1 . The SNAG stands for stereotyped nature-inspired aerial grasper and it’s a 3D-printed bird robot with claws. It can fly, stay on various surfaces catch and carry objects, just like the mighty falcon（隼）that was used as the source of inspiration in its development.
Each leg of the SNAG has two motors, one for helping it move back and forth, and the other one for grasping. Twenty printing attempts were necessary for the robot to finally reach its current structure, but it was worth it. Now, according to researchers, the flying machine has an impressively strong and high-speed clutch（离合器），being able to land and wrap its claws around a branch in about 20 milliseconds. SNAG has ankles lock, and there’s an accelerometer （加速计）on its right foot that reports that it’s landed while triggering（触发）a balancing process to stabilize it.
Scientists have already conducted several tests with the robot in rural areas and on different surfaces. In all the situations, the SNAG was able to catch objects thrown by hand, such as bean bags, a tennis ball, and more.
As for the applications of the bird-like robot, the SNAG can get attached to drones（无人机）and be used for search and rescue missions, wildfire monitoring, to offer just a few examples. Another great application is environmental research, with the SNAG also featuring a temperature and humidity（湿度）sensor. By using a robot that can act like a bird, you can unlock new ways of studying the environment, as explained by William Roderick, mechanical engineer and one of the researchers involved in the project. Now scientists are moving on to improving the robot’s situational awareness and flight control.
This isn’t the first time that nature has inspired groundbreaking technologies. We also wrote a piece recently about the F-SAM micro drone, which was inspired by the flight of samara（翼果）seeds, also known as “twisters” which have a special way of spinning down to the ground.
1. What gave the researchers inspiration for the SNAG’s development?| A．The plane. | B．The falcon. |
| C．The micro drone. | D．The samara seeds. |
| A．To balance the SNAG in flight. |
| B．To change the SNAG’s flying speed. |
| C．To keep the SNAG’s feet in balance. |
| D．To make the SNAG steady on a surface. |
| A．The SNAG has huge potential for practical use. |
| B．The SNAG has a long way to go before being used. |
| C．The SNAG will be helpful in putting out forest fires. |
| D．The SNAG is sensitive to temperature and humidity. |
| A．It doesn’t know its situation well. |
| B．It can’t fly fast enough in the air. |
| C．It is easily broken by the branches. |
| D．It can’t catch objects with smooth surfaces. |
The honors program is for students who have enjoyed their experience in research with a guide teacher and are looking for a highlight experience during their final year. The program has specific requirements for our majors described below.
Application
Students participate in the honors program during their final year. Students who expect to have a 3.5 accumulative GPA by the fall of senior year should have identified a guide teacher and applied for NBB honors by May 1st of their third year. Applications are brief and include basic information such as guide teacher name, project title, and current GPA.
Coursework
During senior year, honors students take two research-experience courses. Participation in these courses includes at least 12 hours of work on the research project each week as well as weekly meetings with other researchers to develop professional skills.
Essay
The majority of our major work with guide teachers in research experiences, and many students co-author manuscripts(手稿) published in leading journals. However, only honors students are guided and helped through the process of writing an essay. All students’ essays are published online through the university library and, after the data being forbidden to be included in other articles, the essays are available to search.
1. Which of the following is the requirement of the honors program?| A．Students should take two relevant courses. |
| B．Students should spend 12 hours researching. |
| C．Students should finish their essays on their own. |
| D．Students should apply by May 1st in the fourth year. |
| A．Access to leading journals. | B．Guidance in writing an essay. |
| C．Including the data in other articles. | D．Publishing essays through the library. |
| A．Guide teachers. | B．College Students |
| C．Researchers. | D．Professors. |
3 . A customer stands on the other side of the counter at my work, eyeing the menu. “The food here is so caloric,” she complains, and then looks at me. “You don’t eat here, do you? It certainly doesn’t look like it.” My face turned red.
I’m not quite used to how others see me. Since June 2018, I’ve lost almost 50 pounds. When I made the choice to change my body physically, everyone around me told me that I would be happier: Skinny meant pretty, and pretty meant happy and satisfied. After looking through dozens of before-and-after changes on Instagram and other social media, I was more eager to make myself smaller, to better fit into the world. But none of that happened. I didn’t feel more whole, or more peaceful. More than anything, I felt lied to.
Human health is unbelievably complex, and there’s so much more to our well-being than caloric balance. For several months, I often felt very tired and got angry easily, convinced that my body was a machine and I had to hard-wire it to look as physically perfect as possible. But at the end of the day, I realized that saying no to my body’s natural desire only left me feeling upset.
Our world is filled with losing weight. Nearly every time I listen to the radio, I hear some ads criticizing empty promises of giving you a better body, achieved only by this gym membership/ this prepackaged Keto shake/ this waist trainer. These all live by the same message: That food is dangerous, and the less we eat, the better off we are. In extreme cases, this message can lead to eating disorders, which will affect over 30 million people in their lifetimes, according to the Body Image Therapy Center.
These ideas could not be further from the truth. We eat food for a reason: It gives us energy, it keeps our body functioning, and it makes us human. I urge everybody to adopt a diet based on sustainability (可持续发展), to eat for energy, based on what makes us happy. We all deserve healthy relationships with food and mindful eating is the best place to start.
1. How did the author feel when hearing the customer’s words?| A．Quite proud. |
| B．A bit angry. |
| C．Rather guilty. |
| D．A little embarrassed. |
| A．She was laughed at by others. |
| B．She got encouragement from her family. |
| C．She was attracted by pictures on the Internet. |
| D．She got tired easily when being overweight. |
| A．It made her disbelieve others. |
| B．It did harm to her well-being. |
| C．It helped lift her confidence a bit. |
| D．It taught her about determination. |
| A．They are far from creative. |
| B．They hurt human’s relationships with food. |
| C．They cause many people to do too much exercise. |
| D．They mislead some youths into having wrong ideas of beauty. |
4 . Najib is an Afghan who grew up in Iran. He led a tough life. When he found his children would be in the same situation, his family initially returned to Afghanistan. But with the country filled with conflicts, they decided to leave for Indonesia.
“When we first came here, we were in a bad situation. Its language, culture and even weather were different. We had moved away from friends and family,” says Najib. “I was in a tough position but I acted strong because there were no other choices.”
Refugees (难民) cannot work in Indonesia and there are limited choices for refugee children to attend local schools. Determined to avoid such a fate, a group of refugees in Puncak took action and scraped together (东拼西凑) their resources to set up a school—the Refugee Learning Center (RLC).
“Our only goal and task is to provide basic education, and prepare the refugee children for their future,” says Abdullah Sarwari. “We’re also trying to provide a normal life as much as possible for them.”
The RLC has also started offering Bahasa Indonesia classes to the refugee community. “Between the refugee and the local community, I feel like there’s a language barrier which stops the refugee from having an honest and open interaction with Indonesians,” says Abdullah.
“If you try your best, to learn the language of a particular place or country, it really helps make things easier,” says Najib. He is among those who signed up for classes, although he admits progress has been slow. But life has improved in some ways for him and his family.
Najib says, “The centre is an opportunity for refugee to show that they are not a burden. If they have the opportunity, they can accomplish big and great things like this.”
1. Why did Najib decide to leave for Indonesia?| A．To escape the conflict in Afghanistan. |
| B．To experience Indonesian culture. |
| C．To help refugees in Indonesia. |
| D．To get equal rights to vote. |
| A．To help them learn English. |
| B．To make them stay away from bad luck. |
| C．To provide them with chances to live in Indonesia. |
| D．To make them have access to receiving basic education. |
| A．He is the leader of refugees. |
| B．He founded the RLC himself. |
| C．He studies Indonesian in the RLC. |
| D．He lives a wealthy life in Indonesia. |
| A．The Goal of Founding a School |
| B．A School for Refugees by Refugees |
| C．A Reason for Leaving for Indonesia |
| D．The Benefit of Learning a New Language |
5 . What inspires kids to be creative and pursue academic excellence? Some teachers use rewards in recognition of students’ effort or achievement, giving them prizes, medals, certificates, or money.
Psychologists take opposite views of how external rewards, from warm praise to cold cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and their consequences, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Cognitive researchers, who study various aspects of mental life, believe that rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others.
The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary(金钱的) rewards sparks creativity in primary school children, suggesting that properly given stimuli(刺激) indeed encourage creativity, according to a study in the June Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"If kids know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity," says Robert Eisenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. "But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much desire for rewards."
A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with students lacking in creativity and motivation, Eisenberger says. As an example of the latter point, he particularly mentions growing efforts to tighten grading standards and adopt failing grades at major universities.
In earlier grades, the use of rewarding system, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, Eisenberger claims.
1. Psychologists are divided in their attitudes toward _____.| A．the choice between spiritual encouragement and monetary rewards |
| B．the amount of monetary rewards for students' creativity |
| C．the relationship between actions and their consequences |
| D．the effects of external rewards on students' performance |
| A．Tom received a certificate for winning a speech competition. |
| B．Mary was praised by the teacher for making progress in English. |
| C．Jacky made great efforts to enter a major university. |
| D．John was offered a free summer camp due to his hard work. |
| A．Assigning them tasks they have not dealt with before. |
| B．Assigning them tasks which require creativity. |
| C．Giving them rewards they really deserve. |
| D．Giving them rewards they hope for. |
| A．rewarding poor performance may kill the creativity of students |
| B．punishing students is more effective than rewarding them |
| C．failing unmotivated students helps improve their academic standards |
| D．discouraging students’ expectation of easy rewards is important |
6 . I still remember my kindergarten teacher Mrs White, although I don’t remember much about what we learned in her class. My mother once told me that we used to
Mrs White replied,“The children are just beginning to get
I
| A．listen | B．speak | C．write | D．read |
| A．marks | B．stars | C．words | D．mistakes |
| A．even | B．naturally | C．especially | D．particularly |
| A．happiness | B．sadness | C．discouragement | D．disappointment |
| A．found | B．corrected | C．ignored | D．remembered |
| A．worried | B．excited | C．anxious | D．nervous |
| A．keep | B．create | C．stop | D．make |
| A．really | B．carefully | C．totally | D．exactly |
| A．fear | B．confidence | C．pride | D．content |
| A．look forward | B．look after | C．look back | D．look for |
| A．extraordinary | B．strict | C．hardworking | D．careless |
| A．delight | B．wonder | C．relief | D．satisfaction |
| A．mistake | B．misuse | C．misunderstand | D．misspell |
| A．behind | B．after | C．before | D．below |
| A．annoyed | B．pleased | C．frightened | D．confused |
| A．So | B．But | C．And | D．Or |
| A．right | B．wrong | C．good | D．bad |
| A．stand | B．keep | C．wait | D．rely |
| A．funnier | B．harder | C．nicer | D．easier |
| A．interests | B．hope | C．worries | D．sadness |
