2 . AI(人工智能)makes our lives easier and better. Let's see the amazing AI.

Cool driverless bus

A bus door opens and you get on. Wait! Where is the driver? Here is a new kind of driverless bus called Apolong. It has 14 seats and doesn't need a driver. The bus follows traffic rules. It stops as soon as it sees a stop light.

Your close friend

Hi, everyone. I'm Xiaobing, a chatbot (聊天机器人). I speak like a 17—year—old girl. If you feel lonely, you can talk with me. I'm talented at singing, writing poems and telling stories. I want to be your friend!

World's first AI anchor (主播)

Hey, look! The famous Chinese anchor Qiu Hao is reporting the news for us. But, is "he" really Qiu Hao? The answer is "no". This is the world's first Al anchor. It looks and speaks just like a real person. It can work 24 hours and doesn't make any mistakes. You might see it on TV soon.

Popular AI artist

This beautiful painting was at an auction(拍卖)in 2020. The painting is worth about 3, 000000 yuan! But it is not a work by a famous painter, such as Vincent van Gogh. It was painted by an AI arts. Three Frenchmen created the Al artist It studied over 15, 000 paintings. In this way, it learned to paint.

1. The fact about Apolong is that   ________.

A．the bus door can't open itself	B．it stops as soon as it sees a stop light
C．there are 24 seats in it	D．it doesn't follow the traffic rules

2. Xiaobing can NOT   ________.

A．go out to play with you	B．talk with you if you feel lonely
C．sing	D．be your friend

3. The painting   ________.

A．was at an auction in 2019

B．is worth about 3, 000, 000 yuan at an auction

C．is a work painted by Vincent van Gogh

D．was studied by three French artists over 15, 000 times

4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．AI makes our lives harder and worse.

B．This new kind of driverless bus also needs a driver to control it.

C．Xiaobing is a 17—year—old girl.

D．The AI anchor can work 24 hours and doesn't make any mistakes.

5. We can probably read the passage in   ________.

A．a storybook

B．a notice

C．a newspaper

D．a novel

3 . Fill in the blanks with proper words (在短文的空格内填入适当的词，使其内容通顺。每空格限填一词，首字母已给)。

On Dec 9, three Chinese astronauts who are working aboard the Tiangong Space Station, gave a lecture above Earth and showed millions of students their life there. They also did some fun s    1     experiments. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Use it or lose it

The human body grows with the pull of Earth’s gravity (重力). But in space, our bones and muscles don’t need to s    2     our body’s weight. This will cause bone and muscle loss. It is said that astronauts can lose up to 20 percent of their muscles after just a couple of weeks. That is dangerous for astronauts because they will be too w    3     to work.

Astronauts have different ways to prevent this. During the lecture, Zhai introduced a special uniform Ye was wearing. It’s called a “penguin suit”. It can keep their muscles strong.

Wang also showed students how she walked on a treadmill (跑步机) and rode a bicycle. Astronauts usually e    4     with these tools every day to keep their body strong.

Space water is different

During another experiment, Wang made a water film (膜). Then she added more water drops onto the film to make it a water ball. But this can n    5     happen on Earth. Why?

We need to first u    6     the surface tension (表面张力) of water. Surface tension is like a “skin” of water. The “skin” is there because water molecules (分子) are drawn to each other. One example on the Earth is that some bugs (昆虫) can “walk on water”. Most of the time, gravity is too strong and it breaks the “skin”. But with zero gravity in space, the “skin” stays much stronger and the water ball will not b    7    .

Space water is different in many other ways from that on Earth. For example, water will not flow downward if you try to pour it into a cup. If astronauts cry, the tears will not fall down. They have to wipe them away!

4 . By using the “Culture and Tourism e-Village”, programme, which can be found on WeChat, visitors now can enjoy the sightseeing of 1,594 villages and 877 towns in East China’s Jiangsu Province on their phones.

The programme, developed by the Jiangsu Cultural Center, is made up of several parts, countryside tourism, e-business of cultural tourism and voluntary service.

For visitors, it gives introductions, pictures and travel guidance of many villages. It allows visitors to check villages by using VR (虚拟现实) technology, learn about local histories and attractions there, and book homestay hotels. For example, Qingdun Village of Hai’an City has used VR technology to present the whole village on the programme. Travelers who are interested in Qingdun can learn about it by simply clicking on the screen.

For farmers, it allows them to advertise their hometown, attend online training and take part in more cultural and tourism activities.

“I sell more grapes and strawberries by using the programme, ” said Zhang Feng, a villager from Baitu Town, Zhenjiang City. “I have faith (信心) in the quality (质量) of   my products, but I had trouble selling them. Our town has been known to more people since it appeared on the programme and our products have drawn more attention. Many villagers have enjoyed a better life with Baitu Town becoming famous,” he said happily.

To attract more users, the programme also holds different kinds of online activities, including short video competitions, cultural products designs and photography competitions. According to the Jiangsu Cultural Center, the programme will cooperate (合作) with more key tourism villages in Jiangsu to develop the province’s countryside tourism.

1. What is the “Culture and Tourism e-Village” programme for?

A．Self learning.	B．Voluntary service.
C．Online teaching.	D．Online sightseeing.

2. According to paragraph 3, what can WeChat users do?

A．Book village hotels.

B．Study Chinese history.

C．Talk with travel guides.

D．Develop VR technology.

3. Why are the local farmers happy about the programme?

A．They can grow more fruits.

B．Their product sales have increased.

C．They can offer online activities.

D．Their product quality has improved.

4. What can we infer (推断) from the last paragraph?

A．More and more provinces will join in the programme.

B．The programme will hold different kinds of online activities.

C．The countryside tourism of Jiangsu Province will become better.

D．People in Jiangsu Province are losing interest in the programme.

5. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

A．WeChat Introduces the Beauty of Jiangsu

B．VR Technology Makes Traveling Faster

C．Online Competitions Help Villages Sell

D．Programme Helps Countryside Tourism

5 . It's reported that a Chinese company has created a new facial recognition system that can identify (识别) people even if they are wearing masks. Developers began working on the new system in January 2020 when the novel coronavirus appeared in China. The fast spread of the virus has led most people to wear masks in public to protect themselves and people around.

China is regarded as a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence (AI). According to engineers at the Beijing-based Hanwang Technology Ltd, this system is the first to be created to identify people wearing face masks. A team of 20 engineers completed it in about a month, adding a collection of about 6 million unmasked faces and a smaller collection of masked faces," the company said.

Hanwang is now selling two main kinds of products using the new technology. One performs single channel recognition (单通道识别), which will be used at the entrances to buildings. The other product is a multi-channel (多通道识别) recognition system that uses groups of cameras. It's said that the multi-channel system can identify a person in a crowd of up to 30 people within a second.

When people wear a mask, the recognition rate   can reach about 95 percent," said Huang Lei, Hanwang's vice president. The system's success rate for people without wearing a mask is about 99. 5 percent."

Nowadays the new system is trying to identify people with both sunglasses and a mask. In such cases, all of the key facial information is lost, making recognition hard," Huang said.

1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly want to tell us?

A．The truth that people should wear masks in public.

B．The reason why a new facial recognition system was created.

C．The time when the novel coronavirus appeared in China.

2. How is the facial recognition system able to recognize masked faces?

A．After many unmasked and masked faces are stored in it.

B．After just a large collection of masked faces are added to it.

C．After 20 engineers work hard for a month.

3. What do we know about the multi—channel recognition system?

A．It can identify people with sunglasses and masks.

B．It can be found at the entrances to buildings.

C．Many cameras are used at the same time.

4. Which part of the head does the system mainly pay attention to when a person wears a mask?

A．The hair.

B．The ears.

C．The eyes.

5. The writer wrote the passage to________.

A．show the rapid development of China

B．explain the popularity of AI

C．introduce a new recognition system

6 . China sent two astronauts into space on Monday, October 20th, 2016. Their journey marks (标志着)the beginning of China’s human space flight. A rocket sent a Shenzhou-11 spacecraft with astronauts Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng into space. China sent the rocket at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center(卫星发射中心). Chen is 37 years old. This is his first space flight. But Jing has done this before—it is his third space flight. He will turn 50 years old soon. People all over the world watched a live broadcast happily.

After two days in Earth’s orbit (轨道)the spacecraft will link with China’s lab, called the Tiangong-2. The astronauts will spend 30 days on the Tiangong-2. They plan to do science and spacecraft experiments and tests for a future space station. China also plans to send a special module around 2018. The main task of Tiangong-2 is to practise the technologies. This is China’s first-ever space station. So far, China is making great progress. Until now, China has made five manned space missions. In 2003, it successfully landed on the moon. China hopes to land on Mars by 2020.

1. When did China send two astronauts into space?
________________________________________________
2. What sent a Shenzhou-11 spacecraft with astronauts Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng into space?
________________________________________________
3. How old is Chen Dong?
________________________________________________
4. How long will it take for astronauts to stay on the Tiangong-2?
________________________________________________
5. What's the main task of Tiangong-2?
________________________________________________
6. What do you think of the two astronauts Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng? Why?
________________________________________________

7 . The Internet joins millions of computers all over the world, and today it is used by people all over the world. It was invented in the 1960s in the USA. The American government needed a network of computers for its army. Then in the 1970s scientists and business people also wanted to use the Internet to send and receive messages. For some years, they weren’t allowed to use the US network, and when they were allowed to, the messages were in very simple text without photos.

The World Wide Web was invented by a British scientist named Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. He wanted to send documents to other scientists, so he developed the World Wide Web. This allowed him to send and receive scientific documents with text, drawings and photos(also called multimedia documents). In the 1990s, more and more people began to use the Internet and the World Wide Web.

So what’s the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web?The Internet is the hardware. It allows us to communicate with other people. The World Wide Web is the software. It allows us to create, see and read multimedia documents.

The Web is made up of millions of documents called Web pages. These pages are held in computers all over the world. Many people have a favorite website with a number of Web pages on the same subject.

The email is a way of using your computer to send and receive messages. It’s cheaper and quicker to use emails than send normal mails. New users call the normal mail “snail mail” because it’s too slow. It took 50 years for 100 million people to listen to the radio. It took 15 years for 100 million people to watch television. By the year 2000, it had taken only about three years for 100 million people to use the Internet. What will happen next on the Internet?

1. The Internet was first invented for _________.

A．scientific work

B．the American army

C．business people

D．the American government

2. The World Wide Web was invented to ________.

A．communicate with others	B．create,see and read documents
C．send and receive scientific documents	D．send and receive simple text without photos

3. The Internet and the World Wide Web began to be widely used ________.

A．in the 1970s

B．in the 1990s

C．in the late of 1980s

D．by the year 2000

4. The writer wrote the last paragraph to show that ________.

A．the Internet has a greater influence than radio and TV	B．radio and TV will be replaced by computers
C．the use of the Internet spreads very quickly	D．people spend much more time on the Internet

5. The best title of the passage may be “________”.

A．The effect of the greatest invention	B．The development of the Internet
C．The movement of new technology	D．The history of the World Wide Web

8 . There are countless myths（神话）to explain how the world came to have a moon to bring light to the night time. But now there is a plan for a man-made moon. It will give us far more light than the natural Moon.

China is preparing to put a man-made moon in the sky above Chengdu by 2020. It will reflect sunlight back on to the Earth. If it succeeds, three more such objects will be sent out in 2022, according to Wu Chunfeng, a space scientist. Wu said it would be similar to how we get moonlight, but he predicted that the man-made moon would have eight times the brightness of the real one. “This is because the object will be about 500 kilometers above the Earth. That will make it a lot closer to us than the Moon, which is over 380,000 kilometers away,” Wu added.

If the plan works, the man-made moon will save a lot of power. Scientists predict that Chengdu could save around 1.2 billion yuan in electricity every year if a new moon lit up 50 square kilometers of the city. And in 2022, four man-made moons can take turns to work as they will not always be in the best position（位置）relative to the Sun. Together, they can give light to an area of up to 6, 400 square kilometers on the Earth for 24hours. That means its brightness will be seen in most areas in China, reducing the need for streetlights.

1. Above which city is China preparing to put a man-made moon in the sky by 2020?

A．Beijing

B．Shanghai

C．Chengdu

D．Wuhan

2. The underlined word “reflect” in Paragraph2 means“________”.

A．吸收

B．反射

C．照耀

D．覆盖

3. The man-made moon will be about ________above the Earth.

A．500 kilometers

B．380,000 kilometers

C．50 kilometers

D．6,400 kilometers

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The man-made moon will be as bright as the natural one.

B．The man-made moon will work similarly to the natural one.

C．The man-made moon has already lit up the city of Chengdu.

D．The man-made moonlight will cover the whole china.

5. Which part of a newspaper may this passage be from?

A．Culture

B．Sports

C．Education

D．Science

9 . Today there are already robots working in factories. Some can    1    (help) to build cars, and they do simple jobs over and over again. Fewer people will do such jobs in the future    2    they are boring, but robots will never get bored.

Scientists are now    3    (try) to make robots look like humans and do    4    same things as we do. Some robots in Japan can walk and dance. They are fun to watch. However, some scientists believe it will be    5    (difficulty) to make them really think like a human.

Scientists also believe that there will be    6    (many) robots in the future. These new robots will have many different    7    (shape). Some will look like humans, and others might look like animals.    8    India, scientists make robots that look like snakes. If buildings fall down with people inside,     9    (this) snake robots can help look for people under the buildings. This was not possible 20 years ago, but computers and rockets also seemed    10    (possible) 100 years ago. We never know what will happen in the future.

10 .

	FUTURE VIEW
			It will be great if there is some kind of fuel(燃料）we can use in cars that won’t produce any   pollution. I guess there are scientists right now trying to do that, and I hope they’ll succeed because the world would be a much cleaner place, wouldn’t it? Charlie
	I think it will be great if they invent something so that we only have to sleep for one or two hours every day. Then we’d all have much more time to do things and to enjoy ourselves. Life would be better, I think, and everyone would do a lot more with their lives. Miguel
	If I could choose anything, I’d go for a time machine so that I could go back and do some things differently. Of course, It will be great if there that’s impossible— but wouldn't it be great if it was possible? I wish I could go back in time to when I was a kid and say some of the things in a different way! Hannah
	Well, of course, the best thing is medicine for rally bad diseases（疾病）.A lot of scientists are working very hard to stop diseases like Ebola, a terrible disease that has killed many thousand people in Africa. So if they found a special treatment for Ebola, or a way of completely preventing it, life would be easier in so many places. Isabella
I wish there was a machine that did homework! Wouldn’t that be fantastic? But I guess teachers wouldn’t be very happy. Georgina

1. Why does Hannah want to go back in time?

A．To be young again.	B．To live a better life.
C．To do something for Africans.	D．To say some words differently.

2. Who might be worried about the pollution of the world?

A．Miguel.

B．Isabella.

C．Charlie.

D．Georgina.

3. In which part of a newspaper may this passage appear?

A．Health.

B．Science.

C．Travel.

D．Education.