Modern workers can set an alarm clock to wake them up in the morning. But British workers during the Industrial Age used a different method for rising each morning. From the 19th century to the 20th century, a human alarm clock known as a “Knocker-up” would go down the streets and wake paying customers in time for work. They may use a stick to tap (轻敲) on windows or a pea shooter (豌豆枪) to shoot the windows with dried peas.
During that time, people worked in factories at unusual hours. They could have used alarm clocks, which had been invented by the mid-19th century, but people thought they were expensive.
Knocker-ups became common around the UK. Many of them were older and woke people up for many years. They were very professional and often wouldn’t leave people’s houses until they were sure their customers were awake.
Mary Anne Smith was a quite popular knocker-up around London’s East End in the 1930s. Every morning except Sunday she would rise at three to “Knock up” local workers—using a pea shooter with the light but clear sound.
Although this method of waking people up went on in some parts of the UK until the 1970s, it slowly disappeared as alarm clocks and electricity became popular and cheaper. But anyway, the alarm clocks and morning music of the smart phones cannot match the soft, special tap of Mary Smith’s pea shooter.
1. Why weren’t alarm clocks used widely by British workers before the 1970s?| A．Because they hadn’t been invented then. |
| B．Because they were too cheap to be believed in. |
| C．Because they were too expensive to be afforded. |
| D．Because they were not as interesting as human alarm clocks. |
| A．Happy. | B．Excited. | C．Angry. | D．Missing. |
| A．The cost of the alarm clock. | B．The story of Mary Anne Smith. |
| C．The history of a human alarm clock. | D．The competition between man and machine. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Have you wondered what your pets are feeling? When your dog wags (来回摇摆) its tail, does that mean it is happy? A new app called Happy Pets can tell you what’s going on.
The app uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze (分析) the facial expressions of cats and dogs. Then it can tell you what breed (品种) your pet is and how it is feeling. It can show the five most common feelings — happy, angry, neutral, sad and scared.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia developed the app. The key technology used in the app is facial recognition, a common use of AI. We can unlock our mobile phones or enter train stations with facial recognition readers. But this is the first time that the tech has been used with animals.
The app’s AI was first taught to recognize a picture of an animal. Then, it was taught to recognize the facial features (特征) of cats and dogs. Next came the most important step — teaching it to detect emotions based on certain facial features. For instance, if a dog tightens up its eyes and mouth while changing the position of its ears, this means the dog is scared. To master this skill, the AI program “saw” and “read” thousands of example images.
How accurate are the results? The researchers think they are trustworthy since the app has been tested many times. Interestingly, they have found that cats are harder to read than dogs. In the future, the app might also be able to analyze a pet’s body to make its readings more accurate.
1. What is the app Happy Pets used for?| A．Playing games with pets. | B．Telling us how pets feel. |
| C．Training pets to remember facts. | D．Dividing pets into different groups. |
| A．touch | B．discover | C．get | D．feel |
| A．It is part of a student project. | B．It works better on cats. |
| C．It uses facial recognition technology. | D．It often provides untrustworthy results. |
| A．How people use the app. | B．How the app’s AI was trained. |
| C．What certain facial features mean. | D．What emotions the app can recognize. |
| A．show how to recognize animals’ feelings |
| B．show how to care for animals |
| C．describe a study on animals |
| D．describe a new app |
【推荐2】The pencil is a very simple object. However, it took hundreds of people over centuries to make it what it’s like today.
The story of the pencil starts with graphite(石墨). People cut it into small sticks and use them to write or draw. Around 1560, an Italian couple named Simoni and Lyndiana Bemacotti added wood holders to the graphite sticks. However, since the graphite is too soft, the pencils were easy to break. In 1795, in France, Nicolas-Jacques Conte worked out a method of mixing graphite powders with clay(黏土). In this way, people made strong pencil core(铅笔芯). To this day, the method is still used in making pencils.
It was Henry David Thoreau who came up with the grading scale(分级量表) for different hardnesses of pencils. It was graded one through four, and grade two is the proper hardness for general use. The softer the pencil is, the more graphite it has in it, and the darker the line is. The harder the pencil is, the more clay it has, and the lighter the line is. Nowadays, pencils marked 2B are usually used in exams to mark answers. Pencils marked HB are usually used in daily writing. People usually use pencils of different hardness and blackness to draw different parts of a picture.
When pencils were handmade, they were made round. Then an American Joseph Dixon developed machines to make pencils. Later people found out it was easier and less wasteful to make a pencil which has six sides.
There is a pencil for everyone and every pencil has a story. The Blackwing 602 is famous for being used by a lot of writers. And then, you have the Dixon pencil company. It’s what people think of when they think of a pencil and what they most probably will buy when their children are about to write.
In my opinion, there’s nothing that can be done to make the pencil better than it is.
1. Who improved the hardness of pencils?| A．Joseph Dixon. | B．Nicolas-Jacques. |
| C．Henry David Thoreau. | D．Simoni and Lyndiana Bemacotti. |
| A．Pencils of great hardness are less useful. |
| B．Their hardness and blackness decide their uses. |
| C．Round pencils were first made by machines. |
| D．Pencils with six sides are comfortable to use. |
| A．Pencils are the best writing tool. | B．There are many kinds of pencils. |
| C．The Blackwing 602 is very expensive. | D．Dixon pencils are popular with people. |
| A．The grading scale. | B．The story of the pencil. |
| C．To make the pencil round. | D．To make a pencil which has six sides. |
| A．The development of pencils. | B．The main inventors of pencils. |
| C．What pencils are made out of. | D．Why pencils are widely used. |
【推荐3】
| Tang Renjia and her gloves. TANGRENJIA By putting on special gloves, teachers can stay warm and don’t have to worry about hurting their hands when using touchscreens. The special gloves were invented by Tang Reniia, a junior 3 student from Suzhou Science and Technology Town Foreign Language School. She received a patent certificate（专利证书）issued（由……领发）by the State Intellectual Property Office for her creation, according to Suzhou Daily. Two years ago, Tang noticed that her teacher’s fingers were injured（受伤） after using a touchscreen for long periods of time. Tang wanted to do something about this. She leaned how to use high-tech materials to make gloves for her teacher. Her multi-functional（多功能的）gloves can keep people’s hands warm and protect their skin when they’re using touchscreen devices（设备）. |
| A．MUSIC TIME | B．SPORTS DESK | C．SCHOOL TIME | D．ANIMAL WORLD |
| A．Tang Renjia got a patent | B．teachers’ fingers can be hurt easily |
| C．the gloves have only one use | D．the gloves were made of natural materials |
| A．likes inventing (发明) things very much | B．usually worries about hurting hands |
| C．often touches screens in class | D．is kind and helpful |
| A．Century | B．a newspaper | C．a school teacher | D．the girl in the picture |
| A．ask students to care for teachers | B．how to put on the gloves | C．tell us a student’s small special invention | D．tell teachers not to use the touchscreen |
【推荐1】China is a big cotton producer (棉花生产国). Most of the cotton comes from Xinjiang. Cotton needs lots of sun (阳光). Xinjiang is a good place for cotton. It has lots of sun—about 3,000 hours every year.
Xinjiang produces about 80% of China’s cotton. The most welcome cotton in Xinjiang is long-staple cotton (长绒棉). It’s warm and makes people feel nice. It’s good for making clothes and quilts.
Every year from August to October, it’s a good time to pick cotton. But picking cotton isn’t difficult work for farmers. Farmers first fly a plane. Then the plane gives the cotton a kind of water. At last, it’s time to drive a machine (机器). It can “eat up” all the cotton fast!
There are many fun things about cotton. In Chinese, cotton is called “mianhua”. But the cotton is not the flower. It’s the fruit. Most cotton is white. But in Xinjiang, there is cotton in all colors. Cotton candy looks like cotton. But there is no cotton in it!
1. Why is long-staple cotton welcome?| A．Because it comes in many colors. | B．Because farmers pick it by machine. |
| C．Because it is from Xinjiang. | D．Because it’s warm and makes people feel nice. |
| A．出售 | B．采摘 | C．生产 | D．购买 |
| A．It only comes from Xinjiang. | B．It’s a kind of fruit. |
| C．It’s not easy to pick. | D．People use it to make candy. |
| A．Four. | B．Three. | C．Two. | D．One. |
【推荐2】Hi, I’m Jenny! I’m in No. 15 Middle School. We have a good school library. The school library is big and nice. It has 50 chairs. The chairs are white. I like the color. On the wall are some photos of the school. The library has 100 blue bookcases. Many books are in the bookcases. I like to read(读) books in the library. My favorite books are about sports. There is a Lost and Found box in the library. It’s yellow. I lost my pencil box. Ms. Smith tells(告诉) me my pencil box is in the Lost and Found box.
1. What does “wall ”mean(意思) in Chinese ?| A．办公室 | B．角落 | C．墙 | D．院子 |
| A．White. | B．Blue. | C．Yellow. | D．Black. |
| A．She likes to read books. | B．She likes to play sports. |
| C．She likes to read English. | D．She likes to watch TV. |
| A．The Lost and Found box. | B．The library. |
| C．Jenny’s pencil box. | D．The book. |
| A．In her bag. | B．In the class. | C．At her home. | D．In the library. |
【推荐3】Do you feel happy in your life? Happiness is for everyone. You don’t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and a lot of money and so on. Why? Those who have big houses may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads during their free time.
In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you. While you study hard, your parents are always taking care of your life and your health. When you have success, your friends will say congratulations to you. When you do something wrong, people around you will help you to correct it. And when you do something good to others, you will feel happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you begin to notice even a few of them, you will see that happiness is always around you.
Happiness is not the same as money. It is a feeling in your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something else that can’t be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have more chances to challenge yourself. So you cannot always say you are poor and you have bad luck. As the saying go “Life is like a revolving door.” When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person.
1. Those who have big houses may often feel ________.| A．happy | B．lonely | C．free | D．excited |
| A．People who have cars would never like to walk in the open air. |
| B．You can get help from others when you make mistakes. |
| C．You can still be a happy person even if you have little money. |
| D．Happiness is always around you though you have difficulties. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Happiness | B．Good luck | C．Bad luck | D．Life |
