When our ears are healthy and working properly, sound waves are collected by the outer ear, cause special bones in the middle ear to vibrate, and travel to the inner car. These vibrations send a signal that our brain interprets as sound. But sometimes an illness or an injury can hurt parts of the ear so that we don’t hear sound properly.
According to the official website of the World Health Organization, as of February 13, 2019, there are about 466 million people worldwide with hearing loss, of which 34 million are children. By 2050, more than 900 million people in the world will have hearing loss. Scientists say many of these people can often hear better by using a hearing aid. A hearing aid is an electronic object that uses electricity to help the ear hear sounds better. The earliest hearing aids, developed in the 1600s, were shaped like horns. Since then, every century has brought new and improved solutions.
Modern hearing aids have four main parts: a battery, a microphone, an amplifier, and a speaker. The battery powers the bearing aid. The microphone works by receiving sound waves and changing the vibrations into “electric current”. The electric current then travels through a circuit in the hearing aid, where it is made stronger by the amplifier. The amplifier sends the stronger current to the speaker, which changes the current back into sound waves. These sound waves then travel into the middle ear or sometimes directly to the inner ear.
Although most hearing aids have the same parts, there are different types of hearing aids. One type, called a telecoil, has a metal coil instead of a microphone. Another type of hearing aid, called a digital hearing aid, changes the sound waves into electronic data, the same way music is changed into electronic data in a CD or portable music player. This kind of hearing aid then translates the data into an electronic signal that is sent to the hearing aid’s speaker. Regardless of the type of hearing aid, they all change electrical energy into sound waves. And while no hearing aid works as well as a healthy set of cars, hearing aids do make it possible for millions of people to hear better.
Hearing aids have used science to improve people’s lives and make it possible for a person with hearing loss to hear sounds in nature, in the community, and in their homes.
1. As of February 13, 2019, how many children around the world suffer from hearing loss?| A．1,600 | B．34,000,000 | C．466,000,000 | D．900,000,000 |
| A．helps people to hear sound properly | B．has a metal coil instead of an organization |
| C．can work as well as a healthy set of ears | D．causes special bones in the outer ear to vibrate |
| A．A battery. | B．A microphone. | C．An amplifier. | D．A speaker. |
| A．The vibrations would send many signals to people’s brain. |
| B．A telecoil would change the sound waves into electronic data. |
| C．Music would not change into electronic data in a CD or music player. |
| D．The electric current would not be made stronger and get to the speaker. |
The water on Earth has been moving all the time for billions of years. It travels from ocean to air to land and back to the ocean. This continuous movement is called the water cycle, and it is the reason that earth has the same amount of water today as it did back in the days of the dinosaurs. The water cycle provides people, animals, and plants with life-giving water. Each stage of the water cycle is equally important. Here are some of the stages.
Evaporation is the stage of the water cycle when water moves into the air. Water in oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and streams is in liquid form. The sun’s radiation heats the water and causes it to change into vapor. It rises into the atmosphere. Areas that receive more heat from the sun experience more evaporation.
Condensation is the stage of the water cycle that follows evaporation. In this stage, vapor changes back into liquid while it is still in the air. Vapor in the atmosphere moves to different regions of Earth. When vapor moves to cooler regions, it also cools. Cooling causes vapor to change back into liquid. It turns into many tiny water droplets. The water droplets collect, making them visible in the air. Clouds and fog are collections of water droplets that result from condensation. The water droplets can remain in the air as long as they are light enough for air currents to carry them.
Precipitation occurs after condensation. This is the stage of the water cycle when water travels back to Earth’s surface. Water droplets in the atmosphere collect in clouds and become heavy. They become so heavy that air currents can no longer carry them. The droplets fall to Earth’s surface as rain. If the air is cold, the water droplets may be snowflakes, hail, or sleet. Some of the precipitation soaks into the ground. And some of it goes directly back into the same oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and streams from which it had evaporated.
Although the water cycle has kept water usable for billions of years, the fresh water that we depend on is limited. It is necessary that we think about...
1. How many stages of the water cycle are mentioned in this passage?| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．Both stages contain rain and clouds. |
| B．In both stages water changes the form. |
| C．They are more important than precipitation. |
| D．In both stages, the ocean plays an important role. |
| A．Condensation follows the precipitation stage. |
| B．Vapor changes into liquid in the stage evaporation. |
| C．It is the precipitation stage when it snows in cold winter. |
| D．Clouds are made up of water droplets and are very heavy. |
| A．Places to find water resources. | B．Ways to protect water resources. |
| C．Reasons to learn the water cycle. | D．Methods to study the water cycle. |
Most of us learn how to ride a bike during childhood. But as we grow older, many of us stop riding and put away those once-beloved bikes somewhere. Years later, when we get on the bikes, we can still ride professionally as if we never stopped biking.
This is surprising because our memories let us down in so many other instances, such as remembering the name of a person we once knew. So how is it that we can ride a bike when we haven’t done so in years?
As it turns out, different types of memories are stored in distinct regions of our brains. Long-term memory is divided into two types: declarative and procedural*.
Declarative memory refers to the memory of relevant facts and events. Its extraction* often needs the help of consciousness. One thing about it is that you are aware of the knowledge and can communicate the memories to others. This type of memory includes things such as remembering information for a test and your home address.
Procedural memory, on the other hand, is a type of memory involving how to perform different actions and skills. It’s mostly unconscious — we can perform these actions without putting in much mental effort, that is. Playing the piano and swimming are both examples of procedural memory. When we repeat an action over and over again, it gets transferred from our short-term memory to our long-term storage. In the beginning, our brain is more actively working to perform the task, but as we repeat it over time, our brain needs to pay less attention to successfully perform that task. In other words, they become almost automatic* for us.
Procedural memories are often difficult to explain. If someone asked you how you drive a car, you might fail to put it into words. If they asked you about the way to your house, however, you would probably be able to articulate the route fairly easily. Remembering the physical process of how to do something is a procedural memory while remembering the route you have to take to get somewhere is a declarative memory.
1. Why does the writer mention bike riding in Paragraph 1?| A．To lead in the topic about memories. |
| B．To describe the qualities of memories |
| C．To tell us the importance of memories. |
| D．To deal with problems about memories. |
| A．Good habits. | B．Lots of courage. | C．Much attention. | D．Common knowledge. |
①Sweep the floor.
②Remember phone numbers.
③Drink water.
④Catch a baseball.
⑤Know some festivals.
| A．①②③ | B．②④⑤ | C．③④⑤ | D．①③④ |
| A．publishes the latest scientific research |
| B．cares about improving people’s health |
| C．shares reports about people’s daily life |
| D．focuses on spreading scientific knowledge |
4 . Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. The history of the game goes back over two thousand years to Ancient China. It was then known as cuju (kick ball). Football as we know it today started in Great Britain, where the game was given new rules.
That football is such a simple game to play is perhaps the basis of its popularity. It is also very cheap to play. You don’t need expensive equipment. All over the world you can see kids playing to their hearts’ content with a ball made of plastic bags, running and laughing.
Another factor behind football’s global popularity is the creativity and excitement on the field. It is fun enough to attract millions of people. You do not have to be a fan to know the skill of professional players how they use their bodies to pass, core and defend can be amazing to see or to feel the excitement of a surprising ending.
What’s more, football has become one of the best ways for people to communicate. It breaks down walls and brings people together on and off the field. Take, for example, the famous football game on Christmas Day 1914. World War I had broken out months before, but British and German soldiers put down guns and played football together- one moment of peace to remember during years of war.
“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, ...” said Bill Shankly, the famous footballer and manager. “I’m sure it is much more important than that. “This might sound funny, but one only has to think about the Earth to realize that our planet is shaped like a football.”
1. The writer started the passage by ________.| A．giving facts | B．listing numbers | C．telling a story | D．asking questions |
| A．with great shame | B．with great pleasure | C．with great anger | D．with great surprise |
| A．P1P2P3P4/P5 | B．P1/P2/P3P4P5 | C．P1/P2P3P4P5 | D．P1/P2P3P4/P5 |
| A．how football develops | B．why football is such a popular game |
| C．how he/she loves football | D．why he/she is a professional football fan |
5 . Every morning Hannah Griffiths and her workmates walked into the rainforest in the Maliau Basin in Bormeo, where they had set up a set of experiments to look at the ecological effects of small creatures: termites.
Termites get a bum rap in USA. They are thought to make the loss of billions of dollars each year because they bite up a huge number of woods. And they are responsible for something like 2 % of global carbon emissions, simply because of their huge populations and their like for biting through some special materials. People hate them and are trying to kill them.
But they play a key role in many natural ecosystems. Scientists have known for years that in tropical forests, termites eat up fallen leaves and dead wood. They help keep the fallen material under control. They let nutrients from the dead material back into the system to be used by other plants, insects, and animals. But scientists didn’t know exactly how important the insects were in keeping the forest healthy and functional, so they removed termites from a particular place in the forest and saw what would happen.
Hannah Griffiths and her workmates started their experiment. It chanced that the forest was hit by an extreme drought at that time. During the non-drought years, they saw there was wasn’t much difference between the normal places and the ones where they’d removed the termites. but during the drought, the effects were easy to see. What they found was unexpected: in the termite-rich areas, the soil stayed slightly wet, more trees sprouted, and the system was still full of activity during the long, dry period.
For Griffiths, she thought that they could pick out the real importance of termites to the system only because they accidentally studied termites during the drought. She pointed out, An “And that rings alarm bells in my head,” she said, “because it makes me think: what else don’t we know? If we start damaging biological com munities, what will happen? And what if a species dies out?”
1. Which of the following best explains “bum rap” underlined in Paragraph 2?| A．bad impression | B．good image | C．positive influence | D．special like |
| A．They do serious harm to tropical rainforests. |
| B．They speed up the loss of nutrients in the rainforest. |
| C．They act as food for other plants, insects and animals. |
| D．They do something good to the ecosystem they live in. |
| A．help rainforests survive the drought |
| B．enjoy enting trees during the drought |
| C．prefer drought years to non-drought ones |
| D．benefit more from the forest during the drought |
| A．termites are now in danger |
| B．termites damage biological communities |
| C．we should think twice before damaging a species |
| D．we should study the drought to improve the system |
We’re reading a book or opening an envelope when, all of a sudden, there’s a sharp pain on our finger. We see a little bit of blood and realize we’ve just gotten a paper cut.
Dr. Hayley Goldbach, a resident dermatologist at UCLA Health, explained that why paper cuts hurt so much is because the ones are mainly on finger tips which have a high density* of nerve endings. These nerve endings are known as nociceptors, which send signals to the brain about things that could cause a break in the skin, such as extreme hot or cold temperatures and chemicals.
After being cut, we’re using our hands throughout the day, meaning that the wound is getting opened again and again, which makes the cutting painful.
The paper itself is another reason why these superficial cuts leave us in so much pain. Paper might look smooth but, if we study it under a microscope, the edge is actually jagged.
“Paper is quite sharp,” said Dr. Goldbach. “It cuts us pretty quickly before we have the chance to realize it.”
Additionally, paper is made from wood pulp, cotton and other fibers, which can be left behind in the wound. They are inflammatory, so it’s important to run the cut under water and wash it with a little soap.
Dr. Goldbach added that there are mental* and emotional elements that cause paper cuts to hurt more than other cuts.
“It happens so quickly that we don’t have time to withdraw our hand,” she said. “We tend to be careful with a knife—we’re being careful on purpose because we know there’s a danger.”
If you do get a paper cut, she suggests washing it with soap and water and putting a band-aid on it. She says wounds that are kept moist under a bandage will be less painful and will help the damaged skin cells turn to new ones more quickly.
“If it’s red, if there’s drainage, it looks contaminated or infected, see a doctor immediately,” she warned.
1. According to the passage, how many reasons make paper cuts more painful?| A．Three. | B．Four. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．We’d better use paper as carefully as using a knife all the time. |
| B．It’s dangerous to use a knife so we need to be careful all the time. |
| C．Paper cuts come surprisingly so they make us hurt more than others. |
| D．It’s necessary to know the danger of using paper so we can avoid hurting. |
| A．Results of Cutting by Paper |
| B．Ways to Deal with Paper Cuts |
| C．Be Careful with Paper in Your Hand |
| D．Paper Hurts You More than Expected |
7 . Artificial Intelligence (AI) products are not new. However, researchers have been working to improve the technology. Now AI helpers, like Siri and Alexa, can have short conversations with us. AlphaGo taught itself to play Go and became better than the top human players.
Now an AI system has been tasked with passing a multiple-choice exam. The goal is to improve machines’ language understanding and logic with so-called computer vision.
A system named Aristo was developed by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a lab in the United States city of Seattle. It recently passed an eighth-grade science exam taken by many US students, The New York Times reported. It correctly answered more than 90% of the questions. Then it was given a twelfth-grade exam. It scored more than 80%.
It’s an example of the progress in AI development. Four years ago, 700 computer scientists tried to develop AI systems that could pass these kinds of exams. None scored higher than 60%.
Aristo was able to pass the exams because it can not only understand language but also use logical thinking to solve difficult problems. For example, it can understand what a forest fire is and how it could endanger animals like squirrels or reduce the food supply they need.
The system used BERT, a kind of neural network technology developed by Google, to answer the questions. BERT has “read” thousands of English articles. If it looks at a sentence with a missing word, it can correctly guess what the word is. With BERT’s help, Aristo “read” many multiple-choice questions and answers. Over time, it was able to find logical patterns on its own.
“It may still be in the earliest stages,” said Jingjing Liu, a Microsoft researcher who has been working on similar technologies. “We can’t compare this technology to real human students and their ability to reason.”
However, Aristo’s success means that AI systems are getting better at understanding users, and we might see improved search engines and hospital databases in the near future.
1. Why did scientists develop Aristo?| A．To improve AI’s ability to teach itself. | B．To make better multiple-choice exams. |
| C．To shorten the time AI needs to “read” information. | D．To improve the language understanding and logic of AI. |
| A．It was best at understanding English. | B．It was smarter than most American students. |
| C．It could only deal with science questions. | D．It did better than other AI systems in similar tasks. |
| A．How Aristo teaches itself. | B．How Aristo reads English articles. |
| C．How Google developed BERT. | D．How difficult it was to design Aristo. |
| A．AI will replace humans in many tasks. | B．Humans can’t live without AI in the future. |
| C．Aristo performs better with a larger database. | D．Aristo still cannot compare to human reasoning skills. |
It’s a pity that deaf people, or those who have hearing problems, can’t enjoy music. But now a vibrating suit brings them hope— it can allow them to “feel” music instead of hearing it.
Designed by a technology company, the suit is made up of a body harness ankle and wrist straps”. Music is sent to the suit and then the suit is able to translate it into a number of vibrating beats, which can be felt all over the body. The users can adjust the degrees of the vibrations.
Chase Burton, 33, a deaf filmmaker from Texas, US, has been testing out the suit for four years. He understands that a deaf person’s experience with music is very different. “When I was a kid, I’d lie on the floor above our garage so I could feel the vibrations from my brother’s band rocking out below my body,” Burton said. Now when he wears the vibrating device”, he says the sound hits different parts of his body. “Maybe it will hit me down in my ankles first. And then I’ll start to feel the vibrations in my back. And then I’ll feel some in my wrist,” Burton said.
The designers have been working to make more deaf people experience music through their skin. In 2016, a dozen prototype suits were tested at a Lady Gaga concert in the US. The suit was also tested at a different concert in Las Vegas in 2018. It was given to 150 audience members at the concert where half the audience members were deaf and half could hear.
At the same time, the company has been improving the technology, saying it’s ready to go to market soon. The suit may be used in video games or theme parks. The final goal is to make the technology available to all.
“We truly think that anything that has an audio element can also have a vibrational experience as well,” the company’s director Jordan said.
1. The vibrating suit is a wearable device that can ________.| A．keep deaf people safe | B．teach the deaf to play music |
| C．treat hearing problems | D．help deaf people feel music |
| A．the popularity of the vibrating suit | B．his experience with the vibrating suit |
| C．the development of the vibrating suit | D．his contributions to the vibrating suit |
| A．deaf people’s | B．the designers | C．vibrating suits’ | D．video games |
| A．There will be a lot of difficulties to put the suit into use |
| B．The suit will not just be used by deaf people in the future |
| C．The suit will be so expensive that few people can afford it |
| D．There will be better tools to replace the vibrating suit soon |
9 . Researchers recently discover unusual behavior of chimpanzees living in the forests of West Africa. An adult chimpanzee in the wild would pick up a rock, throw it at a tree while shouting, and then run away. Researchers aren’t certain why the chimpanzees fling the rocks, but they have discovered that they seem to prefer trees that create longer-lasting, more resonant* sounds when struck.
A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, first discovered this behavior three years ago. Because the actions appeared to be localised, the researchers suggested the purpose was a local tradition and was likely to be part of some sort of ritual*. But they weren’t sure what purpose the ritual served. So the group designed more experiments to find out why the chimpanzees were so interested in throwing rocks at trees. This time around, they went to the same areas but set up microphones to get the sounds of stones as they were thrown. While waiting for the chimps to fling the rocks, the researchers threw stones at 13 different kinds of trees in various situations.
“It was quite fun, I have to say,” expert Ammie Kalan tells Science. Researchers analysed all the recordings and found that the chimpanzees seemed to prefer throwing rocks at trees that made lower, longer-lasting sound. Often these were trees that had bared roots*.
In their findings, published in Biology Letters, the researchers write that “low-frequency sounds travel further in the environment and are better suited to long-distance communication.” In addition, more resonant sounds last longer in the environment. But if chimpanzees were looking to communicate, it would be more effective for them to drum on the trees or choose the ones that made the loudest noises when struck.
The researchers found that chimpanzees stick to the same trees and never choose new ones and that location could be a factor. Kalan tells Science that maybe the locations of the trees have something to do with nearby resources like food and water, and the sound is a signal to others about where to find them.
1. What may the underlined word “fling” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．beat | B．store | C．collect | D．throw |
| A．studying the sounds made by chimpanzees |
| B．analysing different sounds from various trees |
| C．exploring the features of trees chosen by chimpanzees |
| D．measuring the lasting time of sounds made by chimpanzees |
| A．To improve the way to communicate. |
| B．To tell others where the resources are. |
| C．To be familiar with the local environment. |
| D．To attract their partners nearby to get together. |
| A．the research of chimpanzees’ unusual behavior |
| B．the way to discover how chimpanzees find the trees they need |
| C．the meaning of finding out how chimpanzees look for resources |
| D．the experiments to study chimpanzees’ actions around the trees |
The way a person’s eyes move can show whether or not the person recognizes someone else— even if he tries to hide it. That is what a team of international researchers reported recently.
Our eyes look at a familiar face differently than they do an Eye Movement unfamiliar one. When people look at unfamiliar faces, their eyes usually move quickly from one feature— like the shape of the nose—to other features. Their eyes move and stop very often as they try to identify the unknown person. However, when looking at a familiar face, people usually pay attention to just a few features.
The researchers wanted to know if people could control their eye movements when trying to hide the fact that they recognized a face. Millen, a psychology researcher at the University of Stirling in Britain, led the team to carry out the study. Millen said humans could recognize a familiar face quickly.
The researchers showed 48 students pictures of both strangers and professors they knew. They asked all the students to try to appear honest but lie about recognizing familiar faces. Half of the test students were told about a method that might help them hide their recognition. The researchers told those students to stop in the same areas when looking at both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Their eyes would start on the person’s forehead. Next, they looked at each eye, then down to ears, the nose, mouth and chin.
Millen said that hiding recognition of a face is actually arduons, especially if you know that person well. She added the more the students tried to hide recognition of a face, the more obvious it was. It turns out that most students who were given suggestions for how to hide their recognition were not able to do so. When looking at a familiar face, their eyes still stopped for longer periods of time and had fewer stops in the face.
Millen hopes that her findings can someday be used in law enforcement. She believes such knowledge could help police officers have a clearer understanding of who is connected to whom in a criminal case.
1. While looking at unfamiliar faces, our eyes usually ________.| A．move at a very low speed | B．hide their movements secretly |
| C．pay special attention to the noses | D．view many different facial features |
| A．what researchers found in the study | B．how researchers did the experiment |
| C．why researchers studied eye movements | D．what researchers could do with the findings |
| A．natural | B．important | C．difficult | D．necessary |
| A．They may show the need of developing new laws. |
| B．They may help find out the truth in a criminal case. |
| C．They may guide the students to learn from the police. |
| D．They may make people get to know strangers quickly. |
