1 . There are nearly 2,800 working satellites in space, which we depend on for technology we use every day, such as video calls, online maps, satellite TV, and weather tracking. Scientists use them to study space and learn more about our planet.
But there are many other satellites in orbit (轨道) that are no longer working. They're among the objects cluttering (使杂乱) up space. Some of these eventually fall back toward Earth, either landing or burning up in the atmosphere. But much of this space junk (垃圾) circles Earth for years. Space junk is a problem. Debris (残骸) floating around Earth puts technology and future space tasks at risk. Experts are working on ways to solve it.
Orbital debris, a type of space junk, is any human-made object that has slopped working but continues to float around the Earth. This includes satellites that are no longer used and pieces of spacecraft, such as rocket stages. It has been a large problem since the 1960s.
Space junk also includes broken pieces of objects. These occur when satellites hit against things. They also result from an object crashing into an old rocket stage that still contains fuel, causing an explosion (爆炸) . There have been more than 250 space explosions since the 1960s. These tiny broken pieces can damage working satellites, which can affect research in space.
Companies all over the world are working to clean up the area surrounding our planet. A company based in Japan will test the method of using magnets (磁石) to collect space debris. Another mission is led by a company based in Switzerland. It plans to carry out a debris-removal spacecraft in 2025. The craft will get hold of a piece of an old rocket, slow it down, and move it back to Earth. Eventually, the debris will burn out like a shooting star.
Governments are trying to help too. Some are updating their country's space guidelines to limit the amount of debris created. Space is so large that the problem won't be solved by a single organization or a single country. We have to work on this together.
1. What is the biggest harm that space junk does to human beings?| A．It will fall back toward the Earth. | B．It circles the Earth for years. |
| C．It puts other space objects in danger. | D．It will burn up in the atmosphere. |
| A．By making the orbital debris fall back to Earth. | B．By putting the pieces all together. |
| C．By collecting space junk with magnets. | D．By sending space junk into deep space. |
| A．Strict laws. | B．Global efforts. |
| C．Stopping in space exploration. | D．Setting up professional organizations. |
| A．Earth and its satellites. | B．The problem of space junk. |
| C．Ways of cleaning up space junk. | D．The various uses of man-made satellites. |
2 . Below you will find a list of streaming services and channels that focus on TV and movies, various sports, documentaries, and more.
Netflix
Cost: $8.99/month for a basic plan that allows a single screen in standard definition (清晰度); $ 12.99/month for a standard plan that allows two screens at once and HD streaming.
Watch it on: Android mobile devices and tablets; Windows phones; Amazon Fire TV devices; Apple TV.
Notes: Netflix subscribers can download select programming for offline viewing, and the number of devices you can download is equal to the number of screens you can use at one time.
Hulu
Cost: $5.99/month for a basic plan that features limited commercial: $11.99/ month for an ad-free plan.
Watch it on: Android mobile devices and tablets Nintendo Switch; PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.
Notes: Ad free subscribers can download programming for offline viewing.
Amazon Prime
Cost: $ 12. 99/month; $ 6.49/month for student membership; $ 119/year for an annual membership; or $ 59/ year for an annual student membership.
Watch it on: iOS mobile devices and tablets; Android mobile devices and tablets; Amazon Fire TV devices.
Notes: An Amazon Prime subscription includes access to all other benefits of Prime membership.
Apple TV+
Cost: $4.99/month after 7-day free trial; free for 1 year with purchase of an Apple device and if redeemed (赎回) within 90 days; free with Apple Music Student Plan.
Watch it on: Android mobile devices and tablets; Amazon Fire TV devices; Apple TV.
Notes: Apple TV+ is available through Apple TV Channels.
1. What device can you use in watching Netflix?| A．Nintendo Switch. | B．Windows phones. |
| C．iOS mobile devices and tablets. | D．PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. |
| A．$4.99/month. | B．$12.99/month. | C．$ 59/year. | D．$119/ year. |
| A．Netflix. | B．Hulu. | C．Amazon Prime. | D．Apple TV+. |
3 . English Grammar Aids
Practice English Grammar
The app is available for both IOS and Android. Its main interface (界面) is a pleasing graphical display of your progress in each of the various modules. Tapping on one of these modules takes you to a section where you can see the grammar lessons in the form of flashcards. While the app is free with basic lessons, you have to purchase more content if you want access to every module.
Learn English Grammar
This app, too, has lessons covering different subjects and has sections to review and test your knowledge. Its testing system is a little more fun than Practice English Grammar's; you play simple games to enter the correct answers to quiz questions. This app is free for both IOS and Android, but you must pay for the complete range of content.
English Grammar Test
For testing your grammatical skills on Android devices (设备), you should also check out English Grammar Test. This app has a clean and attractive look, and feels professional and trustworthy. It also does a nice job of explaining why your incorrect test answers were wrong. Plus, you can enjoy its whole content without spending a penny!
Grammar Up
For brushing up on your grammar in a business setting, Grammar Up is a great choice. The app is free as a sampler on IOS and Android, and $5 for all the tests. Grammar Up offers some neat feedback (反 馈) in the form of graphs showing where your grammatical strengths and weaknesses lie, and this may help you decide where to concentrate your learning efforts.
1. In which part is Learn English Grammar better than Practice English Grammar?| A．Its main interface. | B．Its grammar lessons. |
| C．Its testing system. | D．Its content setting. |
| A．Grammar Up. | B．English Grammar Test. |
| C．Learn English Grammar. | D．Practice English Grammar. |
| A．By using letters. | B．By using graphs. |
| C．By using quizzes. | D．By using flashcards |
4 . I had only really known the little girl for a few weeks, but I carried her with me every day.
We met in the Children’s Hospital of Columbus. I was 11. I was born with a hole in my heart. So was the five-year-old girl in the bed beside me. We were both recovering from the same surgery (手术). Being older and wiser, I thought it was my job to look out for her. “Do you want to hear a story?” I recall asking her one afternoon. “Great!” she said.
It was so easy to make her happy. She seemed always to be smiling or laughing or singing songs.
Life wasn’t fair. She passed away. My own recovery went well. “You’re really lucky,” a nurse told me. “But how come my operation was so easy and hers wasn’t?” I asked. “Easy?” My dad said. “David, your surgery wasn’t easy at all. We thought we were going to lose you because of the amount of internal bleeding (内出血). You can’t remember it because you were in a coma (昏迷),” Dad said. “For two weeks after your operation many things could go wrong.” “I’m really lucky. I wasn’t too old to need someone to look out for me.” “You wouldn’t remember this either. When you were in the coma, she used to come over to your bed and sing to you. She was watching over you. ”
My surgery scars were hidden under my shirt. But I knew they were there, along with the memory of that little girl. The one who’d been at my side like a tiny angel when I didn’t even know she was there. I am older now and hopefully somewhat wiser. Wise enough to know that I have angels watching over me, when life is fair and when it’s not.
1. Why did the author look after the little girl?| A．Her parents were busy. |
| B．He thought it was his duty. |
| C．She wanted to hear stories. |
| D．She was seriously ill. |
| A．Positive. | B．Shy. |
| C．Anxious. | D．Nervous. |
| A．The girl’s death. | B．The girl’s unfair life. |
| C．The author’s growth. | D．The girl’s help. |
| A．The Hospital Friendship |
| B．The Unforgettable Surgery |
| C．A Terrible Hole in the Heart |
| D．A Lovely but Pitiful Girl |
5 . I sat here at that same desk and stared at the computer. I waited patiently for ideas to come to me, thinking about exam questions for a school test I would give to my English students tomorrow. My wife was off to a reunion somewhere, but I wasn't alone. Our two children kept me company. Ten-month-old Edward spent most of his day looking at some cards and other different pieces of paper. But Meghan was different from her younger brother.
She followed a daily routine that needed much time and was difficult. It included certain basic tasks: watching the fish, sweeping the carpet in her room, sitting for a few minutes on the bottom shelf of the bookcase to determine whether she still fitted there, checking regularly on Edward or jumping on the sofa.
I could do my own work fairly well during most of these chores. Unfortunately, I had not counted on the “Bib-bibs, bib-bibs”. “Bib-bibs, bib-bibs” shrieked Meghan, and her eyes were alive with expectation. She insisted that I go with her to the window. “No, Meghan,” I answered irritably. “Not now. Go away and leave me alone.”
She left without any attempt to bother me. I could finish the test easily without interference. However, I saw her standing quietly with tears running down her cheeks. She had two fingers of her right hand in her mouth and watched me type. She caught sight of the birds from time to time.
At this moment, only for a moment, I saw a little girl crying because I didn't have time for her, realizing somehow it was the sitting next to each other that meant everything. I put away the blank paper and stood up.
1. What can we learn about the author from paragraph 1?| A．He has two daughters. | B．He's tired of his present job. |
| C．He often stays alone at home. | D．He works as an English teacher. |
| A．Meghan's naughtiness. | B．Meghan's favorite hobbies. |
| C．Meghan's cleverness. | D．Meghan's daily diet. |
| A．Amazedly. | B．Angrily. | C．Nervously. | D．Warmly. |
| A．To call his wife come back. | B．To get some paper from the drawer. |
| C．To watch the birds with his daughter. | D．To stop his daughter from making noise. |
6 . Staying up late doing homework is always tiring. And perhaps when we become tired, we feel the need to eat unhealthy snack food. Recently scientists have been investigating tiredness and snack food.
According to a study in The Journal of Neuroscience, people are more likely to take snacks when they don't get enough sleep.
For the study, researchers from University of Cologne in Germany gave the same dinner to 32 healthy men aged between 19 and 33. Half of the men were then sent home to bed, and the other half were kept awake in the laboratory all night.
The next morning, the participants were asked to consider how much they would be willing to pay for snack food items shown to them in pictures.
According to the researchers, all were similarly hungry in the morning, and had similar levels of most hormones（荷尔蒙）and blood sugar.
However, brain scans showed that when the sleep-deprived（缺少睡眠的）participants looked at the pictures of junk food, they released more of the "hunger hormone". This is the hormone responsible for increasing the appetite, and making us consume more.
Asked about how much they would pay for snacks, "Participants with sleep deprivation were more willing to overspend on food items than those with a good night's sleep," researchers told Science Daily.
Researchers also observed that among the people who hadn't slept, there was greater activity in the part of the brain where food rewards are processed.
The scientists think that sleep-deprived people experience changes to the hunger hormone and the brain's reward system that then leads to a stronger desire to eat snacks with high fat and calories.
"This brings us a little closer to understanding the mechanism（机制）behind how sleep deprivation changes food valuation," Professor Jan Peters, a co-author of the study from the University of Cologne, told The Independent.
Some tips on this:
* Listen to some soft music to relieve your tiredness.
* Do some slight exercise for a short time when you're tired.
* Eat yogurt or fruits to replace snacks with high fat and calories.
* Distance yourself from snacks.
1. What can we know from the first two paragraphs?| A．Less sleep leads to more snacks. | B．Staying up late does harm to health. |
| C．Tiredness is the cause of less sleep. | D．We need no snacks when we sleep. |
| A．Blood sugar. | B．Food items. |
| C．The hunger hormone. | D．Fat and calories. |
| A．People who lack sleep usually spend less on food items. |
| B．Listening to soft music helps people feel relaxed. |
| C．Exercise as much as you can when you are tired. |
| D．People who sleep well can get food rewards. |
| A．Positive. | B．Indifferent. | C．Negative. | D．Neutral. |
7 . As Australia experiences record-breaking drought and bush-fires, koala populations have declined along with their habitat, leading to koalas becoming “functionally extinct”. The chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, Tabart, estimates that over 1,000 koalas have been killed from the fires and that 80 percent of their habitat has been destroyed.
Functional extinction is when a population becomes so limited that they no longer play an important role in their ecosystem and the population becomes no longer possible to live.
Deforestation and bush-fires destroy the main food source of koalas, the eucalyptus (桉树) tree. An adult koala will eat up to 2 pounds of eucalyptus leaves per day as its main food.
Many are asking the Australian government to pass The Koala Protection Act, written in 2016 but never passed into law. The Koala Protection Act would work to protect habitat and trees important to koala as well as protect koalas from hunting.
Recent videos of Australians saving koalas has led to increased donation to help burned koalas. The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital set up a Go Fund Me page seeking donations to help the hospital treat injured koalas. To date, they have raised $1.33 million, well over their $25,000 goal, which comes from over 30,000 donors. The funds will also be used for a “Koala Ark” as a refuge for burned koalas to live in healthy habitat.
1. According to the first paragraph, what can we know about the drought and bush-fires?| A．They are the most serious ones in the history of Australian. |
| B．They have made koalas extinct. |
| C．They have killed 80% of the koalas. |
| D．They brought the most serious influence to Australian. |
| A．When a species becomes extinct. |
| B．When a species is limited to certain habitat. |
| C．When ecosystem no longer plays an important role. |
| D．When the number of a species becomes so small that they have little chance to live. |
| A．koalas mainly feed on eucalyptus tree leaves |
| B．the Australian government has passed The Koala Protection Act into law |
| C．The Koala Protection Act is aimed to protect koalas and its habitat |
| D．a good many Australians are quite concerned about koalas |
| A．Some videos require people to donate for koalas. |
| B．Go Fund Me page treated injured koalas. |
| C．Australians have deep love for koalas and donate generously to help them. |
| D．The funds will be used to set up healthy habitat for koalas. |
8 . Breathtaking Underwater Destinations
Conrad Maldives Rangali Island-Rangali Island, The Maldives
This island resort is famous for its Ithaa Undersea Restaurant, the world's first all-glass dining establishment completely built underwater. It's also one of the only places in the world where you shouldn't be afraid of sharks staring at you.Above ground, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island provides beautiful views of the Indian Ocean.
Atlantis The Palm - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Atlantis The Palm was the first resort built on an island and lies on the world's largest man-made island, Palm Jumeirah. It also offers floor-to-ceiling views of the sea in its underwater suites, even ,in the bathrooms. Guests can dine at not one，but two underwater restauran ts. Poseidon Cafe and Ossiano.
Please Note: The hotel is currently undergoing a three-year renovation（翻修）-due for completion by 2019.Guests should expect low-level interruption during construction hours (10 a. m-6 p. m )
Utter Inn - Vasteras, Sweden
It's an art project designed by artist and sculptor Mikael Genberg, which conveniently doubles as a hotel room. Guests enter the Utter Inn through a red Swedish-style house floating on the water. and then climb down a hatch(舱口) in the floor for the main attraction: the underwater bedroom surrounded by windows looking into Sweden's Lake Malaren。
Planet Ocean Underwater Hotel-Key West, FL
Located 30 feet below the surface, the hotel's 12 bedrooms are accessible via a glass elevator and provide an overall view of marine life. A marine biologist will accompany guests to explain the marine life around them Besides, the hotel will travel to other places -Japan, Singapore, and Thailand are listed on the hotel's website-to bring the experience to other citizens of the world.
1. What is Ithaa Undersea Restaurant famous for?| A．The overall view of underwater life. |
| B．The first restaurant built on a man-made island. |
| C．The first underwater restaurant totally made of glass. |
| D．The only underwater restaurant without sharks around. |
| A．Utter Inn. | B．Atlantis The Palm. |
| C．Ithaa Undersea Restaurant. | D．Planet Ocean Underwater Hotel. |
| A．It locates under water. | B．It's under repair. |
| C．Its guests can travel free. | D．It is moveable. |
9 . New York Walking Tour
♦Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Walking Tour
Start this exciting guided 4-hour tour by getting early Reserve Line Access boarding on the ferry to Liberty Island. Once there, go inside the base of the statue and head to the observation decks for an awesome view of New York City and its surroundings. Then come back on the ferry to Ellis Island to learn about the history of immigration to America that took place here between 1892 and 1954.
♦Central Park Walking Tour
Walk through Central Park’s most picturesque highlights on a 2-hour tour with a professional photographer. Remember your New York City adventure with unforgettable images of you with family or friends as you circle the towers at Belvedere Castle, walk through paths with flowers in the Conservatory Garden, or feed the swans by the Loeb Boathouse.
♦New York City Architecture Walking Tour
Learn about the history of the buildings that define the New York City skyline on a 3-hour walking architecture tour. Walk down the famous 42nd Street corridor with a longtime New York resident and architectural expert, stopping along the way to learn about Midtown Manhattan’s most iconic structures like the Chrysler Building, Ford Foundation, Grand Central Station and the New York Public Library.
♦Greenwich Village Walking Tour
Greenwich Village is one of New York City’s most beautiful and famous neighborhoods. Take a guided 3-hour walking tour of this legendary Lower Manhattan space. Hear about the famous artists who once lived here, from Edgar Allan Poe to Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and countless others. Walk the winding streets and visit popular Washington Square Park, reliving more than 200 years of history.
1. Why do tourists visit Ellis Island?| A．To know about American immigration history. | B．To explore the surroundings of the island. |
| C．To get a whole view of New York City. | D．To observe Statue of Liberty closely. |
| A．Central Park Walking Tour. | B．Greenwich Village Walking Tour. |
| C．New York City Architecture Walking Tour. | D．Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Walking Tour. |
| A．Take unforgettable pictures. | B．Come across Bob Dylan. |
| C．Visit New York Public Library. | D．Learn about well-known artists. |
10 . Microplastics, the kind of current working definition, are plastic particles（颗粒）less than five millimeters. So people commonly think the microplastic to be something like a grain of rice or a sesame seed. Actually, most of the microplastics that people are interacting with are quite a bit smaller than the sesame seed size, so it always shocks people when they know about the number of microplastics because they can hardly see a lot of these things, at least with the naked eye.
Kieran Cox, a PhD candidate in marine（海洋的）biology at the University of Victoria，is one of the authors of the study, which is in the journal Environmental Science &. Technology. For their study, Cox and his team pulled together past scientific literature that calculated the number of microplastics in things we commonly consume, such as in tap and bottled water, sugars, seafood—even in the air that we breathe. This analysis helped them figure out the baseline amount of microplastics that people are consuming every year. They couldn't include common foods like beef, vegetables and dairy in their analysis because the data on them doesn't exist yet. In fact, their study could account for only l5 percent of people's caloric in-take. Even missing the majority of what people swallow, the research revealed that—at the very least—humans appear to consume somewhere between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastics every year. That number goes up for people drinking bottled water rather than tap water.
Now, is all the plastic safe to take in? Scientists don't know yet. This is like the first estimate of the dose which means an amount of a medicine that is taken once. So the amount is a very important factor to think about, but it is very difficult to estimate because it is what we don’t know.
1. What do we know about the microplastic?| A．It's much bigger than a grain of rice. |
| B．It's barely seen without an instrument. |
| C．It can be a kind of fish feed. |
| D．It's harmless to humans. |
| A．The study of microplastics people consume. |
| B．The analysis of past scientific literature. |
| C．The amount of microplastics in food. |
| D．The study of marine biology. |
| A．Making plastics safe. |
| B．The things people swallow. |
| C．The amount of bottled water. |
| D．Finding the safe dose of microplastics. |
| A．It was about a new material. |
| B．It was published in a journal. |
| C．Kieran Cox didn't finish it. |
| D．Scientists did it by using marine life. |
