Shooting down an ice-covered track, a bobsled（大雪橇）can go faster than 80 miles an hour, and riders can feel force five times stronger than the pull of gravity. A race can be won or lost by one hundredth of a second. How do bobsleds go faster than cars on a highway? The answer is a combination of athletics and science.
At the start of a race, the crew push their sled, building up speed before they jump in for the ride. For months before the race, the crew have built up power in their legs. The push is the crew's only chance to add speed. All other work goes into keeping friction and drag（摩擦力和阻力）from slowing the sled down.
The design of the sled's runners（滑板）reduces their friction with the ice. The friction of a moving runner melts a little ice right under the runner, and the runner rides on that thin layer of water. The runners are rounded on the bottom. Runners that are too flat may not melt enough ice for fast ride. Runners that are too round may become too warm, softening the ice and slowing the sled down. No amount of rounding is perfect for all races because the hardness of the ice depends on the weather on race day.
Bobsleds used to be open. The riders did not sit inside a hull（外壳）. As the crew sped down the track，the air would create drag. Today, a sled's hull reduces drag by splitting the air in front of the sled and making it flow smoothly along the slides. As with the runners，strict rules apply to the hull. For example，no team may add any part that would create helpful air currents.
Reducing friction and drag creates another challenge: high speeds. “The faster the sleds car travel on the run, the more thrilling the race,” one research team wrote. “But the track must not be too fast: he crew still need to be able to reach the bottom safely.”
1. What's the text mainly about?| A．The shape of the sled. | B．The design of the runners. |
| C．The safety rules applying to the sled. | D．The elements relating to the sled's speed |
| A．Proper amount of melted ice is needed for a fast ride. |
| B．The rounder the runners are, the faster the sled goes. |
| C．Thin layer of water would drag the runners backward. |
| D．A sled's movement has nothing to do with weather. |
| A．It's comfortable to sit in. | B．It leads to beneficial air flow. |
| C．It helps to create a safe ride. | D．It's free from strict rules. |
| A．Safety is the most important. | B．Keeping high speed is difficult. |
| C．Riders' desire to win is understandable. | D．The crew's cooperation is necessary. |
2 . Accompanied by her father, using a combination of aid and free climbing and taking advantage of some special equipment and ropes for protection, 10-year-old Selah made it to the top of El Capitan on June 12 after five days of big wall climbing.
Climbing the challenging and adventurous Nose route of El Capitan was a labor of love for Selah in more than one way. Her parents , Mike and Joy Schneiter, fell in love on this 3,000- plus-foot huge rock and she has always wanted to feel the way that her parents felt when they were up there together. Selah showed great interest in rock climbing at an early age. She wore her first rock-climbing equipment shortly after she learned to walk. She first dreamed of climbing El Capitan when she was 6 or 7.
El Capitan is a famous mountain-sized rock in Yosemite National Park. Getting to its top is no easy task. It's taller, as reported, than the tallest building in the world-Dubai’s Buri Khalifa. El Capitan and its difficult Nose route, which runs more than 3,000 feet high up the center of the rock's face, is considered one of the world's hardest big wall climbs and has attracted the best climbers over time. But never before had a youngster accomplished it.
Selah's achievement caught national attention. Outside Magazine called her the youngest documented person to climb the Nose. Ken Yager, president of the Yosemite Climbing Association, said he also couldn't think of anyone younger who has done it.
Selah is humble about her El Capitan accomplishment. "I'm not necessarily a special kid or anything like that, she said. "There were a few times when I would be so worn that it would kind of discourage me from holding on. But overall, it was just great to keep plugging away.”
Selah shared this advice for other young climbers dreaming of big walls, "It doesn't take necessarily a super special person to do something like that. You just have to put your mind to it.”
1. What do we learn about Selah climbing El Capitan?| A．She began her climbing on June 5. |
| B．She got inspired by her family history. |
| C．She managed without any external help. |
| D．She was the first female to reach the top. |
| A．To state El Capitan's height. |
| B．To prove El Capitan's popularity. |
| C．To introduce El Capitan's location. |
| D．To stress the challenge of climbing El Capitan. |
| A．Determined. | B．Generous. |
| C．Warm-hearted. | D．Fortunate. |
| A．Dream big and aim high. |
| B．Be committed to your ambition. |
| C．Chance favors the prepared mind. |
| D．Nothing is impossible for a genius. |
3 . With Heavenly Lake as the center, the Heavenly Lake and Tianshan Mountains Scenic Area consists of four mountain landscape belts, which covers a total area of 380.69 square kilometers. In the mountains by Heavenly Lake, there live many precious plants and animals, such as snow cocks and roe deer. The tops of the mountains are even home to contemporary glaciers and rich in resources such as copper, iron and mica.
Ideal Sightseeing Season: August and September
Opening Hours: 09:00 - 19:30 in peak season, 10:00-18:00 in off season
Ticket Price:
● Admission fee: 95 yuan from April to October, 45 yuan from November to March.
● Temple of Queen Mother of the West: 10 yuan.
● Eco- museum of Heavenly Lake: 10 yuan.
● Cableway: 20 yuan/one-way, 35 yuan/round-trip.
● Other fees: sightseeing bus (60 yuan/round-trip), accumulator car (5 yuan/person each time), painted pleasure boat (50 yuan/person each time), speed boat (35 yuan/person each time), yacht (205yuan/person each time).
Note:
● There is an obvious difference in temperature from day and in night in Xinjiang and temperature in some scenic spots is probably lower due to the high elevation or weather change. Therefore, it is still necessary to take along a coat or woolen sweater to keep warm during the summer.
● Located in the northwest, Xinjiang has a lower average temperature than that in most areas of China, but ultraviolet irradiation in it is commonly higher. The highest temperature in some cities such as Turpan can reach above 40 degree Centigrade, so it is suggested to take along effective sun block and some medicine in case of sunburn and sunstroke prevention.
● Xinjiang is a region of an ethnic minority with a common belief of Islam. Pork is one of the biggest taboos for Muslims, so please do NOT bring porky food into a Muslim restaurant or talk about pork in public areas.
● Although most areas of Xinjiang are located in UTC+6, Beijing Time (UTC+8, national standard time of China) is officially used in Xinjiang. Due to the time difference of two hours later, sightseeing in Xinjiang is usually arranged between Beijing Time 09:00 and 20:00.
1. What can we know from the passage?| A．There are many common plants and contemporary glaciers on tops of the mountains. |
| B．In spring visitors can enjoy the most beautiful scenery there. |
| C．Visitors need to carry heavy clothes, sunglasses and some medicine during the visit in summer. |
| D．Pulled pork is available in Muslim restaurants in Xinjiang |
| A．165 yuan. | B．330 yuan. |
| C．70 yuan. | D．140 yuan. |
| A．A travel review. | B．A travel advertisement. |
| C．A travel news. | D．A travel guide. |
4 . For all its drawbacks, aging brings a benefit: social relationships generally improve. Older individuals have fewer but closer friendships, avoid conflicts, and are more optimistic compared with younger adults. Now, 20 years of data on chimpanzees suggest they, too, develop more meaningful friendships as they age.
“The finding challenges a long-standing assumption that humans mellow (成熟) with age because we are aware of our approaching death.” said Zarin Machanda, a professor at Tufts University. But finding the same pattern in chimps suggests a simpler explanation: It could be an evolved trait found in a wider range of species. Zarin and her colleagues gathered data from the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, which has tracked wild chimpanzee behavior in Uganda’s Kibale National Park since 1987. Because chimps are socially similar to humans — they live in large groups and engage in both cooperative and antagonistic (敌对的) relationships throughout their lives — they serve as an ideal test group for studying changes in social behavior. The researchers zeroed in on the males, who had more purely peer-to-peer relationships than females.
Combing through 21 years of behavioral logs on 21 chimps aged 15 through 58, the researchers found that older males (aged 35 and up) had more mutual friendships than younger ones. Older “friends” would sit together and groom one another on a regular basis, whereas younger chimps were more likely to engage in one-sided relationships, in which they groomed preferred elders who rarely returned the favor. As males age and fall in rank, they stop competing for dominance and “tend to give up”. Forming these cooperative relationships with peers could help older males maintain their status, helping them fend off challenges by younger and fitter chimps.
The team are eager to see whether other chimpanzee groups—and female chimpanzees—also experience this mellowing with age. Machanda says the theory could also be tested in other long-lived social species. Next, however, the team will take a deeper look at how social bonds might benefit aging chimps - and whether the same mechanisms could be at work in humans. “There is a lot more to learn,” Machanda says.
1. The author writes Paragraph 1 to ________| A．introduce the topic about the finding on chimps. |
| B．compare chimps with humans in social behaviors. |
| C．show that humans mature as they age is a mere misunderstanding. |
| D．stress that aging is very terrifying not only for humans but also for animals. |
| A．Because chimps look like humans in so many ways. |
| B．Because chimps are easy to track down in the wild. |
| C．Because chimps bear resemblance to humans in social behaviors. |
| D．Because chimps live in large groups together throughout their lives. |
| A．It took the researchers 21 years to study the elderly chimps. |
| B．Older males exhibit mutual friendship among the group. |
| C．Younger males prefer to groom the elders because they respect them. |
| D．Elderly chimps will continue to fight to maintain their status as they age. |
| A．There’s no need to study the female chimpanzees for the theory. |
| B．It would be better to test other species who live a short life as well. |
| C．They have learned fairly enough about how aging affects animal behaviors. |
| D．The study on aging chimps would help better understand human interactions. |
5 . In the magnificent range of mountains of northern California, 42 radio telescopes point towards the stars, scanning for signs of life. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence （SETI） Institute has been listening for a signal here since it was founded in 1984. Jill Tarter, its co — founder, says the programmed aim is not just to communicate with remote civilisations. It is also to remind human beings of its own modest, fragile （脆弱的）place in the universe. Thus, for the first time, SETI is cocking its ear towards Earth to look for a signal that can be sent into space to represent the species.
Felipe Perez Santiago, a Mexican musician and composer, has an idea of what might work.Since songs, like the human voices, are common to all languages and nations, he and Ms. Tarter have designed the “Earthling Project”-a call to people everywhere to upload extracts （精华）of song that he plans to melt into a collective human chorus. An initial composition will be launched into space this summer, recorded on a virtually indestructible disk. Future plans and dreams include an eventual landing on Mars.
Human music has been sent to the heavens in 1977. Distant beings can in theory already enjoy Peruvian panpipes, a Navajo chant, Bach, Beethoven and more. But no previous offering, and perhaps no composition undertaken anywhere, has tried to encompass the entire diversity of human song.
Mr. Santiago says he is thrilled about bringing together contributors from around the globe. Unlike other recordings sent into space, says Mr. Santiago, “Everyone's invited. You don't have to be one of the main composers of our history like Beethoven, just someone singing in their shower.” Download the “Earthling Project" app, sing up to three songs of 30 seconds each, and your voice will be sent into the sky.
1. Why does SETI look for a signal to be sent into space?| A．To stand for species on the earth. |
| B．To scan for other liveable planets. |
| C．To respond to the call of the universe. |
| D．To stress the importance of the earth. |
| A．It is a world music organization. |
| B．It intends to create a human chorus. |
| C．It tries to develop a universal language. |
| D．It aims to search for signals from space. |
| A．Include. | B．Appreciate. |
| C．Work out. | D．Relate to. |
| A．To inspire people to become composers. |
| B．To call on people to protect our planet. |
| C．To encourage people to explore space. |
| D．To invite people to join a programme. |
6 . Just as a hungry brain craves (渴望) food, a lonely brain craves people. A new brain study demonstrates this. After being left alone, it shows people's brains would be activated at the sight of other people. The action was in the same brain region that speeds up when a hungry person sees food.
Livia Tomova, a neuroscientist, who studies how the brain produces mental activities, and her colleagues began this study. They recruited (招募) 40 people. On one day, the participants had to fast—not eat anything at all—for 10 hours. On another day, the same people were placed in a room for 10 hours. They couldn't see anyone. No friends, no family and no social media. They weren't even allowed to check their email. After both days, Tomova and her colleagues put the people in a MRI machine. It shows activity in the brain by tracking how much blood is flowing to each region.
At the end of each day, the participants showed high activity in a brain area called the midbrain. The scientists were interested in two, small areas within it. Both areas produce dopamine, a chemical that is important in craving and rewards. The two areas activated when hungry participants saw pictures of tasty pizza or juicy hamburgers. After the volunteers had been isolated, those brain areas became active when they saw social activities they missed. It might be playing sports or chatting with friends.
The midbrain plays an important part in people's motivation to seek food or friends. In fact, it responds to food and social signals even when people aren't hungry or lonely. But hunger and loneliness increased the reactions and made people's responses specific to the thing they were missing. And the more hunger or isolation the volunteers said they were experiencing, the stronger the activity in this part of the brain. Tomova and her colleagues published their results November 23 in Nature Neuroscience.
1. How does Tomova test out the result of the study?| A．By stimulating desire. | B．By controlling blood flow. |
| C．By monitoring brain activity. | D．By examining mental activities. |
| A．It consists of two areas. | B．It helps motivate desire for food. |
| C．It stops working when people are full. | D．It decreases responses to lost friends. |
| A．A midbrain area. | B．A social activity. | C．A volunteer. | D．A hamburger. |
| A．Dopamine—a Sure Sign of Age | B．Midbrain—a Nest for the Thoughts |
| C．Hunger Makes Mental Health Struggle | D．Loneliness Makes Our Brains Need People |
7 . Remote work, especially in a world affected by COVID-19, naturally leads to "flex time". Employees with small children might be getting the majority of their work done at night after the kids are in bed. Working early, you quit early. Starting late, work late.
With your teammates working during different hours, you may be getting messages at all hours of the day, night, or weekend, making you always available. That might be necessary in some industries during these challenging times, but certainly not in every industry and not for everyone in any industry. Once this takes root in your company culture, it becomes difficult to "reset" later. Besides, “always-on” isn't sustainable (可持续的), which increases pressure and quickly turns your company into an unpleasant place to work.
If your company adapts "flex time", how can you accommodate your employees’ needs while still protecting your culture and your team's work-life balance? The key is to encourage flex time while also setting clear "communication hours" (for example, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.）. Outside of those hours, employees should be encouraged to change their settings to "Do Not Disturb" and to use the “schedule send” feature of their email client so that messages only get delivered during communication hours.
If messages must happen outside of the set communication hours, such as for urgent or time-sensitive issues, make employees phone or text only. This way people can comfortably close down all other communication channels like email, WeChat, WeCom, etc. The act of having to call or text someone is usually enough to give the sender a pause to think, "Do I really need this person now, or can the communication wait?" This allows everyone on your team to work whenever is appropriate for them, but not feel like they have to work all the time to accommodate everyone else's schedule. A word of “Thanks for being so responsive” to someone answering an email outside of the defined communication hours definitely brings empathy (同理心) which smooths the urgency while also cultivating the trust and culture.
1. What may result in the phenomenon of "always-on"?| A．COVID-19. | B．Some industries. |
| C．Increasing pressure. | D．Flexible working time. |
| A．The phenomenon of "flex time". | B．The disadvantages of “flex time”. |
| C．The necessity of “flex time”. | D．The company culture of “flex time”, |
| A．It helps to make up for the shortcomings of “flex time". |
| B．It should be set from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| C．Employees mustn't be disturbed within the hours. |
| D．Employees are still responsive outside of the hours. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Opposed. | D．Indifferent. |
8 . The AI project intends to use artificial intelligence to create an innovative (创新的) theatrical performance, which is expected to premiere (首演) early next year. Head of the research team Rudolf Rosa said: “The main idea behind our study came from Tomáš Studeník, an innovator who noticed the centenary of the play ‘RUR’ is approaching. “This was a key moment for robotics, as the idea of a robot, including the word ‘robot’ itself, was invented by Karel Capek and his brother Josef wrote this play.
“Tomáš believed this should be properly celebrated and formulated the idea of turning the story around: 100 years ago, a man wrote a play about robots; what if today, robots wrote a theatre play about men?”
While there are now numerous papers focusing on machine-produced art, including some where computational techniques were used to produce dialogues or story ideas for plays, the automatic generation of an entire theatrical performance is an extremely complex task never-before attempted.
Rosa’s team decided to split the production of their play into several sub-parts. Although other research teams have used this approach to generate dialogues, few have attempted to produce an entire play. Dr Rosa said: “Thanks to the approaching anniversary, our main target is clear and fixed: by January 2021, we need to have a play ready for premiere. As it will be performed by a professional theatre group, we need to have the script ready in September, so that there is enough time for rehearsals (彩排).”
The researchers started experimenting with pre-trained language model called GPT-2. Once adequately trained, GPT-2 is able to complete unfinished texts using similar language and covering related themes. For example, if GPT-2 is fed the first paragraph of a news article, the model will try to continue to write a few additional paragraphs on the same topic, using the existing text for inspiration, while generating sentences about new concepts.
1. How did Rosa’s team plan to do the project?| A．By cooperating with other research teams. |
| B．By dividing their work into few small sections. |
| C．By exploring the possibility of creating dialogues using AI techniques. |
| D．By staging an entire play directly performed by professional theatre group. |
| A．The play will be on show in September. |
| B．GPT-2 can perform an entire play with ease. |
| C．Machines are still not smart enough to create art. |
| D．AI techniques have been applied to create dialogues for plays. |
| A．GPT-2 can practice continuation writing. |
| B．The play RUR was written by Karel Capek. |
| C．The idea of a robot was born half a century ago. |
| D．The word “robot” was coined by Tomáš Studeník. |
| A．“Robotre” Staged Successfully |
| B．“Mechatre” Trained Inadequately |
| C．“Mantre” Story Completed by Humans |
| D．“AItre” Play Written Entirely by Machines |
9 . Zhang Guimei, a rural teacher in Huaping county, Lijiang, Yunnan province, breaking cycle of poverty in mountain areas realizes potential of students.
It was a chance meeting that revealed the reality of one life as it changed another. About 20 years ago, while on the way to visit a student’s house, Zhang Guimei noticed a girl sitting on the hillside. She was staring blankly into space. She was completely preoccupied. The girl, 13, told Zhang she was about to get married. It was arranged by her parents. “But I want to go to school,” the girl says. Zhang went to her house and tried to persuade her parents to let the girl return, to school and promised to pay for her tuition herself. However, they didn’t agree.
Zhang says she feels sorry not being able to help “We always say, each child should stand on the same starting line, but these girls didn’t even have a chance to get on the track,” she tells Xinhua News Agency.
That fateful encounter persuaded Zhang to build a free big school for girls, aiming to help break the cycle that saw women drop out of education, marry early and spend their whole life in the remote mountain. The priority of less well-off families was to spend whatever scarce resources they had on educating their sons.
After years trying to raise funds, in 2008, Huaping High School for Girls, a free public high school, was founded at the foot of the Shizi Mountain in Huaping, where Zhang is the principal.
Over the decades, the principal walked thousands of kilometers, visiting students’ families in the deep mountain, talking to villagers, persuading girls to go back to school. She donated her wages and bonus to support rural education and poor people. It has been worth it. More than 1. 800 graduates have been admitted to college, which is regarded a “miracle” in the remote area, as most students didn’t perform well in academic study before the school was established.
In early December. she was named a national outstanding member of the Communist Party of China for her dedication to education in rural China. She was also given the honor of the country’s “role model for teachers”, advanced worker “and” outstanding woman”. Her moving stories inspire thousands of people.
1. What does the underlined word “preoccupied” probably mean in paragraph 2？| A．Cautious. | B．Regretful. | C．Worried. | D．Merciful. |
| A．Women are poor in academic fields. | B．There are few women schools in China. |
| C．Few girls are admitted to universities. | D．Girls in rural areas receive little education. |
| A．Independent and tough. | B．Faithful and honest. |
| C．Inspirational and generous. | D．Determined and conventional. |
| A．Zhang Guimei helps change the life of girls from poor families. |
| B．Zhang Guimei creates a miracle in advanced technology. |
| C．Zhang Guimei is awarded as an international heroine. |
| D．Zhang Guimei devotes her life to fighting poverty. |
10 . Randy Kraus was disabled. His left side was useless. He'd been a police officer before, and he was strong and able. Now, he felt he could do nothing.
His trouble started with Parkinson's disease, but it didn't end there. In July, 2002, the 60-year-old Kraus went into the hospital for an operation on his brain to control the shaking. But during the operation，he had a stroke. He was paralyzed. The doctor said, “You may never walk again and you might not even be able to talk.”
Kraus found that he couldn't lift a fork or take a drink by himself. Physical treatment was so painful and slow. What did he have to live for? So Kraus held the gun against his head. Feeling the cold metal on his skin, he began to consider the pain he would cause for his wife, daughters and grandchildren. He didn't pull the trigger (扳机)．
Andrew Garud, his exercise physiologist, told him, “You are where you are. The pace would be slow；the pain would be real. But as long as you are alive, you will have the ability to get better.”
After three months of working with Garud, Kraus wanted to see if he could stand.
He could. Then he took three steps, sat down and cried like a baby.
One step, as they say, led to another. Next he managed a short walk along the edge of a boxing ring (拳击台) in the health club. It was the hardest fight of Kraus's life. People at the gym cheered him on. Garud kept saying he could do more. Now, Kraus can brush his teeth，shave himself and get around the house with a walker. Only the disabled can fully understand little success.
1. According to the passage，we can learn that ________.| A．the stroke during the operation on his brain led to Kraus' disability |
| B．Kraus' operation in 2002 was performed by Andrew Garud |
| C．doing exercise can help cure Parkinson's disease |
| D．Kraus will lead a normal life as a healthy person in the future |
| A．Everyone in the world has the right to be alive. |
| B．It's necessary for people to do exercise to keep healthy. |
| C．One should try to lead a better life. |
| D．As long as a person is alive, he will have a chance to be better. |
| A．Optimism. | B．Strong mindedness. |
| C．Sympathy. | D．Generosity. |
