1 . We look ahead to London’s art and exhibition openings and select the must ─ see shows.
Double science
It’s a big month for the Science Museum, with a new gallery and an exhibition opening. The Science City gallery tells the story of London between 1550 and 1800 when major scientific breakthroughs were happening across the city──from Newton’s laws of physics to the birth of microscopes allowing us to see the tiny creatures that live among us. If that isn’t enough, there’s also an exhibition on how art and science have worked closely together over the centuries and continue to do so today.
Science City 1550──1800: The Linbury Gallery at the Science Museum. Opens 12 September──13 October, free.
The Art of Innovation: From Enlightenment to Dark Matter at the Science Museum. 25 September──26 January, free but ticketed.
Are you worried yet?
We all suffer from anxiety. Artists look into this through artworks that bring to light their own anxieties or how people living with anxiety manage. The exhibition also covers what anxiety would look like if it could be visualised in light or sound──something we imagine to be impossible.
On Edge: Living in an Age of Anxiety at Science Gallery. 19 September──19 January, free.
Climbing the walls
No artist has made a bigger career out of placing sculptures of human figures all over the place. Antony Gormley, the artist behind the Angel of the North and sculptures standing all over London, takes over the Royal Academy of Arts with a blockbusting(轰动一时的) exhibition. This is the hot art ticket in town.
Antony Gormley at Royal Academy of Arts. 21 October──3 December, £18──22.
1. What is on show in the Science City gallery?| A．Some of the greatest physicists. |
| B．The stories of the London development. |
| C．The prediction of the future science. |
| D．Some of the great achievements in history. |
| A．The Art of Innovation. | B．On Edge. |
| C．Royal Academy of Arts. | D．Science City 1550 ─ 1800. |
| A．In January. | B．In September. |
| C．In October. | D．In December. |
2 . For many students today, distance learning has become the new normal. But distance learning means lots of screen time.
Research has shown that kids who spend a lot of time on screens are more likely to have various health problems and trouble with reading and language. Yet in the countries still suffering from the epidemic (流行病)，screens are the only safe way for many young people to learn or socialize. It's difficult for kids and teens to navigate this dilemma.
In one 2019 study, Taren Sanders, a health scientist at Australian Catholic University in North Sydney, looked at how kids spent their screen time. His group then investigated whether the type o£ screen time made a difference in health and school achievements. The researchers sorted screen time into five types: passive (such as watching a movie) , interactive (such as . playing a video game), social, educational or something else.
Educational screen time was linked to doing better in school and had no bad health effects. More passive screen time was linked to worse outcomes in health and school achievements, Sanders' group found, compared with the other categories. But the impact was quite small. Major problems showed up mainly in kids spending more than eight hours a day on screens.
The most serious problem caused by too much screen time is that people usually sit still while they are in front ,o£ a screen. "If students are spending all day sitting on screens, when are they moving?” asks Guerrero, who studies patterns of diseases. “Extended time sitting and not moving around leads to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other health issues. So an important question to ask yourself is not how much screen time are you getting, but how active are you?"
Sanders agrees. "Overall, I'm not too concerned about the additional screen time kids are having because of distance learning," he says. “The things you should worry about: The amount of exercise they get and the way they spend their free time. "
1. What does the underlined word "navigate, in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Handle. | B．Assume. | C．Observe. | D．Seize. |
| A．There are mainly five types of screen time. |
| B．Educational screen time damages kids' health. |
| C．Passive screen time has a major influence on kids. |
| D．Too much screen time is the major cause of problems. |
| A．The problem of lacking exercise. |
| B．Kids way of spending their free time. |
| C．The number of diseases related to screen time. |
| D．Distance learning causes additional screen time. |
| A．To guide parents to educate their kids. |
| B．To explain the finding of a new study. |
| C．To discuss the influence of screen time. |
| D．To analyse the effect of distance learning. |
3 . You have probably read about robots replacing human labor as a new era of automation takes root in one industry after another. But a new report suggests humans are not the only ones who might lose their jobs.
In New Zealand, farmers are using drones(无人机) to herd and monitor cows and sheep, taking up a position that highly intelligent dogs have held for more than a century. The robots have not replaced the dogs entirely, Radio New Zealand reports, but they have appropriated(盗用) one of the animal's most powerful tools: barking. The DJI Mavic Enterprise, a $3,500 drone favored by farmers, has a feature that lets the machine record sounds and play them over a loudspeaker, giving the machine the ability to act as the dogs.
Corey Lambeth, a shepherd on a farm, told RNZ the machines are surprisingly effective. ''That's the one thing I've noticed when you're moving cows that the old cows stand up to the dogs, but with the drones, they've never done that,'' he said, noting the drones move cows faster, with less stress, than the dogs do.
The drones come in handy for more than just herding(放牧) cows and sheep. The robots allow farmers to monitor their land from afar, monitoring water and feed levels and checking on the animals' health without disturbing them. Jason Rentoul told RNZ that a two-hour herding job that used to require two people and two teams of dogs could be accomplished in 45 minutes using a single drone. ''Being a hilly farm where a lot of stuff is done on foot, the drones really saved a lot of man hours, '' he said.
For now, farmers say, there is still a need for herding dogs, primarily because they have a longer life span than drones, can work in bad weather and do not require an electrical socket every few hours to recharge.
1. What is the main advantage of the drones over herding dogs?| A．The drones can take up a job that the dogs hardly do well any longer. |
| B．The drones can frighten the old cows which are not afraid of the dogs. |
| C．The drones can finish a herding job more efficiently than the dogs. |
| D．The drones can work on a hilly farm and extreme weather while the dogs can't. |
| A．Herding dogs will gradually lose their position on the farmland. |
| B．The drones can only copy the dogs' barking with the current technology. |
| C．The drones are multi-functional and leave the animals undisturbed. |
| D．The market for the DJI Mavic Enterprise is pretty small because of its high price. |
| A．Because the drones can't bark as loudly as the dogs do. |
| B．Because cows are not used to seeing the drones. |
| C．Because the drones are much more expensive than the animal. |
| D．Because the drones' power is limited and they need charging from time to time. |
| A．supportive | B．objective |
| C．critical | D．doubtful |
4 . Sea urchins(海胆) are small creatures , but what’s really remarkable about them is that they eat anything that happens to float by. They have really sharp teeth they use to rid rocks of algae(海藻)which makes them pretty valuable especially in places like Hawaii where algae are threatening the coral reefs. In the summer of 2019, 500,000 of them were used to deal with the algae.
The problem started when non-native algae were introduced to the ecosystem of Kaneohe Bay in the 1970s. Because they had no enemies, they ended up taking over the bay, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The algae blocked sunlight from reaching the coral, which in turn affected the local fish because they changed the chemistry of the water.
That’s when the NMFS turned to sea urchins that loved to devour the algae. But they had to grow to the size of a cherry tomato before they could be used. Since 2011, sea urchins have been grown and used to handle the algae problem. Some of the funds are available due to an unfortunate incident. In 2005, a ship was grounded on a shallow reef near Kaneohe Bay. When the ship was removed, 20 acres of reefs have been damaged. When there is environmental damage, the NMFS and other agencies receive funds from the wrongdoers and the funds are used to restore the damage. Some funds were spent on other projects like the sea urchins. The state of Hawaii began to grow the sea urchins. When they are large enough, divers carefully place them on the reef.
Algae isn’t the only thing that threatens the coral reefs. Climate change and the effects of fishing and tourism in the area also endanger the coral reefs. But turning to sea urchins instead of man-made solutions seems like the best way to go.
1. Why are sea urchins regarded as outstanding creatures?| A．They are tiny but have teeth. |
| B．They can keep the ocean clean. |
| C．They can remove harmful algae. |
| D．They grow on coral reefs with algae. |
| A．They helped the coral reefs to survive. |
| B．They spread to every corner of the bay. |
| C．They didn't fit in with the new surroundings. |
| D．They fought against other species to get food. |
| A．Eat | B．Block |
| C．Attack | D．Attract |
| A．Banning fishing and tourism. | B．Relying on humans’ solutions. |
| C．Employing divers to handle algae. | D．Letting nature take care of nature. |
5 . Recently I rolled into a local restaurant to try an Impossible Burger, an all-plant patty(人造肉饼) invented by Impossible Foods. It's well known for having an strangely chewy(有咀嚼感), even bloody, meat-like quality, a surprising verisimilitude(逼真) that has made it ''perhaps the country's most famous burger, '' as New York magazine wrote. One bite into its wonderful, smoky taste and, damn, I was convinced.
This is good news, because the time has come to consume fake meat. In the fight against climate change, meat replacement is something we can try. A University of Oxford study recently found that, to keep global warming below 2 degrees this century, we need to be eating 75 percent less beef and 90 percent less pork.
However, diets are culturally enshrined, so changing them will be hard. It isn't easy to replace 75 to 90 percent of beef and pork with fake meat. The first taste of an Impossible Burger—a moment when low expectations work a powerful magic in the product's favor—is one thing. But how do you keep meat-eaters asking for more after their sixth, and their 26th？
To get to true mass adoption, fake meat will need to compete favorably with the real thing on multiple fronts. Impossible Foods' goal is to drive the price of its product below that of Safeway's 80/20 hamburger meat, at which point people will simply vote with their wallets. The new industry also wants to improve on animal flesh in various ways. Fake meat has an advantage over traditional meat because ''you won't need to refrigerate it'' cofounder Niko Koffeman says. Plus, custom(定制的) production could improve choice. ''You could have very soft and tender meat for elderly people,'' Koffeman adds. ''You could have a tailored meat for whatever you need.''
You can tell the world is shifting this way, because the ranchers(牧场主) are nervous. Last year, the US Cattlemen's Association asked the government to define ''meat'' as a product ''coming directly from animals.'' That anxiety—and the power of the science driving it—goes to show that this grand shift isn't impossible.
1. According to passage, the author was convinced by the Impossible Burger because__.| A．it has a special taste that is different from normal ones. |
| B．it contains all non-meat materials that taste like meat. |
| C．more vegetables are used as main materials for the burger. |
| D．one bite of this burger can provide people with the energy needed for a whole day. |
| A．That people think their diet is the best in the world. |
| B．That people are unwilling to go against their culture by changing their diets. |
| C．That people's preference for food is linked to the food choice available to them. |
| D．That people's eating habits are consistently observed and closely connected with their culture. |
| A．Fake meat will not be necessarily stored in a refrigerator. |
| B．The price of fake meat will be just one-fourth of traditional meat's. |
| C．Fake meat will win over older people thanks to its tender and soft taste. |
| D．Fake meat will own a taste that is not found in traditional meat. |
| A．Meat must come from animals. |
| B．The world will probably embrace the idea of fake meat. |
| C．The ranchers are suffering economic loss due to fake meat. |
| D．The definition of meat has been changed because of fake meat. |
6 . Thailand's southern beaches attract travelers with their clean water and dramatic cliffs (峭壁), but there's more to explore in this Southeast Asian country.
Lopburi for history buffs
Bypass the tour groups at the ancient city of Ayutthaya and head two hours north of the capital, Bangkok, for a peaceful walk through Thai history. Lopburi, one of Thailand's oldest cities, boasts Khmer-era temples and the uncrowded ruins of King Narai's Palace, which was built in the 1600s. It's also known for the monkeys that gather at Phra Prang Sam Yot temple in the center of town.
Ban Krut for beach bums
In Ban Krut, travelers will find one of the cleanest and quietest stretches of white sandy beach within driving distance of Bangkok. This sleepy seaside community, known mostly by locals, is a five-hour drive or six-hour train trip down the Gulf of Thailand. Don't miss the magnificent Wat Tang Sai, a huge, fairy tale castle-like Buddhist temple.
Cave for holiday hikers
Hiking trails, wetlands and forests make Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park a weekend adventure worthy of topping your Thailand to-do list. The park's crown jewel is the extraordinary Phraya Nakhon Cave. Come early to catch the picturesque chamber flooded with morning sunshine that spotlights the royal pavilion that sits inside.
River Kwai for nature lovers
Most visitors come for the beaches, but the rivers and parks in Thailand's Kanchanaburi province have much to offer. Scenic trails and waterfalls abound in Sai Yok and Erawan national parks. Just two hours from Bangkok is the bridge made famous in the book Bridge over the River Kwai by French author, Pierre Boulle, and the 1957 Academy Award-winning 1957 film adaptation of the same name. Stay on the river at one of Kanchanaburi's many floating hotels, where you can travel to your front door.
1. From which of the following can you learn more about Thai history?| A．Ban Krut |
| B．Kanchanaburi |
| C．Phraya Nakhon Cave |
| D．Lopburi |
| A．Visit temples. |
| B．Meet lovely monkeys. |
| C．Go hiking. |
| D．Go to the beach. |
| A．River Kwai was made famous by a book and a film |
| B．Tourists can stay at the floating hotels on River Kwai. |
| C．Most visitors visit Thailand for rivers and parks |
| D．Travellers can find Khmer-era temples in Ban Krut. |
7 . On Hoxton Street in East London there is a very special children’s writing and mentoring(辅导) center called the Ministry of Stories, which is fronted by its shop , Hoxton Street Monster(怪兽) Supplies, where you can expect to find monster food. The store raises funds for this very special program that fires children’s imagination.
The youth aged 8 to 18 enter the Ministry, through a secret door that is designed to open a world of opportunity by encouraging a love for writing. The organization believes that, “Writing increases self-respect, improves communication and can change lives.” That’s because writing allows children’s voices to be heard.
This year, the workshop is celebrating 10 years of helping children discover a love for writing through creative programs. Founded by Lucy Macnab, Ben Payne and best-selling author Nick Hornby, the organization works with around 1,000 children per year participating in schools, and community programs across Hackney, Islington, and Tower Hamlets. It now has over 400 volunteers and runs its program free of charge for the youth of the areas.
“Through a range of creative writing programs, and one-to-one mentoring, we aim to help young people find their own qualities that can be developed,” Macnab told The Telegraph. “We build confidence, self-respect, and communication skills in both workshops for schools and out of school writing clubs.”
One 10-year participant, Nmeso, said that the weekly after-school club he attends at the Ministry has helped him grow his imagination and improve his academic performance. In fact, he was able to move up a grade in school. What’s even more remarkable is that Nmeso has had a story he wrote published ── along with other writers in the program ──titled Andre Has a Hard Time .This is Nmeso’s success story.
1. What is the function of Hoxton Street Monster Supplies?| A．Advertising the mentoring center. |
| B．Supporting the Ministry of Stories. |
| C．Attracting young children to come. |
| D．Arousing children's interest in food. |
| A．To prove the program is popular. |
| B．To suggest writing is vital for children. |
| C．To attract readers’ attention to the center. |
| D．To show the value of running the program. |
| A．To give the children a better future. |
| B．To help discover the children’s potential. |
| C．To help the children express opinions. |
| D．To develop the children’s writing skills. |
| A．He is ten years old this year. |
| B．He’s got his own book published. |
| C．He has benefitted a lot from the program. |
| D．He becomes very famous as a young writer. |
8 . Have you ever made a mistake while trying to print from a computer? That paper probably went right into the recycling bin. From there, it is taken to a waste-handling plant to be eventually broken down and remade. But what if you could simply erase your mistake and reuse that paper? It may become available, thanks to a new technology.
It's a new type of rewritable paper that can be used more than 100 times. Words and pictures remain visible on it for at least half a year. This is nearly the first rewritable paper. But the marks on those earlier versions tended to fade away in less than three months.
Luzhuo Chen led the group that made the new rewritable paper. His team was inspired by pens that contain erasable ink. That ink disappears when heated. To make its new rewritable paper, Chen's group switched the ink from the pen to the paper. They covered one side of regular paper with the ink used in those erasable pens. Using a heated pen or printer, they can now write or print on this paper. That warmth makes the ink disappear.
This is the opposite of how writing usually works, where ink is applied to paper. With the new system, the spots where you write become white instead of colored because that heat makes the ink covering the white paper disappear.
Qiang Zhao has a creative mind behind another type of rewritable paper. He thinks Chen's paper is simple and doesn't cost much to make, so it should be easy and fairly inexpensive to produce. However, the paper will need a lot of ink. In large doses（剂量），chemicals in the ink can be bad for the environment and people's health. Zhao would like scientists to develop a safer ink. Still, he thinks this paper will have wide applications.
1. Why does the author raise the questions in the first paragraph?| A．To prove the necessity of recycling paper. |
| B．To introduce the importance of rewritable paper. |
| C．To draw readers attention to the new technology. |
| D．To show the development of paper-making technology. |
| A．It can be reused for a lot more times. |
| B．The costs of producing it are much lower. |
| C．It can be produced in a much easier way. |
| D．The contents on it can be more long-lasting. |
| A．It still needs improving. | B．It's somewhat impractical. |
| C．It does no harm to its users. | D．It's worth promoting right away. |
| A．It shows colored words or pictures. |
| B．It doesn't require ink to write on it. |
| C．It will replace ordinary writing paper soon. |
| D．It has no requirement on the writing tool. |
9 . About 450 million years ago, animals made one of the most important decisions in Earth's history: They left the wet sea and started living on the dry land. At that moment, humanity's problems with superbugs (超级细菌) probably began. Scientists at the Broad Institute have found evidence that an important group of antibiotic-resistant (耐药性) bacteria are as old as animals themselves.“These bugs likely lived in the very first creatures that were out of the sea and came onto land,” says Ashlee Earl, who co-led the study.
During that time, these superbugs seem to have picked up characteristics that .helped them live in hospitals and even the most common antibiotics, like penicillin. “These bugs became part of these creatures' stomach bacteria," Earl adds. The superbug we're talking is a little guy called Enterococci. And it's the godfather of superbugs. Today Enterococci bacteria have become. a: major source of hospital infections. They, sicken nearly 70, 000 and. kill more than 1,000 each year in U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
“Why, out of the thousand species of bacteria that live in our stomach, have Enterococci become a superbug?" Earl wondered. To figure it out, she sequenced(排序) the genomes of 24 species of Enterococci found in the stomach of all sorts of animals, from bees and pigeons to human and fish. When she looked at what those genes do, Earl quickly realized Enterococci’s secret weapon: “Basically, it's like the. bacteria put on a tough suit." Many of these special genes are involved in hardening the bacteria's cell wall.“They help make the bacteria able to withstand drying out and exposure to disinfectants(消毒剂)”
“Remember, these are bacteria that live in the stomach of animals, but. sometimes they are out in waste." When the waste happens in the ocean, the bacteria end up in an environment that's not too different than. an animal's stomach, wet and filled with nutrients. But when bacteria are out onto land, they find themselves in a much harder environment. They are exposed to U.V. light, starving and drying up. So, to survive, they needed to develop this tough suit.
1. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?| A．Hospitals are fighting against superbugs fiercely. |
| B．It is possible that superbugs can be defeated in the near future. |
| C．Superbugs can be traced back to ancient land animals. |
| D．Humans have lived with superbugs for a long time. |
| A．the harsh environment | B．the hard 'cell wall |
| C．the evolution of Enterococci | D．the abundant nutrients |
| A．They had a comfortable life then. | B．They tended to protect themselves from starving. |
| C．They developed a tough suit. | D．They depended on the sea animals. |
| A．To introduce the concept of superbugs. | B．To explain the changing living environment. |
| C．To compare the gut bacteria with Enterococci. | D．To inform the origination of-superbugs. |
10 . China’s largest search engine Baidu has said it will make its latest artificial intelligence (AI) technology accessible to developers and businesses as part of the company’s latest move into AI, big data and cloud computing.
AI solution “Tianzhi” was launched at a cloud-computing summit held in Beijing Wednesday. It includes services in three fields: sensing technology, such as image and voice processing, machine learning, and deep learning, an advanced form of machine learning, said Zhang Yaqin, CEO of the Nasdaq-listed company, at the summit.
Developers can access facial or voice recognition, algorithms (演算法) for data analysis and projections, and deep learning applications, Zhang said, adding that the technology could help users innovate in their sectors.
“With more devices connected to the cloud, enterprises will use cloud computing and AI more frequently,” said Wu Hequan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, “Open AI technology can play a bigger role.”
The company also revealed a plan to invest 10 billion yuan (1.45 billion U.S. dollars) in cloud computing in the next five years and establish an innovation center, which will serve 10 million enterprises.
1. What is the main idea of paragraph one?| A．Baidu will further develop its latest AI technology. |
| B．Baidu has attracted developers’ and businesses’ attention. |
| C．Users will be able to access Baidu’s latest AI technology. |
| D．A company will move to AI, big data and cloud computing. |
| A．sensing technology |
| B．voice processing |
| C．machine learning |
| D．deep learning |
| A．It’s important for AI technology to be open. |
| B．AI technology is more important than the cloud. |
| C．People aren’t aware of the importance of AI technology. |
| D．Enterprises will hardly benefit from open AI technology. |
| A．Reveal a plan to invest in cloud computing. |
| B．Invest 10 billion yuan to serve enterprises. |
| C．Get invested from enterprises in the next five years. |
| D．Invest in computing and build an innovation center. |
