Scientists in Switzerland have used lasers (激光器) to change the path of lightning (闪电). The experiment was carried out on Santis mountain in Switzerland, near a TV tower that’s hit by lightning about 100 times a year.
Lightning can cause serious problems on the ground. It can cause fires, destroy buildings, and kill people. The damage from lightning costs billions of dollars every year. Scientists have been trying to find a way to protect buildings from lightning for a long time.
Now, the best way is by putting metal rods (杆) on the buildings. They are connected to the ground and can safely guide the electricity into the ground. ★ If a building is very large, it needs a lot of lightning rods. Some buildings—such as airports—are so large that it’s difficult to protect the whole building using lightning rods.
Another idea is to use lasers to guide lightning. It isn’t new. Scientists have been working on the idea for over 20 years. They have successfully guided lightning with lasers inside a laboratory. But scientists haven’t been able to make it outside until recently. Scientist Matteo Clerici wasn’t part of the experiment, but he also studies guiding electricity. He said, “The fact that they managed to do it in an outdoor environment is really a very big step.”
Although they have made great progress, the laser still didn't guide the lightning as far as the scientists would like. To protect buildings from most lightning, lasers will have to guide the lightning for a much longer distance (距离). The laser is also very dear. The scientists say it costs about $2 billion. It will probably take 10 or more years before a laser is truly able to protect large buildings.
1. Why do scientists try to change the path of lightning?| A．To collect electricity. | B．To avoid great losses. |
| C．To test special lasers. | D．To save building costs. |
| A．But they often fail to guide lightning. |
| B．But they can cause damage to the ground. |
| C．But these rods can only protect a small area. |
| D．But these rods only work on large buildings. |
| A．It’s worrying. | B．It’s exciting. | C．It’s creative. | D．It’s unexpected. |
| A．Expensive. | B．Popular. | C．Traditional. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．Weather. | B．Travel. | C．Environment. | D．Technology. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】When an Italian man went to work with a mask (口罩) to protect himself from the COVID-19 (新冠肺炎), other people criticized (批评) him for “causing panic (恐慌)”. But in China and other Asian countries, almost everyone wears a mask during outbreaks. Why do the East and the West have different ideas about wearing masks?
In the West, people wear masks only when they get sick. If a person goes out with a mask, other people may look at him like a virus (病毒) spreader. Even their friends tried to stay away from them. Some Western people say wearing a mask in public makes them feel “worried”, “shy”, and “afraid of being looked at differently”. But as the number of COVID-19 cases (病例) keeps growing around the world, more and more healthy people are starting to wear masks to protect themselves.
In Asian countries like China and Japan, wearing masks is common. During the 2003 SARS, people used masks widely in China and East Asia. Many Chinese also wear masks to keep warm in winter or protect against air pollution. In Japan, some young women may wear masks when they don’t have their makeup on. Many pop stars in Asia also wear masks to protect their privacy when they go out. This cultural background has made it easier for people in the East to wear masks during the COVID-19 outbreak.
1. People thought the Italian man with a mask .| A．was too worried to work | B．didn’t want to go to work |
| C．made other people nervous | D．wanted to protect himself |
| A．afraid | B．worried | C．shy | D．ill |
| A．感染者 | B．传播者 | C．病患者 | D．免疫者 |
a. keep warm b. cover their mouths
c. protect their privacy (隐私) d. protect against air pollution
| A．abc | B．acd | C．abd | D．bcd |
| A．western people’s trouble of wearing masks |
| B．the reasons why masks are popular in Asian culture |
| C．different ideas of using masks in Eastern and Western countries |
| D．the importance of wearing masks during the COVID-19 outbreak |
【推荐2】If you love chocolate, now you have another good reason to eat it! According to a new study, eating 10 grams of 85-percent dark chocolate three times a day can really make you happy.
Scientists at Seoul National University in South Korea did the study. They divided 46 healthy people into three groups. Every day for three weeks, one group ate no chocolate (the unlucky group); one group ate 30 grams of 85-percent dark chocolate; and one ate 30 grams of 70-percent dark chocolate.
It turned out that people from the 85-percent group were much happier than people from the other two groups. Scientists found more Blautia in the 85-percent group’s gut (肠道). Blautia is a kind of bacteria (细菌). It helps make people feel good.
But scientists say you need to make sure it’s 85-percent dark chocolate. Milk chocolate can do the same, but it is bad for your health because it has too much fat and sugar.
1. You should eat ________ grams of 85-percent dark chocolate a day to make you happy.| A．10 | B．30 | C．85 | D．70 |
| A．two | B．three | C．four | D．five |
| A．bacteria | B．gut | C．chocolate | D．sugar |
| A．85-percent dark chocolate | B．70-percent dark chocolate |
| C．too much fat and sugar | D．more Blautia |
【推荐3】It's no secret that laughter works wonders for us. And much research has been carried out, which shows that laughter is good for our general health and well-being. It has been found to release endorphins (释放安多芬), our bodies’ natural “feel-good” chemicals, into our blood. But as we grow older, we are more likely to find fewer things funny. A child will laugh on average 300 times a day. By the time we reach adulthood, his number is around 20. But what’s behind this? One theory suggests that it’s not a problem of losing our sense of humor but rather, as we grow older, we take things a bit more seriously.
Laughter is very much something we do with others. Studies have shown that we are 30 times more likely to find something funny when we are with others than when we are by ourselves. But to laugh with others, we do need to feel a connection to them. We need to feel comfortable in their company. That's why it can be difficult to laugh with strangers. Laughter is also very contagious and one person's laugh can spread quickly through out a group of people. But often what makes us join in is the fear of standing out and being different. We laugh, even if we don't' really get the joke, specially in groups controlled by a powerful person. When the head teacher ells a joke, for example, you laugh, even though later you might wonder if the joke was really that funny at all.
There are many different reasons why we laugh. Here are three widely accepted theories:
The Incongruity Theory: It's often the unexpected that makes us laugh. When things that we are familiar with suddenly take a turn into the unknown, our expectations are challenged and that often results in laughter.
The Superiority Theory: We often find the mistakes and misfortunes of others funny. This would explain the popularity of online videos showing pranks (恶作剧).
The Relief Theory: Laugh offers light relief. It explains why there are so many jokes about the darker things in life. By being able to laugh at them, we are able to face them more easily.
1. According to the theory in Paragraph 1, why do we laugh less as we grow older?| A．There are fewer funny things. | B．We take things more seriously. |
| C．Our body releases less endorphins. | D．We gradually lose our sense of humor. |
| A．More funny things happen when we are with others. |
| B．People feel comfortable in strangers' company. |
| C．We laugh sometimes because of social needs. |
| D．Powerful people are more likely to be funny. |
| A．有感染力的 | B．有区别的 | C．令人害怕的 | D．令人舒适的 |
| A．Something familiar is easy to make people laugh. |
| B．There are only 3 theories about the reasons why we laugh. |
| C．Every child laughs 300 times and an adult laughs 20 times a day. |
| D．The Superiority Theory can explain why people love making funny videos. |
| A．The art of laughter. | B．The sign of laughter. |
| C．The power of laughter. | D．The science of laughter. |
Chen Yin is one of the first people in Urumqi to start organizing real life Takagism (密室逃脱) games in the city. Takagism is a game. People are locked in a room together and they have to complete several tasks to get out of the room in the game.
“I decided to organize it just to have fun and play with my friends. Takagism was very new to the city at that time,” says Chen. Chen and his friends play the game just as a hobby, and only ask everyone to pay 40 to 50 yuan. “Most of the time we don’t communicate with those players after room escape, we meet different people every time.” Chen says.
To their surprise, after about a year of holding the game, room escape starts to become more popular, but Chen and his friends decide they just want to keep it as a hobby, and have no interest in making money through the game. None of Chen and his friends will give up their full-time jobs for the game. Takagism is still a hobby for Chen.
Now Takagism is a popular activity among young people like Chen to meet new friends.
1. Chen started organizing the game to make money at first.2. Chen Yin first organized real life Takagism in Beijing.
3. You may pay about 48 yuan to take part in Chen’s game.
4. Takagism is a popular activity among young people now.
5. Chen won’t give up his full-time job for the game.
The invention of barcodes（条形码）is based on a very simple idea. We only need to give each product a specific number and print it.
Each number in a barcode is shown by seven blocks of the same size. These are colored either black or white to show the number zero to nine. For example, the number “one” is shown in turn by two white stripes（条）, two black stripes, two white stripes, and one black stripe.
A barcode includes different parts and each one provides a specific meaning. The first part of a barcode tells you the country where the product was made. For example, 690—692 is the barcode for China.
| A．Then computers can read it directly. |
| B．All information can be shown by barcodes. |
| C．The next part tells you who produced the product. |
| D．And “nine” looks similar to “six” if you turn it upside down. |
| E．Even if you turn it upside down, it isn’t similar to any other number. |
【推荐3】Developed by US company OpenAI, ChatGPT has taken the internet by storm, winning 100 million users since it came out in November 2022. People can ask the robot to write stories and emails, create instructions for cooking a certain food, translate languages, and answer all kinds of questions. In its own words, it is “a language model trained in a large amount of internet text to help users get human-like text.”
Compared with Siri or other chatbots (智能聊天程序), ChatGPT uses a much bigger information center for training. It also uses stronger software (软件) and hardware to learn things by itself. For example, if it provides a wrong answer to your question, you can tell it the right one and it will correct itself. “It’s a totally different chatbot,” computer scientist Liu Xiaoguang from Nankai University told Tianjin Daily. “The knowledge level ChatGPT shows is the same as a university student. That’s why it shocked the world.”
But one big problem with ChatGPT is that it makes mistakes or even gives false information. When Rezza, a 28-year-old from Indonesia, used the robot to write an essay (论文), it “gave out many examples which other writers actually hadn’t mentioned at all”, he told The Guardian. Since the robot is trained using words from the internet, it can also pick up biases (偏见) about certain groups. These are all things that need to be dealt with.
1. What’s the advantages for ChatGPT?①It can correct its mistakes by itself. ②It can write emails.
③It can have biases towards certain groups. ④It can translate languages.
⑤It can cook food.
| A．②③④ | B．②③⑤ | C．①③④ | D．③④⑤ |
| A．Succeeded greatly online. | B．Done harm to the internet. |
| C．Brought strong wind and heavy rain. | D．Caused serious changes of the weather. |
| A．It can find mistakes by itself. |
| B．It works differently from other chatbots. |
| C．Its information center is easier to control than Siri’s. |
| D．Its knowledge level is as high as a university student. |
| A．Anybody can make mistakes. | B．Anybody may give false information. |
| C．ChatGPT needs improvement. | D．ChatGPT can’t get on well with humans. |
| A．ChatGPT is Coming! | B．ChatGPT is Catching the World’s Eyes! |
| C．Can ChatGPT Take the Place of Humans? | D．Can ChatGPT Avoid Biases Properly? |
【推荐1】High-speed trains, Alipay(支付宝), shared bikes and online payment are seen as the new Four Great Achievements of China by young foreigners, according to a video survey by the Silk Road Research Institute of Beijing Foreign Studies University. In the video, young people from 20 countries along the Belt and Road Routes were asked to name great inventions that had influenced their lives in China. The following is what they said from 4 young people of them.
| A．Fast and tidy. | B．Convenient and wonderful. |
| C．Cheap and amazing. | D．Safe and enjoyable. |
| A．Two bikes. | B．Two riders. | C．Two places. | D．Two tools. |
| A．Get into trouble. | B．Lose your way. | C．Stay in silence. | D．Keep a secret. |
| A．E-cars | B．bikes | C．High-speed railways | D．Alipay |
| A．The bicyclesharing system provides bikes for free. | B．There’re no highspeed railways in Romania now. |
| C．Zhi Fu Bao is the only way of paying for things. | D．There are two ways of paying for things in Thailand. |
【推荐2】
Technology has brought ancient poets “back to life”. At the World Robot Conference 2023 in late August in Beijing, there were two robots that looked like the Chinese poets Li Bai and Du Fu. While Li Bai was holding up a cup of wine, Du Fu was sitting at a desk, writing.
These are called bionic (仿生的) robots. The robot’s skin is usually made of silicone (硅胶), CGTN explained in a video about Liaoning-based producer EXROBOTS. The robot’s skin is very soft. You can even see veins (血管) under the skin.
Another human-like robot also attracted attention recently. It was created by US company Apptronik. Named Apollo, it has around 30 muscles (肌肉). For now, the robot can only make simple movements, such as walking and waving. The robot’s head has cameras and sensors (传感器) inside. They can help it map out a 360-degree view of its environment. They also help the robot keep balance when walking on unstable (不稳定的) surfaces.
Nowadays, bionic human-like robots mostly work with humans, such as by being tour guides or helping visitors at front desks. This could be because people are comfortable living and working with machines that look and act like them. They can “strike a chord (引起共鸣) with people,” a US robotics scientist Marc Raibert told New Yorker.
As more human-like robots come out, safety will be the key, according to the Robot Report website. When a 70-kilogram robot breaks down and falls, humans nearby may get hurt.
1. What does the underlined part mean in Paragraph 1?| A．Made ancient poets come back to life. |
| B．Made visitors experience real ancient life. |
| C．Made robots look and act like real ancient poets. |
| A．Keep balance. |
| B．Draw people’s attention. |
| C．Design a 180-degree picture. |
| A．When you want to visit some places. |
| B．When you don’t want to do housework. |
| C．When you want someone to repair your car. |
| A．Human-like robots look scary. |
| B．Users may fall in love with the robots. |
| C．The robots’ weight may cause problems. |
【推荐3】Think of the empty cities in zombie(僵尸) movies. The streets, the shops and the schools are still there just like they would be on a normal day, except there are no people to be seen.
Now a real-life “ghost city” is being built in the US. But luckily, it has nothing to do with zombies—it is going to be a place to test the technology of the future.
The city called CITE is covered an area of 15 square miles, which is the size of a small US city and sits in the middle of the New Mexico desert.
But why do we need an empty city that nobody will call home?
The reason is that we can’t afford to test the latest technologies in the cities that we live in—they might not be ready and could cause problems and danger in our daily lives.
In fact, CITE will be a true lab without worrying about hurting people. Anybody with a new idea can ask to test it in this city. Just think about the possibilities—driverless cars can move freely on the streets, homes with robots can be designed and some new inventions can also be put to the test.
As good as the idea may seem, however, there are still doubts about CITE. “One of the most difficult things to do when developing these new technologies is to have them safely move around people, who can suddenly jump out in front of something.” Reese Jones, a founder(创立者) of Singularity University, US, told Fortune magazine. Jones is worried that, even if a technology works perfectly well in CITE, introducing it to a real city will still be a whole different story because there will be people living in the city.
But no matter what, perhaps we should wait until CITE is finished in 2018. Maybe it will turn out to work just fine.
1. The empty city is being built so ________.| A．people can make scary movies there |
| B．people can try driverless cars freely there |
| C．it’s more convenient to test new technologies in |
| D．it’s a good place for people to live and study in |
| A．the empty cities | B．the people in the city |
| C．the busy streets | D．the new technologies |
| A．new technologies will work well with CITE’s help |
| B．CITE offers great possibilities for future technologies |
| C．testing results in CITE may not work in a real city |
| D．it’s a perfect idea to test new technologies in CITE |
| A．show that CITE has a bright future |
| B．explain CITE and problems it may have |
| C．give advice on helping CITE work better |
| D．describe what CITE is like and where it is |
【推荐1】Paul and I live in the same building. His room is on the sixth floor, but mine is on the fifth. He’s very careless and sometimes he gets into trouble.
Last Friday afternoon the young man and his friends went to spend the weekend on a wild island. They could swim, fish, play the guitar and sleep in the quiet place at night. They enjoyed themselves there. On the third morning they decided to get back to the land. But their boat hit a rock and soon went down. With the villagers’ help, they swam to the bank.
Luckily none of them was hurt. They took a taxi and half an hour later they arrived at our town, but it was two at night. The young man was hungry and thirsty. He wished to get home as soon as possible. Something was wrong with the lift, so he had to go up the stairs. He stopped by my door and brought out a key. Of course, he could not open the door. Half an hour passed but he failed. He became angry and shouted, “I’ll cut you down with a knife!”
The noise woke me up and I opened the door. I understood at once what was happening and said, “You’re trying to open a wrong door, Paul!” “Sorry, I can’t agree with you, Charlie!” said the young man, “It’s my room. You’ve entered it by mistake!”
1. Paul couldn’t open the door because ________.| A．it wasn’t his room | B．he couldn’t find the right key |
| C．he didn’t find the keyhole | D．he was too hungry to do it |
| A．help Paul | B．stop Paul making the noise |
| C．see what happened outside | D．call the police station |
| A．Paul thought he did right | B．Paul didn’t know where he lived. |
| C．Paul stopped by a door on the fifth floor. | D．Paul thought he had reached the sixth floor. |
Do you know something about the holiday camps in Hong Kong？The students in Hong Kong used to take part in an English holiday camp in their holidays.And their parents weren't with them，though they were very young.
Now they still enjoy taking part in many kinds of holiday camps without their parents.Many parents let their children take part in some kinds of holiday camps in order to let children learn some practical(实用的)knowledge(知识)in their life.And also learn some knowledge about living skills，science，reading and writing.The most important thing for the children is to learn to look after themselves.
Holiday camps in Hong Kong are not so expensive.Most of the families can afford to send their children there for further study，for making their bodies strong.And the government never charges(收费)for them.
It is said that students in Hong Kong have much knowledge about many things.Perhaps it has something to do with these kinds of holiday camps.
1. Students in Hong Kong like to take part in the________．| A．holiday camps | B．English holiday camps |
| C．science holiday camps | D．Chinese holiday camps |
| A．must be with them | B．have to look after them nearby |
| C．must stay at home | D．aren't with them |
| A．to make their bodies strong | B．to learn much knowledge about many things |
| C．to learn to look after themselves | D．to have further study about many subjects |
【推荐3】Hua Chenyu is popular with young people in China. We can always see him on TV or on the Internet. In 2018, he won many prizes (奖) as one of the most popular Chinese singers.
Hua was often left alone at home when he was a child. He fell in love with music and started to learn to play the flute (长笛) at an early age. Now he can also play many musical instruments, such as the piano, the drums and the guitar. When he was 12 years old, he tried to write songs. After years of hard work, he went to the Wuhan Conservatory of music. (音乐学院)
In 2013, he won Hunan TV station’s Super Boy singing competition (竞赛). During the competition, he wrote and sang a song without words. It made everyone surprised and he became famous. Also, in the song Why nobody fights, he just sang one sentence “Why nobody fights?” again and again in different ways.
For Hua, music is a way to show his feelings. He works hard as a singer, but he doesn’t think music is his life. “ _______. It makes me relaxed. But without it, I can still enjoy life.” he said. He likes trying everything he likes and believes anything is possible.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. Hua Chenyu is a famous ________ from China.
| A．player | B．actor | C．singer | D．dancer |
| A．At the age of 7. | B．At the age of 8. | C．At the age of 10. | D．At the age of 12. |
| A．Hua can’t write songs by himself. |
| B．In 2013, Hua Chenyu became famous. |
| C．Why nobody fights doesn’t have lyrics (歌词). |
| D．Hua Chenyu enjoys life but doesn’t work hard. |
| A．I take music as a hobby. | B．I wish to have more fans. |
| C．I must hold more concerts (音乐会). | D．I want to make amazing (令人惊奇的) music. |
| A．make suggestions for Hua Chenyu |
| B．tell stories of Hua Chenyu’s family |
| C．let us know more about Hua Chenyu |
| D．tell us how Hua Chenyu became famous |
