1 . The idea of growing food in a desert would make most people laugh but this is quickly becoming a reality. There are currently two desert farms in the world where quality vegetables are being planted cheaply and easily.
Sundrop Farms, based in South Australia, uses experimental greenhouses to grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. The biggest challenge of growing food in a desert, obviously, is the lack of available water. The researchers at Sundrop Farms have gotten around this problem by using the sun to desalinate（淡化）sea water. It can also be used to control the temperature of the greenhouses.
Without depending on limited resources such as land and fresh water, Sundrop Farms has made farming a practice. This can increase the world’s food supplies. Another benefit of this kind of farming is that it can be done anywhere, thus reducing the costs of transporting food to distant locations. Yet another benefit is that it reduces the need for pesticides（杀虫剂）.
Another experimental desert farm is the Sahara Forest Project, which began in Qatar in December 2012. Greenhouses in the farm are cooled by saltwater. Solar power and other technologies are used together to help make vegetation（植被）grow in the desert environment. As deserts have expanded over recent years around the world due to global warming, this project could solve the problem.
The result form the Qatar project were better than expected and in June of 2014, Jordan agreed to host another one. This will be much bigger than the Qatar project and the project members will have even more opportunities to test their experiments on a much larger scale. It is not clear yet that desert farming represents the future of farming but these projects have shown some success in the field.
1. What does “this problem” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Sea water is hard to purify. |
| B．The desert is short of water. |
| C．The temperature is high in the desert. |
| D．Desert farms aren’t fit to plant vegetables. |
| A．It needs more pesticides. | B．It saves delivery costs. |
| C．It has a location limit. | D．It solves food waste problems. |
| A．It lives up to expectations. |
| B．It can help produce more food. |
| C．It is started to prevent global warming. |
| D．It uses technology to produce saltwater. |
| A．It still has problems to solve. |
| B．It represents the future of farming. |
| C．Its early success has aroused interest in it. |
| D．Its aim is to create more job opportunities. |
We have had lots of technology and it has changed our lives
Global Positioning System(GPS)(全球定位系统)
It's a system that uses radio signals from satellites to
Underwater Robot
Hercules is a kind of
The world is changing
| A．methods | B．parts | C．ways | D．effect |
| A．matters | B．problems | C．ways | D．facts |
| A．a lot | B．lots of | C．little of | D．a little |
| A．improve | B．change | C．buy | D．use |
| A．help | B．show | C．understand | D．achieve |
| A．that | B．why | C．which | D．where |
| A．looked up | B．made up | C．set up | D．got up |
| A．water | B．underground | C．underwater | D．ground |
| A．using | B．be used | C．to use | D．use |
| A．their | B．its | C．her | D．his |
| A．too | B．very | C．so | D．much |
| A．so | B．and | C．because | D．why |
| A．of | B．for | C．to | D．with |
| A．And | B．But | C．Or | D．So |
| A．keep up | B．fall behind | C．stay away | D．hide from |
When you think of robots, you might think of something to finish boring tasks,
Howie Choset at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh is a roboticist, a person
After he started working at Carnegie Mellon, Choset and his colleagues there began developing
| A．and | B．but | C．so |
| A．which | B．whom | C．who |
| A．moved | B．laughed | C．jumped |
| A．to | B．as | C．with |
| A．working with | B．working on | C．working out |
| A．so | B．if | C．but |
| A．his | B．their | C．her |
| A．inside | B．outside | C．below |
| A．suddenly | B．quietly | C．usually |
| A．against | B．across | C．through |
4 . Wouldn’t it be nice to have a robot do your housework? Imagine not having to vacuum (吸尘) or clean your room! Today, many scientists and researchers are
Today, scientists and researchers are making great progress in the
A different type of robot, which you may not
| A．working out | B．working on | C．learning | D．busy |
| A．much easier | B．easily | C．easy | D．more easily |
| A．develop | B．developing | C．developed | D．development |
| A．build | B．built | C．building | D．named |
| A．look | B．is looking | C．was looked | D．looks |
| A．special | B．especial | C．especially | D．actually |
| A．consider as | B．treated as | C．regarded as | D．think of |
| A．make sure | B．make | C．keep | D．be sure of |
| A．But | B．If | C．Although | D．When |
| A．can | B．could | C．to sure | D．to be able to |
5 . Do you want to know what our life will be like in the future? Let’s have a look. You may be surprised!
You will go to the kitchen when you are hungry. You will give orders to the kitchen robot. The robot will prepare the food for you in a few minutes. Then it will send it to you.
In the kitchen you will find a special food machine. The food machine will tell you what your body needs. It will help you eat healthily. The food machine will connect with the kitchen robot. The robot can get signals(信号) and messages from the food machine.
After having a meal, you can go to your home office. You will work at home and you don’t need to go out to work any more.
You will have a special information screen. You can get any information on the screen. When you receive a message from a friend in America, your information screen will be turned on automatically(自动地). Your friend’s face appears on the screen. The screen will translate English into Chinese. And the Chinese words appear at the bottom.
1. What is the second paragraph about?| A．It’s about healthy food. |
| B．It’s about the kitchen robot. |
| C．It’s about a nice kitchen. |
| D．It’s about a robot which can do homework. |
| A．the kitchen robot |
| B．the food machine |
| C．the information screen |
| D．the computer |
| A．菜单 | B．机器 | C．信息 | D．笔记 |
| A．on the wall | B．on the screen |
| C．on the Internet | D．on TV |
| A．Work place. | B．Food machine. |
| C．Information screen. | D．Mini computer. |
6 . The Chinese girl Zheng Daizi is a famous
The cellphone had a bio-battery. It gets power from sugar. So users only need to put a glass of cola into it, and then watch the cola turn into
In fact, Zheng said that
| A．student | B．designer | C．scientist | D．inventor |
| A．bad | B．good | C．wonderful | D．useful |
| A．make | B．invent | C．change | D．discover |
| A．white | B．red | C．green | D．blue |
| A．water | B．wine | C．cola | D．juice |
| A．drink | B．water | C．power | D．oxygen |
| A．powered | B．killed | C．made | D．left |
| A．last | B．develop | C．open | D．close |
| A．shorter | B．longer | C．faster | D．bigger |
| A．in addition to | B．except for | C．instead of | D．not only |
| A.directions B. part C.signs D.easier E.active |
Every now and then, you may hear satellites sent into space.Why do we need so many satellites? What do they do for us?
At present, there are more than 3,000
For example, the 22 satellites China sent up on February 27 are
| A. predict B.united C.disasters D.block E.distances |
Before we have satellites, TV signals didn’t reach very far. Mountains or tall buildings would
Satellites can also provide information about clouds,oceans,land and ice. They help scientists
8 . Imagine the situation. You are driving alone on a mountain. You have no, idea where you are. You passed the last house two hours ago. Then your car breaks down. It is night and it is cold. You have no mobile phone. What do you do? Well, next time take a GPS with you. This device（装置）may be able to help you. It uses satellites to find the users' position. It can find your position within 20 metres. A GPS cannot start your car, but at least you will know where you are.
The GPS (the Global Positioning System) is a small radio receiver. It looks like a mobile phone. You can hold it in your hand, or put it in your pocket. It is sometimes put into a watch or a telephone. We also find GPS devices in cars, planes or boats. Some of these devices have electronic maps, so you know where you are. For example, they can tell you the name of the street in a city.
There are three parts of the Global Positioning System. The first part is the receiver. You can hold it in your hand or fix it into your car, plane, etc. The second part is a group of satellites orbiting （绕……轨道运行）the Earth. The third part of the system is a network of ground stations. They are all over the world. They control the satellites and make sure they are working well.
Some people think that in the future the GPS will be as common as the mobile phone. They are becoming cheaper and better. There are also new uses for the GPS. Perhaps they will become like watches. Everyone will have one and you will never be lost again.
1. According to the passage, with the help of the GPS, __________.| A．your car will not break down | B．you can find out where you are |
| C．you can start your car faster | D．you can call for help |
| A．the GPS is a new kind of mobile phone |
| B．the GPS can't be put in a boat or a plane |
| C．the GPS will be more and more expensive |
| D．the GPS includes a group of satellites |
| A．systems | B．ground stations | C．satellites | D．receivers |
| A．the history of the GPS | B．the shape of the GPS |
| C．the introduction of the GPS | D．the three parts of the GPS |
| A．Confident. | B．Surprised. | C．Sorry. | D．Worried. |
9 . George Devol who came from the USA designed the first programmable robot in 1969. It meant that the robot age had started from then on. However, in about 989 BC, during western Zhou Dynasty, a Chinese man whose name was Yan Shi made a wood robot. It looked like a real man and it was able to do many actions. It was good at dancing and it has a heart, a stomach and other things in its body. It also had teeth and hair. It could express its feelings by using its eyes. Its eyes could move and could show love to women, but it couldn't laugh. It was probably the earliest robot in the world.
Not all robots always look like humans. They have various shapes. They are clever and they can do all kinds of jobs, especially difficult and dangerous jobs. They are widely used in factories, banks, hospitals and other places. In the future, robots will make fewer mistakes, even can correct themselves and they will be smarter. It's possible that we will have a robot in our own home. They will do more things for us. We will have more free time to have a rest, to relax ourselves with the help of robots. I believe that we can have a better life.
1. What started the robot age?| A．The first programmable robot. | B．The Chinese robot. |
| C．The wood robot. | D．The small robot. |
| A．Dance. | B．Tempt women with eyes. |
| C．Express its feelings with eyes. | D．laugh. |
| A．About 50 years old. | B．About 100 years old. |
| C．About 2,000 years old. | D．About 3,000 years old. |
| A．Now robots are in all kinds of shapes. |
| B．Now robots can do kind of difficult jobs. |
| C．Now robots can help people do most of jobs. |
| D．Now robots can help doctors in some ways. |
| A．Robots. | B．The history of robots. |
| C．The robots' usage and start. | D．People and robots. |
If yes, you’re not alone. These days, many people are facing the stress in the use of mobile phones. They reach for their mobile phones when they wake up in the morning, and keep checking their social media apps to get the latest updates (更新).
A report from Google shows that 70 percent of people don’t want to spend much time on their phones. This is why Google introduced an app called Dashboard for the new Android operating system(安卓操作系统). This new app includes functions (功能) that help users manage the time. For example, users can see how many times they’ve unlocked their phone, how many times they’ve checked their social media apps, and how much time they spend on each app every day.
Once the users see this information, they’ll be able to make some changes. With the App Timer (计时) function, users can set a time limit for how long they can use each app for every day. After they’ve hit the limit, they won’t be able to use the app until the next day. And with another function, the app gets incoming calls silent when the user puts the phone face down.
If people truly want to make full use of their free time instead of losing hours on their phones, these new functions are just one way of doing that.
After all, who needs to use an app to stop you from using other apps? The easiest answer would be just to use your willpower.
1. Where does the users’ stress come from?
| A．Too many updates of the apps. | B．Too many functions of the apps. |
| C．Too much information they receive. | D．Too much time they spend on the phone. |
| A．It stops the users from using willpower. |
| B．It checks how much time the users spend on apps. |
| C．It lists how many times the users have unlocked the phone. |
| D．It shows how many times the users have checked social media apps. |
| A．目的 | B．标准 | C．许可 | D．限制 |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Its design is perfect. | B．It may be helpful to some people. |
| C．It needs more functions. | D．It has too many functions. |
