Fun with apps
What makes smartphones fun and useful? The apps, of course. Besides (除了) some popular ones like WeChat, QQ and Tik Tok, what other apps do you know? In fact, there are many apps that you can have fun with. Check out some of them here.
Vocabulary.com
Vocabulary.com offers (提供) some help to the English learners, even a linguist (语言学家), to make their English language skills better. Why is Vocabulary.com special? That’s because it’s much more than just a dictionary (字典). It has the basic features of a dictionary app—explanations, pronunciations and grammar tips—but it also has a word learning system. This means that you can practise the words you learn through a fun game. The game will help you remember words more quickly. The app knows that even if you look up a word, you may still forget it soon. So it helps you remember words by saying them again and again in the game. It’s like carrying your English teacher in your pocket!
Prisma
Are you a fan of art? Here’s an app just for you. Prisma is a photo-editing app unlike any other. The photo filters (滤镜) on the app can make your pictures look like works of art. What’s more, the filters on Prisma never get old. Prisma offers a new photo filter every day. However, it also gives you freedom to change the filters with image-enhancing (图像增强) tools. Imagine you can have a picture painted by Picasso, too! How amazing!
1. What apps are popular according to the passage?2. How can we practise the words we learn on Vocabulary.com?
3. What kind of app is Prisma?
4. Why do the filters on Prisma never get old?
5. Which app do you like best? Why? (请自拟一句话作答)
相似题推荐
【推荐1】The haze(雾霾) season is back. How much do you know about haze? Haze can also be called “smog”. The word “smog” is from the words “smoke” and “fog”. It first appeared in the early 20th century. It is a kind of air pollution caused by cars and factories. Smog will not be good for your health, especially lungs(肺). It can make you cough and cause skin and eye problems. It seems that we do nothing to stop it, but only wait until the wind blows all the smog away. However, there are some easy ways to prevent it hurting you. Here are some of them.
1. Don’t do exercise in the open air.
Exercising in the open air makes you breathe(呼吸) deeply, and you will take in the particles(颗粒物) deep into your lungs.
2. Stay indoors and keep the air clean.
If you can, just stay in your room and keep the doors and windows closed. Remember to air your room twice a day. You can open the window at noon or at night for half an hour.
3. Wear a mask.
Paper and cotton masks cannot help you in the haze weather. Some special masks, such as N95 masks, can keep you from breathing in the particles in the air.
4. Change your diet.
Scientists find that Vitamin A, C and E can greatly help protect your eyes, noses and lungs. So eat more green vegetables and fresh fruit every day. What’s more, do not eat food with too much fat. It’s not good for your lungs.
1. When did the word smog first appear?2. Will smog be bad for your health?
3. How many suggestions does the passage give to prevent haze hurting us?
4. What kind of mask can help you in haze weather?
5. Why should we eat more green vegetables and fresh fruit during the haze day?
Tasty bananas are hard to turn down. They taste good and you don’t have to wash them before eating them. However, British scientists say that the fruit may disappear by 2050.
One reason for this is climate(气候) change. Scientists at the University of Exeter collected data from 27 countries that produce 86 percent of the world’s bananas. They found that climate change has improved growing conditions in 21 of these countries. For the past 60 years, the annual yields(年均产量) have been increasing by 1.37 tonnes(公吨) bananas per hectare. In this way, if temperatures rises all the time, this advantage will disappear. Ten of the countries, including India, the world’s biggest producer of bananas, will produce fewer bananas. By 2050, the fruit may die out.
Shouldn’t banana plants grow more easily if it’s hotter outside? In fact, the perfect temperature for growing banana plants is between 24°C and 32°C. If temperatures get too high, they will stop growing.
Diseases are another danger to banana plants. Unlike other crops, the banana plants we grow come from shoot cuttings(茎段) rather than seeds(种子). This shows that all banana plants have the same genotype(基因型). In other words, if a disease is able to kill one plant, it could kill them all.
For example, one serious disease is called Panama. Caused by fungi(真菌) in the soil, it spreads easily. It has spread across South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia. If one banana plantation(种植园) suffers from the disease, it will take 30 years until it is able to grow banana plants again. Scientists have to find a cure for this disease.
Bananas | |
| Present situations | Bananas You don’t have to wash them before you The annual yields have been |
| Problems | Climate change hasn’t improved growing conditions in If temperatures India and other countries will produce fewer bananas. |
| Final endings | If temperatures is We grow banana plants from shoot cuttings The Scientists have to find a cure to avoid it. |
| Conclusion | If we don’t act, they will be |
【推荐3】Do you know how many languages there are in the world? According to the researches, the answer is about 7,000, but sadly they predict that nearly half are likely to die out by the end of the century. This is often because speakers are elderly or because the main language of a country has taken over.
Luckily for us, some people are making extraordinary efforts to record languages for history. One of them is Steven Bird. He developed a phone app to translate Tembe, the language of a small tribe (部落) in Brazil’s Amazon region (地区). Tembe speakers spoke into their phones and then other tribe members interpreted what they said into Portuguese. As Tembe has no written language, researchers can turn it into a set of symbols to represent sounds, but this takes one hour for every minute of speech!
The Piraha tribe also lives in the Amazon region of Brazil. Daniel Everett’s research into their language has shocked many people because some things about it are completely different from any other language. For example, Piraha has no words for colours and no way to count.
Perhaps most interesting of all, there is no way to talk about the past. Everett’s explanation is that jungle life relies on understanding and noticing everything around you at all times, so it is a waste of time thinking about the past.
Globally, there are around 470 languages with fewer than 100 speakers, including one Mexican language with only two and unluckily, they refuse to talk to one another! The loss of so many languages means that we could end up with only a few languages left. That would be sad because languages are an important part of who we are. When they disappear, so do our traditions and culture.
1. What does the underlined word “interpreted” in Paragraph 2mean?| A．Considered. | B．Translated. | C．Recorded. | D．Divided. |
| A．It has no written form. | B．It can’t describe the past. |
| C．It can tell colors and numbers. | D．It depends on oral storytelling. |
| A．Loss of cultural traditions. | B．Increased demand of languages. |
| C．Difficulty of communication. | D．Development for historical culture. |
Nowadays, WeChat is becoming more and more popular among young people. It plays an important role in people’s life. But different people have different opinions about it. Here are three persons’ ideas.
I am Tony from Shenzhen. Without WeChat, I can’t live even a day. Every day, I keep in touch with my friends on it. I order my meals on it. What’s more, I buy what I like on WeChat. It makes my life colorful and convenient. I like WeChat. It’s all my life.
I am Jim. I am 60 years old. As for me, I don’t like WeChat. Now many people, especially young people, lose themselves in WeChat. They pay no attention to the things around them. For example, last Sunday my kids went back home to have a family meal with us, but they didn’t chat with us, or did any housework. Instead, they kept their eyes on their mobile phones and did what they like on WeChat. I felt angry with this. So I have to say it again. I don’t like WeChat.
My name is Alice. I think WeChat is an important tool for us. But we have to use it properly. When we want to talk with our friends, who are not in the same city, it can help us to make it. When we drive our cars, we can’t use it because it is too dangerous. Using it or not depends on different situations. Answer the following questions.
1. Where is Tony from?2. How old is Jim?
3. Who went to visit Jim last Sunday?
4. Which situation is mentioned here to tell people not to use WeChat?
5. How many people give out their opinions above?
【推荐2】What is 5G? It is the fifth generation(代)of mobile network technology. These new networks are coming.
China gave out commercial license(商用牌照)for 5G on June 6, 2019. This means that China’s Telecom(中国电信)companies have been able to offer 5G networks for mobile phone users.
Each mobile network generation is faster and more powerful than the one before it. 1G let us talk to each other. 2G let us send messages. 3G gave us data(数据)and the Internet. And 4G made all of these things faster. What’s special about 5G?
5G has a very short delay(延时)between sending and receiving information. Now, 4G takes about 100 to 200 milliseconds(毫秒)to send and receive data. But 5G will get it down to 1 millisecond. This big change will not only make our mobile Internet faster, but also deeply change our lives.
5G + entertainment(娱乐)
5G networks are about 100 times faster than 4G. This means you can download(下载)a movie in seconds.
5G + transportation
5G will also bring us safer self-driving cars. These cars can send signals(信号)to each other. 5G will allow cars to react(反应)even faster than real drivers.
5G + smart homes
5G also makes the Internet of things possible. Internet of things is a large network that connects everything to the Internet. Smart homes are part of it. For example, if its sensor(感应器)feels the air becoming dry, a smart sprinkler(喷壶)can water your plants by itself.
1. How many generations of mobile network technology have been in use in China so far?2. What happened on 6 June, 2019 according to the passage?
3. Why is 5G the big change?
4. If it takes you much time to download a film with 4G network, how long does it take you to download it with 5G network?
5. What’s the topic of the passage?
Computer companies keep competing to build smaller devices (装置).They are finding new ways to put data (数据) into less space on a memory chip (内存芯片).
______ have been made smaller to fit on to the desktop, smaller again to fit on our laps and again to fit into our shirt pockets (口袋）.
Now, Stuart S.P. Parkin, an IBM researcher, is looking into a new idea in an IBM lab. If it proves successful, electronic devices can hold 10 to 100 times the data in the same amount of space. That means the iPod that today can hold up to 200 hours of video can store every single TV program broadcast (播放) during a week on 120 channels. Parkin thinks he is close to a breakthrough. This can increase the amount of data stored on a chip.
At present the flash drives (闪存卡) business is growing quickly. They are used in digital cameras, cell phones and PCs. Flash drives with multiple (多个) memory chips store up to 64 gigabytes (十亿字节) of data. A single chip is expected to reach about 50 gigabytes in the next five years.
However, flash memory has a problem. Although it can read data quickly, it is very slow at storing it. That has led the industry on a hunt for new storage technologies.
Scientists say Parkin’s new computer memory, called “racetrack memory (赛道内存）”, could begin to replace flash memory in three to five years.
1. 补全句子。If
2. 回答问题。What does the improvement (改进) of the electronic devices mean?
3. 在原文横线上填上合适的词。
4. 总结文章的主旨大意。
5. 把划线句子翻译成汉语。
【推荐1】Harbin lies in the south of Heilongjiang Province and is the capital city of Heilongjiang Province. It’s a big city in the size of more than 50 thousand square meters. There are many famous places to visit and special food to eat. As a person who was born in the city, I’d like to introduce it to all the people around the world.
Every year, people from all over the world come to visit Harbin. Each of them won’t miss to see the Central Street. The buildings are in the style (样式) of West countries. They also taste delicious local snacks, like Harbin red sausages and Modem ice lolly (马迭尔冰棍). The Central Street is a walking street, so people like hanging out there and it’s always lively and crowded, especially on holidays and festivals.
Another famous place of interest in Harbin is the Sun Island. In summer, people can take a ship to go across the Songhua River to get to the island. The Songhua River is the fourth biggest river in China and it’s also the mother river of Harbin. People can breathe the fresh air and enjoy the beautiful nature on the Sun Island. Besides, many lovely animals can be seen on the island.
With Beijing’s Winter Olympics being held, there are more and more people are interested in Ice and Snow Sports. It’s believed that Harbin will become one of the most popular cities in winter because people can not only enjoy the winter’s beautiful scenery but practice snow-skiing and skating here.
根据短文内容完成表格，每空一词。| Its location and size | In the |
| Special things on the Central Street | The |
| What people do on the Sun Island | Breathing fresh air,enjoying beautiful nature and |
| Ice and Snow Sports | Becoming |
Confidence (自信) is very important in daily life. It can help you to develop a healthy attitude (态度). A study shows that the people who are more confident are much happier. They can have more chances to make themselves successful. But how to be more confident? Here are some suggestions.
※ Speak loud. When you are not confident, you can’t do well what you want to do. You speak in a voice so low that other people can hardly hear you. Try to speak in a loud voice so that people can hear you clearly. The high voice can help you become more confident.
※Play sports. Physical exercise make you tired but completely relaxed. A strong body helps you be full of confidence.
※Encourage yourself. Write down a list of things you did during the day to see how many things you have done well. Did you finish your homework? Did you tell a joke that made everybody laugh? Give yourself praise for the good things you’ve done.
※Get rid of (消除) fear. Fear comes along with failure. But if you know that failure is part of your life, it’s easy to get it over. Don’t hide your head just because you said something stupid last time. Try to start again and believe you can do better.
※Pick up a hobby. If you like singing, sing as much as you can. In some ways, a hobby can make you outstanding. And it will make you happy and confident.
1. How many suggestions can help you to be more confident? (no more than 1 word)2. How can you encourage yourself? (no more than 9 words)
3. Why do you need to pick up a hobby? (no more than 18 words)
4. 请将文中画线的句子翻译成汉语。
5. 请给短文拟一个适当的英文标题。
【推荐3】It is important to think positively. Positive thinking can help you feel better, have more energy and be more successful. And you can practice thinking positively by beginning with small things. Here are some examples for you to practice.
Example One, begin and end each day saying “Thank you for this wonderful day”! Example Two, when you have to stay at home because of Covid-19, say, “对我来说，它是一个享受家庭时光的机会. Example Three, when you are tired at work, say, “I am thankful for my job as I know that many people don’t have one. Example Four, write down what you’re thankful for each day. When you’re feeling really down, read what you wrote before.
Start with the above things and repeat them. Then gradually you will begin to move into a positive situation. Good feelings and things will start showing up in your life. Keep practicing over time, and you will find your way of seeing things has changed. By then you will get the key to a happy and successful life.
根据短文内容用简要答语回答下面三个问题。
1. According to Paragraph 1, can positive thinking help us feel better?
2. How many examples are mentioned in the passage?
3. What do you usually do when you feel down?
将短文中划线的两个句子翻译成中文或英文。
4.
5.
