1 . Wang Daheng, Father of Chinese Optical Engineering
In 1949, the field of applied optical（光学）science didn't exist in China. Understanding its importance for national strength, the Chinese government paid much attention to optical research.
Wang Daheng, a respected optical physicist, devoted his whole life to this cause. He kept watching on the development of China's first optical glass, first electronic microscope, first laser device, and first large-size optical measuring equipment, and helped to found the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He was called the father of Chinese optical engineering.
As a teenager, Wang Daheng often followed his father to the observatory and became greatly interested in the apparatus（仪器）there. In 1936, he graduated from Tsinghua University with a degree in physics. Two years later, he won a government scholarship to study in England. After earning his master's degree from Imperial College London in 1940, he began his doctoral studies in optical physics and technology.
In 1948, Wang gave up his established career and comfortable life in the West and returned to his motherland with the aim of empowering it（增强它的自主权）through science and technology. At the time China did not have the capability to produce optical measuring equipment on its own. In 1951, Wang was instructed to found an institute of fine mechanics and was appointed its first president. Within less than two years, Wang and his team produced the first group of China-made optical glass. Over the following six years, they went on to develop the country's first electronic microscope, first high-precision theodolite（经纬仪）, first optical range finder, and five other optical devices, laying the foundation for China's precision optical instrument industry. In 1961, they independently developed the ruby laser in China. In addition to scientific research, Wang advanced the study of optics in higher education.
Starting in the 1960s, Wang participated in optical research related to the development of nuclear bombs, missiles, and man-made satellites. In 1970, China successfully launched the Dongfanghong I satellite, of which Wang was one of the designers. When the satellite returned to Earth, the devices they designed brought back clear images of our home planet as seen from the outer space for the first time.
To close the technological gap between China and developed countries, Wang and three other scientists made the suggestion of drawing up a state hi-tech development plan in 1986, which led to the famous 863 Program.
In 1992, Wang and a group of other scientists called for the creation of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. In the following years, he won many honors from the state. He passed away in Beijing aged 96 on July 21, 2011 after living a full and fruitful life.
1. Why did Wang Daheng return to China from West?| A．To earn his master's degree. | B．To get together with his family. |
| C．To do contribution to his country. | D．To won honors in the motherland |
| A．Because he drew up the hi-tech development. |
| B．Because he participated in the optical research. |
| C．Because he was a famous and respected physicist. |
| D．Because he achieved many firsts in Optical engineering. |
| A．Friendly. | B．Positive. |
| C．Devoted. | D．Humorous. |
| A．time | B．space |
| C．importance | D．effectiveness |
2 . Who to Believe?
My doctors told me I would never walk again because of the illness. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.
Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940 into a very large and poor African-American family in Tennessee. When she was four years old, a deadly
At nine years of age, the little girl
At the age of thirteen, she began to enter races, but she came in last in every race. Everyone begged her to
In 1957, Wilma went to Tennessee State University, where she met a
That day Wilma made history as she became the first woman to win three gold medals in the same Olympic Games. Later she said. "The success can't be reached without the
Wilma had never
| A．fall | B．cut | C．illness | D．accident |
| A．learn | B．walk | C．dance | D．speak |
| A．And | B．For | C．So | D．Yet |
| A．courage | B．stage | C．intelligence | D．collection |
| A．removed | B．bought | C．applied | D．checked |
| A．dependable | B．unnecessary | C．impossible | D．reasonable |
| A．doctor | B．runner | C．writer | D．lawyer |
| A．change | B．challenge | C．accept | D．stop |
| A．won | B．examined | C．reflected | D．practised |
| A．professor | B．reporter | C．coach | D．scientist |
| A．met | B．beat | C．hugged | D．observed |
| A．relay | B．training | C．fencing | D．swimming |
| A．caught | B．held | C．grabbed | D．dropped |
| A．designed | B．earned | C．made | D．found |
| A．struggle | B．medal | C．praise | D．brace |
| A．careers | B．dreams | C．titles | D．resources |
| A．realized | B．expressed | C．believed | D．regretted |
| A．smartest | B．richest | C．fastest | D．bravest |
| A．education | B．confidence | C．adventure | D．choices |
| A．responsibilities | B．performances | C．experiences | D．abilities |
3 . Emperor Penguins
Emperor penguins are considered the most beautiful and the largest of all penguins. They are amazing birds. They are good survivors, excellent swimmers and great parents. Do you know where we can see them?
You are absolutely right! Antarctica. Only Antarctica!
Antarctica is the continent which is the most southern area of land on the Earth and is mostly covered with ice. It is colder, drier and windier than any other place on the Earth. The lowest temperature can reach -89.2℃. In order to survive the extremely tough environment, emperor penguins have to cooperate. They crowd together to protect themselves from the wind and keep warm. Meanwhile, they take turns to move to the relatively warm inside.
Emperor penguins live on a diet which consists of different types of fish and other kinds of sea life. To find food, these birds, which are unable to fly, can dive much deeper than any other kind of penguin. Their dives often reach about 244 metres, and they can even dive to more than 535 metres when necessary. They can remain under water for almost 18 minutes, longer than any other kind of penguin.
Emperor penguins have a very hard time bringing up their babies. They have to go to great lengths to care for their children. After laying an egg, the tired female emperor penguin will leave the family behind to feed at sea, while the male is left to take care of the egg. For two months, the father, whose duty is to keep the egg safe and warm, carries his egg around on his feet and will give up eating until the mother returns. He does not sit on the egg like many other birds, but stands and balances it on his feet. Thus he is at the mercy of the Antarctic weather. When the mother returns from the sea, sometimes up to 60-80 kilometres away, she throws up some of the food for the chick and takes the male's place to look after it. The father then takes his turn to feed at sea. Cooperative parenting at its finest.
By December, during the Antarctic summer, when the ice begins to break up and open water appears, the young emperor penguins are now ready to be excellent survivors, good swimmers and great parents on their own. What an amazing cycle it is!
1. The underlined word "cooperate" in the third paragraph means ___________.
| A．work together | B．fight against cold |
| C．protect themselves | D．move to warm places |
| A．feed on only certain types of fish |
| B．live in the most terrible weather conditions |
| C．are amazing birds that can both fly and swim |
| D．stay in water 18 minutes longer than other penguins |
| A．great parents who sit on eggs to keep them warm |
| B．the most beautiful and the largest birds in the world |
| C．good survivors and they move to warm places in winter |
| D．excellent swimmers and they can dive deeper than other penguins |
| A．the chicks break up the eggshells in summer |
| B．an Emperor Penguin lays several eggs at a time |
| C．the male Emperor Penguins hatch the eggs in winter |
| D．the chicks are ready to live on their own one year later |
4 . Working on a farm and taking care of crops can be hot, time-consuming and difficult. Engineers have long wanted to build robots to lighten the load. But it has proved a difficult task. Robots that walk or roll along the ground can step on the easily damaged plants heavily. And they have to stop working when rain turns fields muddy. “Tarzan”, however, could deal with some of those challenges.
Jonathan Rogers is a robotics expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. When it comes to a farm environment, he realized robots would face many problems. “Many robots tend to get twisted(弯曲的) together or get stuck,”he says. What's more, he notes, "It's very hard to leave them out for long periods without a human helping them.”
What if the robot could move above the crops? Jonathan Rogers says, “The sloths(树懒)move from tree branch to tree branch to avoid having to walk around the forest floor. "Then his team set out to design a robot that could swing hand to hand along wires hung above the field. He named their invention Tarzan after the jungle-swinging character in a movie.
Tarzan is not the first swinging robot. Mark Spong, a robotics researcher at the University of Texas at Dallas notes that some teams have built robots that do gymnastics or copy mammals. But he says he admires Tarzan for its using swinging movement to save energy and the idea of building a wire structure to move around above crops.
Rogers first predicted that Tarzan could help farmers monitor crops with sensors (传感器) and cameras. But he also said future robots might take water to a particularly thirsty plant or fertilize one that needs nutritional support. And adding a third “hand”could allow such a robot to harvest fruits and vegetables. Finally the robot could move off the farm and into the city, helping deal with the traffic and security.
1. What worried the engineers when they built the farm robots?| A．They took up too much space. |
| B．They made the farming process slow. |
| C．They had difficulty exploring in fields. |
| D．They caused certain damage to crops. |
| A．They take much time to make. |
| B．They get out of date more easily. |
| C．They depend too much on people. |
| D．They get used to the environment slowly. |
| A．Its strong wings. | B．Its low cost |
| C．Its creative design | D．Its powerful engine. |
| A．It could be found everywhere. |
| B．It could be put into more practical uses. |
| C．It could be used to do all the farm work. |
| D．It could be popular with working people in cities. |
5 . For some of us, the excitement of seeing a performance at a European opera house is just not enough. Fortunately, opera houses throughout Europe open their backstage doors to the public. Take advantage of these opportunities to look behind the scenes of some of the world's great opera houses.
Teatro alla Scala Opera House Tours—Milan
Discover the activities within the opera house on a backstage tour of the La Scala theater in Milan. The tour also includes an overview of the history of the theater and guides you through the auditorium(观众席) and the theater boxes.
Paris Opera House Tours—Paris
While it is possible to walk around the public areas of the beautiful Paris Opera House on your own, guided tours are also offered and are led by an English-speaking guide. During the 90- minute tour, you will learn about the theater's history and its architecture. You will also have an opportunity to visit the grand staircase.
Royal Opera House Tours—London
It is one of the most comprehensive of the opera house tours in Europe. The guide at the Royal Opera House takes you through sections of the backstage area to the props (道具) room, where workers build the sets, the costume shop and the ballet studios. There's a chance that you will even catch the ballet dancers backstage in practice in their big ballet studio.
La Fenice Opera House Tours—Venice
Teatro La Fenice in Venice offers a couple of options for visitors. A self-guided tour of the beautiful halls and grounds with a voice guide is available at the box office. Guided tours are also available with an expert that will explain the history of the opera house from its origins to its rebuilding.
1. In which opera house might you be able to see a costume shop backstage?| A．The Teatro alla Scala Opera House | B．The Paris Opera House |
| C．The Royal Opera House | D．The La Fenice Opera House |
| A．They all offer free guided tours. |
| B．They all open their backstage areas to the public. |
| C．They are all free to the public. |
| D．They are all located in France. |
| A．In a sports magazine | B．In an adventure novel |
| C．In a history book | D．On a culture website |
6 . Enjoy the challenge of a new term
The new term is finally here, which means, of course, it's time to return to school.
For many students across China, that also means having to leave home for the next several months and move into a school dormitory.
Being away from our family for a long time, however, often leads to homesickness, a feeling that most students have experienced at some point.
A study by the UK's National Union of Students found that up to 70 percent of UK students living away from home experience homesickness within their first few weeks of being away.
But homesickness isn't just a feeling of sadness that happens in our mind; it can also affect us physically.
“You feel homesickness in your stomach—it's an unease in which you feel uncomfortable, nervous, stressed because you're in a place or situation that's not familiar,” Joshua Klapow, a professor of public health at the University of Alabama, us, told HuffPost.
According to Klapow, the body reacts physically when it's placed in an unknown situation such as being separated from one's familiar surroundings for a long time.
“It's an evolutionary(进化的) thing that makes us protect ourselves from danger when something is unknown," he told the HuffPost.
“When we think about home, we know that the sense of unknown … is not happening there, so we want to return.”
So, how can we overcome these physical reactions?
Ruth Hardy of the Guardian offered advice for students who are feeling the effects of being away from the safety of home.
“Try and establish routines(常规) quickly. This can make your new environment feel more stable and will hopefully make you feel more settled,” she wrote.
Making friends with others who are in your situation is also a great way to feel less homesick, according to Hardy.
The most important thing to remember, however, is that homesickness is completely normal and is nothing to be ashamed of.
And once it's gone, you're free lo enjoy the adventures and challenges of a brand new school year.
1. The study by the UK's National Union of Students is mentioned to.| A．show how homesickness causes harm to students |
| B．prove it's common for students to feel homesick |
| C．introduce some causes of homesickness |
| D．show how all young people are troubled by homesickness |
| A．It's only a feeling in our mind. |
| B．It usually disappears after a few weeks. |
| C．It has a physical influence on our body. |
| D．It always happens once we visit an unfamiliar place. |
| A．It shows people the importance of their family. |
| B．It drives people to get used to changes. |
| C．It encourages people to express their feelings. |
| D．It keeps people away from possible dangers. |
| A．Take part in as many activities as possible. |
| B．Talk about your problems with your friends. |
| C．Get into a routine as early as possible. |
| D．Avoid seeing things related to your home life. |
7 . Living life to its fullest
On the night of August 24, 2001, everything changed when my friend's car hit a wall with me inside. I lost most of my right leg, and I was left bleeding with several broken bones. At the hospital, although my body was weak, my mind was still very clear. I just kept telling myself to hold on. A week later, I made a deal with the doctors that once I could roll onto my side, I could leave. Two weeks later, I was allowed to go home.
Although I left the hospital, the fight was far from over. My left knee was badly injured, which resulted in different operations over the next few years.
And soon, more of my right leg had to be removed. This made it harder to wear my false leg, so I donated it to a nurse who couldn't afford one for herself. The joy of being able to provide this gift for someone else was greater than the happiness I felt on any day I was able to wear it myself.
People often tell me they're proud of me for staying strong. But in my mind, staying strong has always been my only choice. So, on the day I left the hospital, I made a promise to myself to always live life to the fullest. Now, I may not be able to do things the way everybody else does them, but still, I always find a way to do them. I soon settled into everyday life again, until one day I realized I wasn't living my life as fully as I wanted to.
After 13 years of thinking that I was confident, I had an unfamiliar feeling sweep over me. For the first time in my life, I was not only confident but I wanted to help those around me.
In 2014, I even started modeling. My dream is that one day a little girl will see me in a magazine and say, “Wow, she's beautiful, and she only has one leg. I could do that too someday, even though I have a disability.” My dream is simple: to inspire every man, woman, and child into knowing and believing that they are beautiful just the way they are.
1. How did the author feel after the car accident?| A．She complained that life was unfair to her. |
| B．She was unable to accept the loss of her leg. |
| C．She kept a positive attitude toward life. |
| D．She felt lucky that she was still alive. |
| A．She was able to offer help to others. |
| B．She could wear her false leg again. |
| C．She had lived her life to the fullest. |
| D．She could do everyday things the same as everybody else. |
| A．She wanted to be a famous magazine star. |
| B．She wanted to encourage others to be confident about themselves. |
| C．She wanted to challenge herself to be a speaker. |
| D．She wanted to prove that disabled people could also succeed. |
| A．To stress the importance of having a dream. |
| B．To show how difficult the life is for disabled people. |
| C．To inspire others by sharing her past experiences. |
| D．To give advice to disabled people on how to make a living. |
8 . Surrounded by the sea off the coast in Mid-Norway, lies an island called Myken. This small island has about ten permanent residents, and for more than 50 years has been supplied with electricity via a 32-kilometer undersea cable (电缆). A break that appeared in the cable last autumn resulted in two months without power, so the island community started looking into a better way of sourcing their electricity.
“Myken is far out at sea, so as far as possible it should be taking care of things itself,” says Kyrre Sundseth, who is a hydrogen (氢) researcher in Norway and also the project manager for Myken’s energy project. “This is why we want Myken to become entirely self-sufficient in energy. It is also important to take the environment into consideration,” he says.
Much points to the idea that the solution may lie in a Hydrogen plant, specifically tailored for small islands. The “raw materials” for hydrogen production come from nature itself in the form of the sun and wind. Researchers have calculated that energy costs will be lower by using hydrogen production than the undersea cable option. And it is possible to store energy in the form of hydrogen for longer periods. This means that supplies will not have to rely on a lot of expensive batteries or external energy sources, even during periods when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing.
The Myken project has attracted several technology companies. They are currently working on a pilot project. The pilot involves experiments on the feasibility (可行性) of the hydrogen system in which electricity is generated from solar and wind sources. The electricity can be used immediately, but during periods when all the energy generated is not required, the spare energy can be used to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can be stored in a tank, and used later to generate electricity. The pilot will help researchers know more about how effectively the system will work in the hydrogen plant. Since the island has a distillery (酿酒厂), where the distillation (蒸馏) process relies on energy, a hydrogen plant on Myken offers an even greater environmental benefit. Spare heat from the hydrogen system can also be used for the heating part in the distillation process.
“In Norway alone there are about 300 island inhabited all year round by small populations,” says Kyrre Sundseth. “All of these islands may be candidates for using this technology. In global terms we’re talking about 10,000 similar islands.”
1. Why is a hydrogen plant suitable for Myken?| A．It is perfect in size for small islands. |
| B．It can send electricity to faraway places. |
| C．It will restore local natural environment. |
| D．It provides green and sustainable energy. |
| A．The study on the energy storage. |
| B．The test on the hydrogen system. |
| C．The experiment on the raw materials. |
| D．The research on the innovation of the pilot. |
| A．produce purified seawater |
| B．prove more technically reliable |
| C．contribute in more than one way |
| D．benefit from the distillation process |
| A．Promising. |
| B．Systematic. |
| C．Irreplaceable. |
| D．Time saving. |
9 . If there was a subject at school that made me anxious, it was science. Maybe that’s because in my tenth grade, I couldn't understand my physics teacher's instructions, causing me to accidentally set fire to the classroom. So, when my husband and I decided to home-school our daughters, we made a deal: he would teach science, while I would handle everything else. But that’s not how things have been going these past few weeks, since my husband has been too busy to teach the girls.
Recently, while out on my morning hike before starting lessons, I noticed that the sky was a beautiful blue, and the air was filled with the sweet smell of flowers. That s why I decided that the day’s lessons would be taught outside, although I remembered that my daughters hadn't had any science classes from my husband for a while.
I returned to the house to get the girls ready. We headed up into the forest, settling ourselves by a pond that rarely has any visitors. My daughter Saoirse started to pick up pond weeds and catch frogs, while my other daughter Ula looked at me, waiting to be instructed. I handed her a drawing board and colored pencils. "We wait, "I told her, " and see if something comes along. In the meantime, just draw what's around you.”
We worked for more than an hour, hardly speaking. A bird flew across the water, and then settled in a front of a fallen tree. I quickly told Ula, worried that she’d not seen the creature. But she had, and she started drawing it. An hour later, she’d not finished her picture and I stared down at it. She drew the bird on her paper with amazing accuracy. But there was one other interesting fact about this drawing: she also drew me, sitting beside her.
I realized, as I stared at this child's drawing of us watching a bird, how I'd lived for 40 years, gathered 10 years of higher education, and never understood the foundation of science before this moment. The foundation of science is a sense of wonder; it isn't about accurately reciting words from a textbook. It is first and foremost about stepping outside our busy lives and amazing at the world around us.
1. How did the author feel about science when in school?| A．She was nervous about it. | B．She was fond of it. |
| C．She was confused about it. | D．She was eager for it. |
| A．the fallen tree | B．the forest |
| C．the bird | D．the picture |
| A．She's very outgoing. | B．She's good at observing. |
| C．She's very hard-working. | D．She shares interests with her sister. |
| A．Attention to accuracy. |
| B．Curiosity about the outside world. |
| C．Determination to find out the truth. |
| D．Ability to understand teachers' instructions. |
10 . Dogs may help save the day in the Philippines, as they use their noses to smell out survivors buried by Friday’s mudslide (泥石流). The team of dogs arrived in the Philippines from Spain, and this Tuesday they were just beginning their work. Search officials told CNN they hope the recent rain will wash away the smell of rescue teams so the dogs can do their job more accurately.
The dogs were brought in after sound equipment found sounds coming from deep inside the ruins, at a place where a school stood before the mudslide covered it. The sounds could mean people are still alive under all the mud or it could just be the earth resettling.
On Monday, rescue workers worked at the school site until three in the morning, trying to locate survivors, and they will begin digging again as soon as the dogs think they find someone.
Human teams from the US, Malaysia, and Australia are all trying to help, too. But so far they have yet to locate any survivors. Rescue workers told CNN that an earlier report that 50 survivors had been found was false.
How did all that mud bury the village in the first place? On Friday, 2,400-foot Mt Kanabag turned into a mudslide after two weeks of constant rain weakened it. The mountain crumbled and the mud fell onto the village Guinsaugon, burying the 1,800 people who lived there. Out of the 300 houses in the village, only 3 were not covered by the mud. The village is on a southern Philippine Island called Levte. Rescue efforts have been difficult because the village takes six hours to reach from the nearest airport. Hopefully, the dogs can help their human friends find survivors.
1. According to the search officials’ words in the first paragraph, we can learn that ________.| A．the smell of rescue teams can disturb the dogs |
| B．the dogs can follow the smell of rescue teams |
| C．the dogs can’t smell the rescue teams |
| D．the dogs can tell the smells of buried people and rescue teams apart |
| A．to show the way to rescue the victims in the ruins |
| B．to introduce the instruments to save victims in a disaster |
| C．to tell readers that dogs can smell out victims buried in the ruins |
| D．to show how to train dogs to save victims in a mudslide |
| A．50. | B．Only a few. | C．1, 800. | D．None. |
| A．the rain was heavy |
| B．so many people were buried |
| C．it was difficult to reach the village |
| D．these is little chance to save the survivors |
