| HEADINGTON CHILDREN’S PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION We’re excited to hold a children’s photography competition this year. We hope children can care more about the daily life around us. The competition is for children aged 10 through 15 who live or go to school in and around Headington and a show of our favourite photos will be shown at Headington Festival on 6th June. Three winners will be chosen. THE PRIZES The winners receive a family ticket to the Science Centre. All the photographs included in the festival show will also be shown at the Science Centre. THE RULES Your photograph should be about people, animals, plants or daily activities. Your photograph must be taken in or around Headington. When you are e-mailing your competition picture to us, please write a very short description of it. For example, “A pet dog I found in my back garden.” Your description will help us to understand why you took the picture. Tell us your name, age, address and what school you go to. Choose the one you are most proud of and email it to us at competition@sciencecenter.com by 20th May. |
| A．A family ticket. | B．A camera. | C．A mobile phone. | D．A pet dog. |
| A．Tell your phone number. |
| B．Buy a family ticket first. |
| C．Write a description for your photo. |
| D．Take your photo in the Science Centre. |
| A．A tourist guide. | B．A history book. |
| C．A medical report. | D．A school magazine. |
Can humans and machines “talk” to each other? We often see this in movies and on TV shows. In the 1960s, in the TV series Star Trek, spaceships could reply to human voice orders. In 1968, in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL 9000 is a computer that human can talk to, it can play chess with humans and fix their spaceship. This type of technology, which help machines understand human speech and act accordingly, is known as voice control, or voice recognition.
Today, voice recognition is not just shown on the screen, but is widely used for everyday tasks. Siri and Alexa, the voice recognition software made by Apple and Amazon, are two examples. You can ask it to do many things, from setting alarms to turning on the television and placing online shopping order.
One of the nice things about voice recognition is that it can be used when we’re on the go. When you’re driving a car or walking down the sidewalk, it can be not easy or even dangerous to pick up your smartphone and type away on the keyboard. With voice recognition, you can focus on whatever you’re doing at the moment while still finishing other tasks.
People with hearing problems can also benefit. Speech recognition can be used to listen to spoken words and turn them into text that deaf people can read. Advanced speech recognition software can even hear words spoken in one language and then translate it into another language.
As voice recognition software becomes more advanced, it will be able to help us in even more ways. So far, most voice recognition technology is not able to recognize specific voices. That is to say, your voice “sounds” the same to the software as your friend’s voice. However, Apple and other companies are already working to develop voice recognition software that replies only to specific voices.
How would this be useful? It could make your things safer. You could set your phone, computer or even other things like your car or home to open only when they hear your voice.
1. Voice recognition is a kind of technology which helps machines ________.| A．protect and fix spaceships | B．play chess controlled by humans |
| C．develop films and shows on TV | D．reply to humans’ voice orders |
| A．deaf people are able to hear spoken words | B．you can do another task while driving cars |
| C．a TV can be asked to show your favorite program | D．your computer can only be opened with your own voice |
| A．The software helping to renew computers. | B．The software used to recognize particular voices. |
| C．The technology used to drive cars for humans. | D．The technology helping to improve software. |
| A．Machines Know Your Voice | B．How to Help Deaf People? |
| C．Is Technology Safe or Not? | D．Technology Creates a Better Life |
The way you squeeze* your toothpaste can say something about your personality. Have a look and find out what kind of people you are.
1.You are a very careful and tidy person. Your house is always clean and your life is very organized. And there is hardly a chance that you will make yourself into a mess.
2.You are an active person and are usually in a bit of rush. When you face a challenge, you are able to pull yourself together and solve it. So you are usually very popular in a group.
3.You work hard to get what you want and reach your goals. You care mainly about yourself and you do everything on your own. So sometimes you may need a little bit company.
4.You see the world in a different light than most people. You’re very artistic and creative. You can find beauty everywhere, as well as the bright sides even in the most terrible situations.
1. The personality can be tested by ________.| A．the colour of the toothpaste | B．the price of the toothpaste |
| C．the way of pressing the toothpaste | D．the taste of the toothpaste |
| A．from the bottom | B．from the middle |
| C．from the end | D．from any part |
| A．likes putting everything in good order | B．solves the problems in an active way |
| C．tries his best to realize his dream | D．produces something new and special |
4 . Smartphones are getting boring. The new models are either a bit faster or have better cameras, but they are basically no different from the ones already in our pockets. This is why scientists are hoping, and working for something new, something that will change our lives just as greatly as smartphones do. At the moment, the next invention might be smart glasses.
Just imagine. Instead of having to pick up your phone and look at the screen, all of the information you need simply appears just in front of you, in your glasses. Satellite navigation (导航) directions would appear right there on the road. And your smart glasses could guide you to the right shelf in the supermarket!
Smart glasses could also be used in industry. They could show engineers the instructions they need to fix things more quickly. A doctor could carry out a difficult operation, guided in real time by someone on the other side of the world.
This may sound impossible. But most of the technologies to invent them are already there. For example, one key technology is called AR, which can make digital 3D objects appear as if they are part of the real world. We’ve used it a lot on our video calls. Similarly, huge progress has been made in spatial audio. This is when a sound is made to give it a sense of place, like what you hear in an empty room. Some high-end earphones can already do that. Future glasses will of course need to recognize (识别) your voice to do tasks. This technology has been widely used in our daily life.
So, why aren’t we all wearing smart glasses yet? So far, no one has invented a good way to send images (映像) of our world onto glasses. However, with the rapid development of technology, smart glasses could arrive much sooner than we think.
1. Why does the writer mention smartphones in Paragraph 1?| A．To start a story. | B．To explain an idea. |
| C．To introduce a topic. | D．To discuss a problem. |
| A．When smart glasses might be made. |
| B．Where smart glasses could be used. |
| C．How smart glasses would give directions. |
| D．Why smart glasses should be changed. |
| A．Making spatial audio. | B．Recognizing voices. |
| C．Creating digital 3D objects. | D．Sending images onto glasses. |
| A．Bored. | B．Confident. | C．Satisfied. | D．Uncertain. |
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence* (AI) system — Ithaca, to help fill in missing words in ancient writings. The system is designed to help historians repair the writings and find out when and where they were written.
Many ancient people used writings, also known as inscriptions*, to record different parts of their lives. The inscriptions have been found on materials such as rock, china and metal. The writings often contained valuable information about how ancient people lived and how they structured their societies. But in many cases, the inscribed objects have been damaged over the centuries. In addition, many of the inscribed objects were moved from areas where they were created. This makes it difficult for scientists to discover when and where the writings were made.
The new AI-based tool helps researchers repair missing inscriptions and estimate the true origins of the records. The researchers, led by Alphabet’s AI company DeepMind, call their tool Ithaca. Ithaca was able to correctly predict* missing inscription elements 62 % of the time. In addition, the tool was 71 % correct in telling where the inscriptions first came from. And the system was able to effectively date writings to within 30 years.
When historians work on their own, the success rate for restoring damaged inscriptions is about 25%. But when humans teamed up with Ithaca to help their work, the success rate jumped to 72%.
Thea Sommerschield, a lead researcher, said she hoped systems like Ithaca “can unlock the cooperative* chance” between AI and humans. In one case, Ithaca proved new evidence presented by historians about the dating of a series of important Greek laws. The laws were first thought to have been written before 446/445 BCE*, but the new in the 420s BCE. Ithaca predicted a date of 421 BCE. Sommerschield said that the date change may seem small. But it has “meaningful influence for our understanding of the political history of Classical Athens,” she added.
The team is currently working on other versions of Ithaca trained on other ancient languages. DeepMind has showed a free, interactive tool based on the system for use by researchers, educators, museum workers and the public.
1. Ithaca can help researchers ________.| A．repair inscriptions | B．record lifestyle |
| C．structure societies | D．discover areas |
| A．25% | B．62% | C．71% | D．72% |
| A．has unlocked the cooperative chance |
| B．predicted a far different date from historians |
| C．proved Greek laws were written in 421 BCE |
| D．has influences on helping understanding history |
| A．introduce a new AI system to us | B．make us interested in Greek laws |
| C．encourage people to join DeepMind | D．teach us how to repair inscriptions |
Have you ever heard of the deepest hole in the world? The entering place to the center of the earth sits in Murmansk, Russia, not far from Norway. I believe I’m not alone in being a little afraid by the deepest hole — Kola Superdeep Borehole. Because of strange and loud voice from the deep hole, local people call it “the well to hell”.
Before the very idea of a Superdeep hole starts coming to your dreams, keep this in mind — the hole is only nine inches in diameter (or 23 cm). There’s no way you could fall into it. Known as the Kola Superdeep Borehole, it reaches about 7.5 miles below the ground (or 12,262 km), which took about 20 years to reach.
The hole was intended to go “as deep as possible”, which researchers expected to be around 9 miles (or 14,500 m). But the scientists and engineers were forced to give up when they hit unexpectedly high temperatures. The 2.7 billion-year-old rocks there reached temperatures of around 180℃. This was almost twice as hot as they’d predicted. Such high temperatures changes the form of the drill. The rocks themselves are also more easily changed. The Russian scientists in Kola described the rocks in that deep hole as more like plastic than rock.
Since the drilling was stopped in 1992, and the project site was given up around ten years later, the Kola Superdeep Borehole has maintained the record for the deepest man-made point on earth. Humans have since dug longer boreholes, including the 12,289-meter borehole drilled in the A1 Shaheen Oil Field in Qatar and the 12,345-meter offshore oil well near the Russian island of Sakhalin. But the hole in Kola remains the deepest.
1. According to the passage, where is the deepest hole (★ )?A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．the rocks there were too hard |
| B．the temperature there was too high |
| C．they needed more money to keep working |
| D．they didn’t have proper tools to keep digging |
| A．broken | B．lost | C．kept | D．hidden |
| A．which is still the deepest point | B．which you can fall into easily |
| C．which is 2.7 billion years old | D．which was given up in 1992 |
7 . The holiday season is often called the “giving season”. People give gifts and have celebrations. However, this can lead to a lot of waste. Experts recently gave some ways to reduce the amount of waste.
Gift wrap
You can use reusable bags for gifts. You can also wrap gifts in old maps and pages from magazines. You could also wrap a gift in a colorful scarf or tablecloth. This makes the wrapping cloth part of the gift itself.
Holiday cards
For many people, sending holiday cards is a tradition. However, now many people use electronic cards. People are more accepting of electronic holiday cards and get just as much joy out of it.
Decorations
For decorating the home, natural plants can be used to make a room beautiful and smell nice! And one expert suggests using old holiday cards as decorations. Experts also suggest using newer energy-saving lights.
The tree
If people want a Christmas tree, the question is often fake or real.
“The greener choice would be buying a real Christmas tree from a local farm.” says Ozawa, “New ones are replanted every year.” In the US, many cities and towns deal with the holiday trees into a usable product, like small wood pieces for the garden. If you do buy a fake tree, plan to use it for many years.
Tableware
When having a celebration, avoid single-use plastics. Use more environmentally-friendly options, like regular plates and cups.
1. This passage mainly introduces ________.| A．how to choose gifts | B．how to reduce waste |
| C．how to celebrate holidays | D．how to give presents |
| A．Old maps. | B．Regular cups. |
| C．Energy-saving lights. | D．New holiday cards. |
| A．To make single-use cups. | B．To reuse them the next year. |
| C．To send back to farms. | D．To use them in gardens. |
Every time you start a trip at the airport, you should go through the security cheek. Well, what’s being done to you and your bags, and how does airport security work these days?
At the security line, the first thing you can see is probably the bag scanner. It uses X-rays to scan objects inside your bag, as well as how dense they are. One side of the machine sends out both low and high-energy X-rays, which pass through your bag and hit detectors on the other side. Objects with lower density, like something made of organic materials, will allow more of the lower-energy X-rays to pass through. And things with higher density will take in most of the low-energy X-rays, and allow some of the higher-energy X-rays to pass through.
Based on the X-rays that reach the detectors, the machine generates an image that shows all the different objects in your bag. The image describes not only the shapes of the objects, but also their materials by representing them with different colors. Organic matter like gas is coloured orange. Metal is marked with blue.
That’s important for security to know, because explosives are likely to contain organic matter. The security team analyze the image for anything suspicious, like the outline of a gun or organic materials hidden inside socks.
While your bag goes through the X-ray machine, you’ve probably been asked to walk into a big machine called millimeter wave scanner and raise your hands. Instead of X-rays, the scanner send out microwaves. So it can’t damage your DNA, and you needn’t worry about exposure. Millimeter waves can go through clothing, so they can still show if you’ re hiding something that isn’t allowed.
If security finds anything in your bag that looks suspicious, they might swab your hands, your shoes, or your bag for traces of explosives, then place the swab in another machine called Explosives Trace Detection machine for analysis. It can identify different compounds.
Besides using those machines, dogs are also trained to detect certain smell. The most recent and exciting try to security is he training of honeybees!While this hasn’t been realised yet, the idea is truly fascinating.
1. The bag scanner can discover different things inside a bag by ________.| A．taking in different kinds of X-rays | B．scanning the organic materials |
| C．checking the density of the objects | D．sending out high-energy X-rays |
| A．repairs | B．corrects | C．downloads | D．produces |
| A．swab your hands or shoes first | B．make you go through a machine |
| C．operate a kind of X-ray machine | D．identify the material of your clothing |
| A．Secrets behind the Security Work | B．The Invention of Security’ Machines |
| C．The Improvement in Airport Security | D．Functions of Microwaves in Security Check |
9 . Zaouli is a traditional mask dance of Guro group in Cote D’lvoire, Africa. Created in the 1980s, the dance has various stories behind the origin, but most people agree it was inspired by a beautiful girl called Djela Lou Zaouli.
Although Zaouli was named after a girl and represents the beauty of women, it’s only performed by men. Each Guro village has its own Zaouli dancer. They dance at celebrations, funerals and other special events. And the dance is supposed to bring wealth and peace.
Traditionally, masks play an important role in Ivorian culture. Zaouli is no exception. Usually with decorations of snakes and birds, the Zaouli mask can take up to 6 days to make. It shows a woman’s thin and smiling face, and isn’t expected to be seen until the start of the dance. Moreover, the process of putting on the mask is considered sacred, so filming isn’t allowed. Once the dancer puts on the mask, he’s no longer himself, moving even faster as if he’s taken over by the mask’s superhuman spirit.
Zaouli is extremely physically demanding. The dancer holds his body still while his legs perform a great number of different moves fast. During one performance, he never repeats those moves. They may look similar, but the complexity of his feet movements is very difficult to figure out and amazing to watch. On average it takes a dancer seven years to perfect his moves.
Known as the “most impossible dance in the world”, this energetic dance mixes many elements of Ivorian culture. In 2017, it was added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It even appeared on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala in 2018. In recent years, Zaouli has gone popular on international social media like Tik Tok and Facebook.
1. Zaouli is a kind of dance ________.| A．performed by Guro men | B．seen as a symbol of happiness |
| C．created by a girl called Djela | D．brought to Africa a century ago |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．remains doing the same moves | B．does lots of moves fast with his whole body |
| C．puts much energy into the moves | D．lowers the difficulty of his moves to be perfect |
| A．To record the history of Zaouli. | B．To offer some ways to learn Zaouli. |
| C．To enjoy the beauty of Zaouli masks. | D．To give some information about Zaouli. |
10 . If you look around the room you are in right now, you’ll probably notice a number of electronics. But can you imagine if they all had to be joined together by wires (电线)? Picture the wire snaking along the floor, for example, from your smartphone to your speaker, or connecting your game controller to the computer screen, meaning you could never sit more than a couple of meters away from it. A world of electronics connected by wires wouldn’t just be untidy, but a possible danger, too. That’s where Bluetooth comes in. We’ve all heard of it — but what exactly is it?
Bluetooth is a method of short-distance (短距离) wireless communication between electronics that makes use of the power of radio waves. The idea was first thought of by Dr. Janp Haartsen at Swedish mobile company Ericsson in 1994. Things really stepped up in September 1998 when the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) was set up to develop and spread the technology. Bluetooth 1.0 came out in 1999, and a year later it began to be used in mobile phones and desktop computers. Now Bluetooth has become an increasingly popular way of solving the problem of more and more electronics needing to be connected. without having to connect everything together with wires.
But if you look at the remote control (温控器) you use to choose the program on TV, you might rightly ask yourself why Bluetooth was such a big deal. After all, connecting objects with infrared signals (红外信号) which can’t be seen had been done before. The problem with remote controls is that they need to keep what is called “line of sight”. If something is standing between the remote control and receiver, it won’t work. Because Bluetooth uses radio waves, the things standing in the way are no longer a problem.
Since its creation in the late 1990s, the technology has become more and more improved and widely used, with the 4 billionth Bluetooth objects shipped in 2020.
1. How does the writer lead in the topic “Bluetooth” in Paragraph 1?| A．By describing scenes. | B．By comparing facts. | C．By telling stories. | D．By explaining reasons. |
| A．started to be used in cars | B．made radio waves known to people |
| C．improved and spread quickly | D．was able to connect all electronics |
| A．development | B．popularity | C．standard | D．advantage |
| A．Phone sellers | B．Technology fans | C．Newspaper reporters | D．History lovers |
