1 . J. K. Rowling frequently shows there is magic every day. Her Harry Potter series has helped people through times of stress and depression and she is always there to deliver wise words of encouragement.
She is one celebrity who is very active on Twitter. So when a single dad named Matt Burke sent her a message thanking her for the series, she noticed. Her series had helped strengthen his relationship with his 9yearold daughter Bailey.
He included a link to his article titled Being a Broke Parent. He explained how he hadn’t found a level of financial stability that allowed him to pay bills on time and take his daughter on more activities and events. The family also doesn’t have the Internet or TV, which means there’s no “digital babysitter” and he has to rely on his own creative ways to bond with his daughter. Since he received the series, the main thing that has occupied them these days is reading books together.
Burke admits that he thought he was “too cool” for the books when they first came out and he was in his twenties, but he’s loving reading them now. “We switch off chapter by chapter reading them out loud，“Burke explains.” This not only allows her to get more used to reading aloud in front of someone, but it gets me directly involved in something she loves, and it gives me the chance to be very dramatic when I read my chapters and bring myself into the characters in the book, which has proven to be a ton of fun.”
After hearing Burke’s story, Rowling said how honored she was when Harry Potter was a part of his family’s life and offered Burke more books. Besides, people are also offering to send Burke more books as gifts. For Burke, this experience, far more than gifts, will be what he treasures.
1. Why did Burke thank J. K. Rowling according to the text?| A．She guided him how to write a good story. |
| B．She encouraged him when he was in trouble. |
| C．Her books helped him through times of confusion. |
| D．Her books helped him improve his bond with his daughter. |
| A．He has found it interesting to read the series. | B．He was too old to understand the series better. |
| C．He has chosen a better way of reading the series. | D．He hopes to play a role in the drama in the future. |
| A．Useless. | B．Normal. | C．Valuable. | D．Boring. |
| A．J. K. Rowling chooses to help improve kids’ health. |
| B．J. K. Rowling gives a magical gift to a single father. |
| C．J. K. Rowling has a deep influence on others’ growth. |
| D．Burke comes to know J. K. Rowling through her series. |
2 . Some Ohio high school students have become winners in a national contest (竞赛) after inventing a mobile phone app that helps needy families find local food pantries (公益食品仓库).
And someday the teens, who are students at Ross High School in Ross Township, may be selling the app to food pantries and food banks across America.
The app was created as part of a computer science class — coordinated (协调) by Butler Tech career school system at the high school. Three students, Jacob Kahmann, Gunner Nonnamaker and Kyle Inderhees, recently were visited by Congressman Warren Davidson, who praised their work. Davidson lauded the teens for creating “this app to set the standard for efficient food collection and distribution (分发)”.
Butler Tech IT Instructor Tom O’Neill said the students’ app includes characteristics that help users locate the nearest food pantry and improve food collection processes, and that the national contest provides a real-life learning chance for his students.
The students are continuing to make additions to the app and are working on turning it into a product, said O’Neill, who in recent years has helped many Ross High School teens win national honors for their computer-science-based inventions.
“The teachers and students in the Ross School District continue to amaze me with their future-thinking and creation,” said Superintendent Scott Gates. “Our students are not only thinking about careers, they are thinking about problems they want to change, solve or improve. The app that was created will make serving a population in need more efficient.”
1. What did these Ohio high school students do?| A．They built a local food pantry. |
| B．They made food for the hungry. |
| C．They invented a mobile phone app. |
| D．They set up a world food bank. |
| A．Prepared. | B．Praised. | C．Asked. | D．Paid. |
| A．They are inventing some other apps. |
| B．They are serving in local food pantries. |
| C．They are trying to improve their creation. |
| D．They are taking part in a national contest. |
| A．Strict and proud. |
| B．Honest and generous. |
| C．Enthusiastic and caring. |
| D．Humorous and friendly. |
3 . Swimming in the water of Hawaii’s Big Island is a fun experience. But it can be more exciting if there are dolphins swimming around and jumping out of the sea too. For many people, it would be a wonderful dream to swim with these lovely animals! However, this may not be good for dolphins. They may get hurt because of human interaction (互动).
Dolphins are active and usually look for food at night. In the day, they like to rest in shallow bays (浅湾). Many people think the dolphins are awake during the day as they swim. But when they sleep they rest half of their brain and keep the other half awake to breathe, so they may be sleeping even when they’re swimming in the water.
From 2010 to 2013, spinner dolphins (飞旋海豚) of Hawaii’s Big Island were exposed to human activities more than 82 percent of the time, according to Julian Tyne, a researcher at Australia’s Murdoch University.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says disturbing the animals in their near-shore habitat could force them to swim to less favourable places, putting them at risk of being attacked by sharks and other animals.
Besides, when people are around, dolphins become more active. Thus, they can’t get enough sleep. “Disturbing their resting behaviours can actually affect their long-term health and the health of the dolphin population,” Ann Garrett of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service told the Associated Press.
As a result, the NOAA wants to make rules to help protect the dolphins. For example, the agency (机构) may ban swimming with the Hawaii spinner dolphins. Or they may stop people from swimming in shallow bays when the dolphins are resting. Tour operators must also be taught to watch for signs to know when the dolphins are in their resting state.
1. Which of the following about dolphins is NOT true?| A．They spend most of their time sleeping at night. |
| B．They like to stay in shallow bays during the day. |
| C．They keep half of their brain awake while sleeping. |
| D．They may be sleeping even when they’re swimming. |
| A．Swim to a crowded place. |
| B．Move closer to sharks. |
| C．Become less active. |
| D．Likely sleep longer. |
| A．Swimming with the Hawaii spinner dolphins. |
| B．Swimming in bays where the dolphins live. |
| C．Making signs that show the dolphins’ resting state. |
| D．Making signs that show where the dolphins are. |
| A．What habits dolphins have. |
| B．What spinner dolphins are. |
| C．How the animals live in the sea. |
| D．How to protect dolphins near the shore. |
4 . Tourists visiting La Gomera and EI Hierro in the Canary-Islands can often hear locals communicating over long distances by whistling-not a tune, but the Spanish language. The locals are communicating in Silbo, a whistled Spanish language.
Whistled languages are almost developed in rough, mountainous regions or in thick forest. That’s because whistled speech carries much farther than ordinary speech or shouting. As a result, whistled speech can be understood up to 10 times as far away as ordinary shouting. That lets people communicate even when they cannot easily approach close enough to shout. On La Gomera, for example, a few traditional shepherds (牧羊人) still whistle to one another across mountain valleys that could take hours to cross.
Whistled languages work because many of the key elements of speech can be produced in a whistle, says Meyer. We distinguish(区分) one speech sound from another by small differences in their sound frequency patterns. A long e, for example, is formed higher in the mouth than along o, giving it a higher sound.
To language scientists, such languages are more than just a curiosity. By studying whistled languages, they hope to learn more about how our brains get meaning from the complex sound patterns of speech. Whistling may even provide a chance to know one of the most dramatic jump forward in human evolution(进化): the origin of language itself.
Despite their interest to both language experts and casual observers, whistled languages are disappearing rapidly all over the world, and some, such as the whistled form of the Tepehua language in Mexico, have already disappeared. “...now you still find whistled speech only in places that are very, very remote, that have had less contact with modernity and less access to roads,” Meyer says.
Fortunately, there is still hope. UNESCO, the UN cultural organization, has listed two whistled languages, Silbo, and a whistled Turkish, as the world’s cultural heritage. Such attention can lead to conservation efforts.
1. What led to the development of whistled languages?| A．Geographic inaccessibility. | B．Rapid increase in tourism. |
| C．Greater information capacity. | D．Interest of language experts. |
| A．To show what key elements speech has. |
| B．To explain the differences between speech sound frequency patterns. |
| C．To prove the popularity of whistled language in the world. |
| D．To compare whistled languages and ordinary languages. |
| A．Construction of cities. | B．Lack of attention. |
| C．Expansion of other cultures. | D．Modernization. |
| A．Why People Used Whistled Languages | B．When Whistles Languages Disappeared |
| C．How Whistled Languages Developed | D．Why Whistled Languages Matter |
5 . In this post, we’ll introduce some top robotics competitions open to high schoolers. Keep reading to learn more.
Botball Educational Robotics Program
Level: Regional and national competitions available
Grades: 9th, 10th. 11th, 12th
Over a period of about seven weeks, students learn to code(编程) and develop complex strategies to use artificial intelligence. This allows them to create an autonomous robot together that competes in an annual game challenging against other teams in competitions at various levels across the country.
FIRST: Robotics Competition
Level: Local, regional and national competitions available
Grades: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th
Teams work together with professional teachers to design, assemble(装配), and test an industrial-sized robot .The robot then competes in a head-to-head field game against other teams.
Robo Games
Level: International
Grades: All ages and backgrounds
This self-claimed “Olympics of robots” and current largest open robot competition challenges participants in a wide variety of events to display various skills. Amateurs, professionals, young and old alike are invited to participate with the goal of winning prizes, expanding educational service, and recognizing robot-builders in the public eye.
Zero Robotics High School Tournament
Level: International, including the U.S. and member countries of the European Space Agency
Grades: 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th
This fascinating competition begins with robots called SPHERES inside the International Space Station. The first phase of the competition is entirely online, in which competitors code the SPHERES to meet a yearly challenge. Finalists compete in person, onboard the International Space Station, conducted live in microgravity by a real astronaut!
1. What do the first and second robotics competitions have in common?| A．Teamwork is a must in competitions. |
| B．They have the same goals and rules. |
| C．The robot is tested before competitions. |
| D．They are completely of the same level. |
| A．Bot ball Educational Robotics Program. | B．FIRST: Robotics Competition. |
| C．Robo Games. | D．Zero Robotics High School Tournament. |
| A．It is held by the European Space Agency. |
| B．It is a local robotics competition. |
| C．The whole competition is conducted online. |
| D．The final competition is held at the International Space Station. |
6 . Tea originated in China over two thousand years ago. Today, the country owns over 2,000 varieties of tea, differing in taste, sweet and purpose. Some teas, such as Huang Shan, refresh the sense of taste with their special flavor, while others, such as spicy chai, are added with spices (香料) .
China first started exporting tea during the Ming dynasty (1368—1644), and the drink has since come to lead humanity’s drinking habits far beyond Asia. It is the most widely consumed drink on Earth today, aside from water and coffee.
In Chinese mythology, tea was first discovered by Chinese Emperor Shennong (“Divine Farmer”) in 737BC， when a soft wind carried some leaves into a pot of boiling water. However, the oldest dependable evidence comes from ancient plant remains found in 2016 in Xi’an and western Tibet, showing that tea was grown at least 2,100 years ago during the Western Handy nasty when it was most likely used as medicine.
Generation after generation of tea makers experimented with different brewing (冲泡) techniques, leaves, and ceremonies, resulting in today’s tea culture full of life. There’s no doubt that China’s tea culture has become one of the most popular, diverse, and unique traditions in the world.
China is already the world’s largest tea exporter. The inclusion of the country’s traditional tea-making process on the UNESCO list will obviously generate practical benefits for tea makers in the country and across the world as more resources are given to protect and preserve such millennia-old tea culture and technical practices. As additional attention is brought to this traditional technique, the Chinese tea sector will further tap its potential and improve its growth.
As one of China’s oldest cultural practices, traditional tea processing techniques show the spirit of modesty (谦逊), peace, and comity (礼让). No matter your preference for green or dark tea, with milk or without, Chinese tea isn’t just brews. Instead, it is a bridge connecting different cultures and peoples.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly tell us?| A．Chinese tea has a fresh taste. | B．Chinese tea is added with spices. |
| C．Chinese tea has a long history. | D．Chinese tea has a rich variety. |
| A．In about 737 BC. |
| B．Two thousand years ago. |
| C．During the Ming dynasty. |
| D．During the Western Handy nasty. |
| A．Hopeful. | B．Objective. | C．Careless. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．Chinese Tea Benefits the Globe a Lot |
| B．Chinese Protect and Develop Its Tea Culture |
| C．Chinese Tea Is Included in the UNESCO List |
| D．China Plays a Vital Part in Cultural Diversity |
7 . Learning Chinese could be one of the most important decisions you ever made. Chinese is becoming the language to learn in the 21st century. With the world’s largest population and a rapidly growing middle class, China stands to become the engine of the world’s economy in the coming years. This will make learning Chinese very important to people in many industries, or to those of us who wish to visit China or learn about its culture and history.
There is an ongoing effort to modernize the writing system and standardize(使标准化) the language. An increasing number of people learning Chinese are learning Mandarin, so unless you absolutely need to learn another dialect (such as Cantonese), be sure to study Mandarin.
For native English speakers Chinese is one of the most difficult and most different languages to learn. The vocabulary is wholly unfamiliar and unlike anything we know. In addition, in the Chinese tone system, words are said in rising or falling tones, which helps to distinguish them. Furthermore, there is the Chinese writing system—a collection of thousands of individual ideograms (表意文字), or symbols, which represent a word or an idea. These ideograms have no phonetic value—that is to say, we can’t tell how the word is pronounced by how it is written. There is a way to present written Chinese in a phonetic script called pinyin. If you are learning Chinese, you'll be working with this pinyin system, but the beauty of the traditional writing system shouldn’t be passed up(放弃). All these factors make learning Chinese difficult for us. Yet, for a determined learner, there’s always a way to overcome them.
1. Why is learning Chinese becoming more and more important?| A．Chinese engines are very welcome. |
| B．China has the world’s largest population. |
| C．There are more and more rich people in China. |
| D．China has become important to the world economy. |
| A．The author thinks Chinese is as difficult as English. |
| B．The author is interested in the Chinese language and culture. |
| C．Foreign languages can play a great role in industrial development. |
| D．As long as the pinyin system is learned well, one can learn Chinese well. |
| A．The difficulties of learning Chinese. |
| B．The advantages of learning Chinese. |
| C．The Chinese tone system. |
| D．The Chinese writing system. |
| A．The sources of Chinese characters. |
| B．The importance of learning Chinese. |
| C．The advice on how to learn Chinese. |
| D．The difficulties of learning other languages. |
8 . Scientists recently discovered that our brains may be just as busy at night as they are during the day. While we sleep, our brains are doing much more than getting ready for the next day. Scientists found that the brain may be busy cleaning out harmful waste materials.
As with many studies, scientists turned to mice for help. They studied the mice brains as they slept and when they were awake. They saw that the brains of sleeping mice were hard at work.
Dr. Maiken led the study. The brain expert says our brains perform two very different jobs. It seems they have daytime jobs. Later they “moonlight” at a nighttime job. And this study says that is what our brains seem to be doing. “When we are awake, the brain cells are working very hard at processing all the information around us. When we are asleep, they work very, very hard at removing all the waste that builds up when we are awake.” The scientists say that the waste material includes poisons.
They also found that during sleep, the brain’s cells become smaller, which allows waste to be removed more successfully. Dr. Maiken says these poisons end up in the liver(肝脏). There, they are broken down and then removed from the body. “So we need to sleep because we have a cleaning system that removes many of the poisonous waste products from the brain.”
Dr. Maiken says the next step is to look for the process in human brains. She says the results show how important sleep is to health and fighting disease. The research may also one day lead to treatments to prevent or help fight mental disorders(精神疾病).
1. According to the scientists, when we sleep, our brains .| A．clean themselves | B．turn off for the night |
| C．process information | D．store energy for the next day |
| A．you work in the moonlight | B．you work hard |
| C．you work only at night | D．you have an extra job |
| A．breaking it down | B．sending it to the liver |
| C．building it up in order | D．removing it from the body |
| A．Opposed. | B．Indifferent. | C．Supportive. | D．Critical. |
9 . Tired of standing in line? Wait a bit longer, and you may never have to again.
Amazon has opened 24 of its Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to see what you’ve taken off shelves and charge you as you walk out. Some companies are closely copying Amazon’s approach to using AI-powered cameras fixed in ceilings. But others are trying an entirely different way to skip the checkout: smart shopping carts. These companies have added cameras and sensors (传感器) to the carts, and are using AI to tell what you’ve put in them. Customers pay by entering a credit card, or through an online payment system. When a customer exits the store a green light on the shopping cart shows that their order is complete, and they’re charged.
The companies behind the smart carts, including Caper and Veeve, say it’s much easier to add technology to the shopping cart than to an entire store. Amazon’s Go stores rely on hundreds of cameras in the ceiling. The shelves also include sensors to tell when an item is removed. Ahmed Beshry, co-founder of Caper, believes the technology to run Go is too expensive to use in a large-format grocery store. Neither Caper nor Veeve has said how much their smart shopping carts will cost, making it difficult to compare the different formats. Shariq Siddiqui, CEO of Veeve, said, “We’re always happy when Amazon is doing something. They force retailers (零售店) to get out of their old school thinking.”
Each time a business uses AI and cameras, it raises questions about customers’ privacy and the effect on jobs. Beshry notes that the cameras in his shopping cart point down into the cart, so only a customer’s hand and part of their arm will be captured (拍摄) on camera.
1. What do we know about the smart shopping carts?| A．They are able to recognize goods put in them. |
| B．They are linked to the cameras fixed in the ceilings. |
| C．They flash the green light when the order is canceled. |
| D．They can tell customers where to find what they want. |
| A．It is likely to help retailers to think differently. |
| B．It has attracted many more retailers than before. |
| C．It is far more expensive than their shopping carts. |
| D．It may reduce the cost of running a store greatly. |
| A．That they can only buy goods online. |
| B．That goods in the stores may be more expensive. |
| C．That they have to wait in a line for a longer time. |
| D．That somebody may know their privacy. |
| A．The new technology improves retail sale. |
| B．AI-powered cameras are used in retail stores. |
| C．Artificial intelligence affects the future of job market. |
| D．Smart shopping carts will let you skip the line. |
10 . The Masai(马赛人) are continually trying to keep their own ways in an increasingly modern world. They live along the border of Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, moving their homes from time to time to follow their cattle, the source of their livelihood. They rely on their cattle in many parts of their life. They like drinking the cows’ milk.
They don’t kill their cattle for food. But if a cow is killed, the parts of its body are used to make containers, shoes, clothin, ropes, bed coverings and so on. Not all of the men have cows. The more cattle a man owns, the richer he is considered to be. A man who owns 50 or fewer cattle is considered poor. Rich men have a thousand or more. The cattle, though owned by the man, are considered to belong to the man’s entire family. The family names the cattle and can recognize each animal’s special voice.
The Masai men have become known as warriors(勇士), protecting their cattle against other wild animals. They wear their red long hair. Most women often take care of their children, cook food, clean clothes and make clothing at home. They also make necklaces dresses and headdresses. A few women can also become authorities once they are powerful enough. They speak a language called Maa.
The houses of Masai made from sticks and grass, which are held together with a mixture of mud, are not very firm or safe. These plain houses with some basic supplies are built in a circle and make up a Masai village. They are not meant to last long since the migration(迁徙) of the cow population means that the Masai move as well. In the meantime, in order to prevent animals from entering, they also form a wall of branches. The whole setup is to protect the cattle, which sleep at night in the middle of the village. They seem to live a natural and self-sufficient life but lack modern civilisation.
1. What do we know about the Masai?| A．They don’t move in their lives. |
| B．They each have their own cows. |
| C．They don’t kill their cattle at all. |
| D．They are heavily dependent on cattle. |
| A．Designers. | B．Authorities. |
| C．Housewives. | D．Warriors. |
| A．Modern. | B．Lasting | C．Simple. | D．Safe. |
| A．Africans: Living a Moving life |
| B．Africans: Brave People in the World |
| C．The Masai: Rich People in East Africa |
| D．The Masai: Maintaining a Traditional Lifestyle |
