he really is: In the daytime, Harry works hard at school. At night, he’s “Techno-Boy”.
2. Techno-Boy is half-boy and half-computer. Scientists created him. They put a micro-computer inside his brain, and taught him to save the world. Every night, Techno-Boy chases villains and protects the city. He doesn’t need to sleep, and he’s got some amazing super-powers. He can see in the dark, and he can catch a bullet in his hand. He wears a white Techno-Boy suit and special rocket shoes. When Harry becomes Techno-Boy, he has red eyes and he doesn’t wear his glasses.
3. Techno-Boy is very intelligent. He builds tiny robots, and he uses them to fight his enemies. He also designs super-fast cars, jet planes and motor boats. These are very useful when he’s chasing villains. They never escape.
4. Techno-Boy can run fast, and he often leaps between high buildings when he’s in a hurry. He can’t fly, but he can levitate with his special rocket shoes. This is much quicker than climbing the stairs! Techno-Boy has also got a special ‘thought reader’ in his head, he can understand what his enemies are thinking.
5. When Harry Hunker isn’t Techno-Boy, he feels very lonely. Harry has some amazing adventures but his friends don’t know his secret. Sometimes he just wants to be ordinary.
1. The scene of Picture One is set ________.| A．at home | B．at a cinema | C．at school | D．at a lab |
| A．heroes | B．criminals | C．the rich | D．the innocent |
| A．he looks different from others | B．he has lost his beloved families |
| C．nobody in his school knows him | D．his friends don’t know his secret |
| A．One | B．Two | C．Three | D．Four |
| A．Lifting heavy objects. | B．Making machines. |
| C．Reading people’s minds. | D．Seeing things in the dark. |
| A．strength vs. brain | B．peace and war | C．good vs. evil | D．courage and fear |
【推荐3】Work is helpful to health. Scientists find that the hard-working people live longer than the people with no jobs. Studies show that people without jobs are in poorer health than those with jobs.
Why is work good for health? It is because work keeps people busy away from being sad. Studies show that people feel unhappy, worried and lonely when they have nothing to do. Instead, the happiest people are those busy ones. Many people feel happy when they are working hard because they love their work and they can get a lot from it. By work, people get to know each other. By taking part in all kinds of activities, they make friends. It is helpful to health. The loss (缺失) of work often makes people think they have nothing. It can slowly change a person and make people sick.
Besides, work gives people a feeling (感觉) of hope and achievement. Work makes one feel he is important. When a writer finishes his writing or a teacher sees his students grow, they will be very glad and proud.
From the above, we can come to a conclusion (结论):
1. How will people feel if they don’t work?
| A．Happy and excited. | B．Happy but worried. |
| C．Important but worried. | D．Worried and unhappy. |
| A．Work keeps people busy every day. | B．People with no jobs live much longer. |
| C．Work keeps people away from bad feelings. | D．People can always stay healthy while working. |
| A．The loss of work. | B．The loss of health. |
| C．The loss of happiness. | D．The loss of everything. |
| A．A feeling of hope comes from important work. |
| B．Hard-working will bring people much more money. |
| C．Much work will make people feel happier and healthier. |
| D．If you are happy but worried, you should have more work to do. |
