1 . The Children’s Library is currently offering pick-up service. Customers may tell us your requests for any books or movies over the telephone by calling(561)655-2776, on Mondays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Customers can click here to browse our available titles. Limits on requests are 15 per family. Pick-up time is 10 a.m, to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays of the same week when requests are made. Please note some items listed as available may become unavailable before your order is filled.
Once a request is made, library staff will call you to confirm your request, and reserve pick-up time for Tuesday or Thursday between 10 a.m. and noon. When arriving for pick-up, customers are asked to “drive-through” the Rovensky staff parking lot, attached to the building which houses the Children’s Library. On arrival, call our Children’s Library to let them know you are here and a staff member will place your bag. Please remain in your vehicle. Please place all returns in our book drop.
The Children’s Library offers a variety of programs throughout the year, including Preschool Story Time, Family Story Time and special events. Programs for children in kindergarten and higher grades are offered during the season, November through April, on selected weekdays. Children are invited to borrow books, use iPads, play games, build with blocks and enjoy special programs at no charge.
Children of all ages, newborn through 17, must always be accompanied by an adult while in the Children’s Library. Likewise, all adults must be accompanied by a child.
1. When can customers make a call to tell their requests?| A．1: 00 a.m., Monday. |
| B．10: 30 a.m., Monday. |
| C．10: 30 a.m., Tuesday. |
| D．11: 30 a.m., Thursday. |
| A．Pay a fee to use an iPad. |
| B．Offer programs for children. |
| C．Take fewer than 15 family members. |
| D．Drive to the staff-only parking lot. |
| A．A notice. | B．brochure. | C．A newspaper. | D．A webpage. |
2 . Nothing energizes office workers more than complaining about meetings. And it seems some of the world's greatest tech successes agree. Here's some of their advice.
Mark Zuckerberg: A decision or a discussion?
The Facebook CEO reportedly improved the effectiveness of meetings by asking managers to explain the point of a meeting: to make a decision or to have a discussion.
"If there's no point, then there are no decisions," Microsoft founder Bill Gates might agree. He is supposed to have said, "You have a meeting to make a decision, not to decide on the question."
Elon Musk: It is not rude to leave.
Elon Musk once sent out an email to staff in which he made some "recommendations".
"Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value," he went on. "It is not rude to leave; it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time."
Jeff Bezos: The "two--pizza rule".
The Amazon founder meets investors for just six hours a year, and tries to avoid early morning meetings.
Business Insider reports that Mr. Bezos also has a strict policy: Never have a meeting in which you couldn't feed the whole group with two pizzas. The businessman believes small groups are far more efficient than large ones, and the "two-pizza rule" helps him prevent large meetings.
Steve Jobs: No need for PowerPoint.
Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs shows the creative genius behind the iPhone making an attack on slideshow users. "People who know what they are talking about don't need PowerPoint," he said.
"Generally PowerPoint presentations are a great distraction(使人分心的事物), unless it's data or a graph," said Professor Andre Spicer. "Long slides mean no information being conveyed."
1. What did Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates both stress?| A．How to have a meeting. | B．When to have a meeting. |
| C．The purpose of having a meeting. | D．The importance of having a meeting. |
| A．To offer better services for a meeting. | B．To reduce the cost of a meeting. |
| C．To encourage short meetings. | D．To limit the size of a meeting. |
| A．less is more | B．the more the merrier |
| C．something is better than nothing | D．a picture is worth a thousand words |
3 . One of the astronomy's most well-known telescopes-the 305-metre-wide radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico-is closing forever. Engineers cannot find a safe way to repair it after two cables supporting the structure suddenly and catastrophically broke, one in August and one in early November.
The Arecibo telescope, which was built in 1963, was the world's largest radio telescope for decades and has historical and modern importance in astronomy. It was the site from which astronomers sent an interstellar radio message in 1974, in case any extraterrestrial might hear it, and where the first known extrasolar planet was discovered, in 1992. It has also done groundbreaking work in detecting near-Earth planets, observing the puzzling celestial blasts known as fast radio bursts, and studying many other phenomena.
The cables that broke helped support a 900-tonne platform of scientific instruments, which hangs above the main telescope dish. The first cable broke panels at the edge of the dish, but the second tore huge gashes in a central portion of it. If any more cables fail-which could happen at any time-the entire platform could crash into the dish below. The US National Science Foundation(NSF), which owns the Arecibo Observatory, is working on plans to safely lower the platform down in a controlled fashion.
NSF's officials insist that the cable failures came as a surprise. After the first, engineering teams spotted a handful of broken wires on the second cable, which was more crucial to holding up the structure, but they did not see it as a major problem because the weight it was carrying was well within its design capacity.
Some of the observatory's scientific projects may be able to be transferred to other facilities, said Ralph Gaume, the NSF's head of astronomy. And he expects scientists to suggest where to shift their research. Science does continue at other portions of the Arecibo Observatory, which includes more than the 305-metre-dish. They include two lidar facilities that shoot lasers into the atmosphere to study atmospheric phenomena.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The history of building the telescope. | B．The key role of the telescope in astronomy. |
| C．The benefit of learning astronomical events. | D．The process of locating near-Earth planets. |
| A．NSF's officials tried to repair the platform |
| B．the second cable failure destroyed the platform |
| C．the scientific instruments broke down due to the cables |
| D．the platform would not break down if no more cables should fail |
| A．The cable was not very old. |
| B．The wires were specially designed. |
| C．The weight the cable bore did not go beyond its limit. |
| D．The cable was not as important as the first one. |
| A．All of them will be shut down. | B．Some of them will be moved to other facilities. |
| C．They will be distributed to different scientists. | D．Some of them will be put off. |
4 . In 1849, travelers going from the East Coast to the West Coast of the U.S. had three choices. They could go by wagon(马车) across the dangerous land. They could travel by sea to Panama, cross Panama by foot, and then sail to the West Coast. The third choice was to board a sailing ship in New York bound for California. The journey took long. Severe weather could add as much as five extra months to the trip.
Could there be any other way to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific? The answer was a canal. A canal is a human-made waterway.
In the1850s,the U.S. and Britain negotiated treaty(条约) for the rights to build canal. However, this canal was never built.
Panama was another logical option for a canal. With a canal in Panama, travel time could be three months instead of eight months.
In 1879, France began to build a canal across Panama. This project was led by Ferdinand, the experienced builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt. The French government felt that he could get the job done.
Unfortunately, problems began as soon as construction started. It rained every day and temperatures climbed as high as 130 degrees. Tropical diseases caused illness or death to the majority of workers. These factors put a great deal of stress on the project. The money assigned to build the canal quickly ran out. In 1899, France abandoned the project.
The U.S. Congress decided to finish the canal. The U.S . government paid $40 million to France for the completed work and abandoned equipment. In 1903, a treaty between the U.S. and Panama was signed paying Panama $10 million for the land for the canal. This treaty also guaranteed $250,000 to Panama each year for the use of its land and ensured its independence. This deal was viewed as a major foreign policy achievement at the time.
By early1913, the canal was nearly complete. On September 26,1931, an old tugboat was the first ship through the canal. Thousands of people watched and cheered.
Time, money, and possibly even lives have been saved as ships use the shorter route from ocean to ocean provided by the canal. The Panama Canal, a highway of water, is a phenomenon.
1. What does the underlined word “phenomenon” in the last paragraph probably mean?| A．Disaster | B．Wonder. | C．Case. | D．Supply. |
| A．France incorrectly believed in Ferdinand. |
| B．Ferdinand managed another canal project in Egypt. |
| C．Tropical diseases infected most workers on the project |
| D．The U.S. government paid France and took over the project. |
| A．It caused feelings of hate between France and the U.S. |
| B．It strengthened the relationship between Panama and the U.S. |
| C．It united the people living on the east and west coasts of the U.S. |
| D．It created pressure on the relationship between Britain and the U.S. |
| A．To persuade readers to visit the Canal. |
| B．To inform readers about the Canal and its history. |
| C．To tell interesting facts about who built the Canal. |
| D．To state building the Canal was a good political decision. |
5 . Daphne Soares, a biologist, makes an amazing discovery about alligators. The first time she got really close to an alligator (短吻鳄) was when she was helping to bold down an eight-foot American alligator. It was then that she noticed is face was covered with little black spots. This led to the discovery of the little black dots.
She started her study of the black dots. When she read the books and scientific journals, she learned that people had noticed the dots, but no one really knew what the dots were for.
To find out the secret she placed electrodes (电极) on nerves coming from some of the dots. When the nerves fired, they sent a message to the brain and created a tiny electric current. Just then she heard a small sound over a loudspeaker. She tired to see if the dots acted like eyes and temperature sensors, but nothing worked.
One day she was careless with dropping a tool into an alligator’s tank. When she put her hand in the tank to get the tool out, she made small waves in the water. When they reached the alligator’s face, she heard a noise over the speaker. She then realized that the dots must be sensitive to the changes in pressure when hit by waves of water.
After that, she is now studying blind cavefish. She is trying to learn whether they are blind from birth or lose their sight as they grow up. She is also doing more research on crocodilians (鳄目). She wants to find out how the genes of alligators with pressure sensors only on their faces differ from the genes of crocodilians that have pressure sensors all over their body.
1. Why did Daphne Soares first get close to the alligator?| A．To observe its black dots. | B．To find the secret of its dots. |
| C．To help others to hold it up. | D．To prevent it from moving. |
| A．A little noise was sent out. | B．An electric current created a message. |
| C．The nerves were on fire suddenly. | D．The nerves sensed temperature changes. |
| A．By experiment. | B．By reference. |
| C．By accident. | D．By comparison. |
| A．Cavefish lose sight as they grow up. |
| B．Daphne Soares devotes her energy to research work. |
| C．Alligator’s genes are the same as crocodilian’s. |
| D．Daphne Soares discovered a new species of alligator. |
6 . What it's like to live on Italy's Covid-free islands
There are very few places across the globe that have managed to escape the Covid-19 pandemic; even Antarctica has reported cases. But a lucky few remote locations in Italy remain coronavirus-free currently. So what it's like to live on Italy's most isolated (孤立的) and beautiful islands? Here several islanders share how the situation has impacted their lives.
Linosa
Positioned halfway between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean, this tiny atoll has no confirmed cases.
Fabio Tuccio, one of the 200 residents living here, says things have remained pretty much the same since the pandemic outbreak.
"A lockdown situation is regular here now," Tuccio says. "There's not much to do. Everything is shut except for a supermarket, a pharmacy, and a post office."
Although the island has been safe from Covid so far, all visitors are required to take a Covid test at the ferry port before they set foot here, for residents remain fearful that the virus may find its way to this safe shelter.
Filicudi
Filicudi island, one of the wildest and farthest out among the Aeolian islands, has also done well at keeping Covid at bay.
Ferries often find it difficult to dock here due to the rough sea conditions. While this was a frustration for locals in the past, the missing connection is now mostly viewed as a good thing. Islanders feel lucky to live in such seclusion, far from the chaos brought about by coronavirus. "It's an ugly moment for humanity but I am happy and privileged to live here, it's like being in another world. Social distancing is guaranteed." says Peppino Taranto, a resident of Filicudi.
Alicudi
Alicudi, Filicudi's sister isle, is the most secluded of the Aeolian isles. Here Covid is perceived as a very distant threat.
Aldo Di Nora, who moved to Alicudi years ago from northern Italy, is aware of how fortunate he is to live in such a secluded and protected place.
"Social distancing is not an issue. The only moment when little crowds can form is when people meet at Alicudi's harbor to jump on the ferry boats," Di Nora says.
"Following the tragic news happening in Italy and across the world, I am grateful to live in such a wonderful place, surrounded by peace and zero risk of contagion."
1. What do the three islands have in common?| A．Islanders are all happy and satisfied. | B．They are all wild and isolated islands. |
| C．No confirmed cases have been reported. | D．Visitors to these islands have to do strict tests. |
| A．There is no safety during the uncertain times. |
| B．They fear that outsiders may spread virus there. |
| C．Italy has one of the highest death rates in Europe. |
| D．Coronavirus-related diseases have reached many of them. |
| A．These islands are filled with amazing sights. |
| B．Linosa has reasonably warm temperatures all year. |
| C．People are adopting correct anti-covid rules in Alicudi. |
| D．Rough sea situations in Filicudi often discourages ferries to dock there. |
7 . While travelling the world and doing research for my new book, I realised something rather extraordinary. Nearly everyone understands the importance of brain health, but most people seem to believe this mysterious organ is a black box, untouchable and incapable of being improved.
However, the brain can be continuously enriched throughout life, no matter your age or access to resources. Our everyday experiences, including how much we exercise or with whom we socialize, factor into our brain health far more than we can imagine.
Prevention is the most powerful treatment of illness, and this is especially true of degenerative illnesses such as those in the brain . Few of us think about dementia (痴呆) at our best . The risk of dementia rises faster after the age of 65. However, knowing that damage could be starting in your brain offers you a remarkable opportunity to take action.
When I was able to travel the world, I was struck by the fact that the liveliest and most joyful, who seemed to be having a great time despite their advanced age, were always the ones who maintained high-quality friendships and an expansive social network.
It is difficult to say precisely why maintaining social connections plays powerful role in keeping the brain young. One reason could be that it provides a buffer (缓冲) against the harmful physical effects of stress.
Research by Memory and Aging Project has shown similarly that people with large social networks are well protected against the cognitive (认知的) declines related to dementia than those with a smaller group of friends.
1. How did the author find his discovery during the trip?| A．Reasonable. | B．Unexpected. | C．Common. | D．Interesting. |
| A．He loves travelling. | B．He’s a novelist. |
| C．He’s very ambitious. | D．He is a psychologist |
| A．The brain stops improvement when one is over 65. |
| B．No preventative measures can be taken about dementia. |
| C．The wider social circle is, the younger your brain will be. |
| D．Social connection plays an important role in preventing dementia. |
| A．Support the opinion of the author. | B．Provide some advice for the readers. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
8 . I loved watching comedians on television as a kid. I’d hear a joke and ask myself: why it got a laugh? What made it work? Could I ever make it as a comedian? But first I had to finish school and earn a living.
After graduation, I worked as an accountant, managing the petty cash in the drawer. It was in this area that I developed my own very odd theory of accounting: If you got a couple of dollars , everything was okay(The theory never really caught on). Every day I’d have to check what was in the drawer with the receipts. It never balanced. At first I’d be tearing my hair out until I found the balance. Finally, one day I pulled the amount I was short of from my pocket and called it a day. Mr. Hutchinson, head of accounting, discovered my shortcut to balancing petty cash. he lectured me: “These are not sound accounting principles.” I said: “I’m not cut out for accounting. Why would you pay me $6 an hour to spend four hours finding $1.40?”
Meanwhile, I often called my friend Ed Gallagher to kill boring afternoons, imitating things from my everyday world and identifying myself as plant manager of a yeast factory. “Sir”, it is Mr. Tomkins. We have a problem at your yeast factory. There’s a fire. I’d like you to hold on. Are you still there?”
Ed Gallagher heard the routines and offered to provide the money to record them and send them to radio stations. Three wrote back asking how much we wanted .Soon I was on the air.
Being a comedian is out of place with my intention, though. I left the world of accounting and took a series of part-time jobs to get me through, hoping for a big chance.
1. Why did he love watching comedians on television?| A．He just wanted to be a comedian as they were. | B．He wanted to make a living as a comedian. |
| C．He was curious about their way of humour. | D．He was good at thinking and raising questions. |
| A．He stole the receipts to balance the account. | B．He got enough dollars to keep everything okay. |
| C．He contributed his own money to the drawer. | D．He adopted a sensible and simple principle. |
| A．The head of accounting paid too much for his work. |
| B．The author loved being funny and was imaginative. |
| C．The author would patiently find the balance at the beginning. |
| D．The author’s record of the routines was a complete failure. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Critical. | C．Ridiculous. | D．Serious. |
9 . Chemical engineers at UNSW Sydney have found a way to make "green" ammonia (氨) from air, water and renewable electricity. In a paper published in Energy and Environmental Science, the authors say that ammonia synthesis (合成法) was one of the critical achievements of the 20th century. When used in fusiliers that significantly increase the output of food crops, it enabled agriculture to sustain an ever-expanding global population.
But since the beginning of the 1900s when it was first employed, production of ammonia has been energy intensive- requiring temperatures higher than 400℃ and pressures greater than 200 atm-and all powered by fossil fuels. Dr. Emma Lovell, a co author on the paper from UNSW, says the traditional way to make ammonia- known as the Haber- Bosch process- is only cost-effective when it is produced on a massive scale due to the huge amounts of energy and expensive materials required and it produces more CO2 than any other chemical-making reaction.
“In addition to the big carbon footprint left by the Haber Bosch process, having to produce millions of tons of ammonia in centralised locations means even more energy is required to transport it around the world, not to mention the risks that go with storing large amounts of it in the one place,” says Dr. Lovell. “And we saw tragically in Beirut recently how potentially dangerous storing ammonium nitrate (硝酸盐) can be. ”
Dr. Lovell and her colleagues therefore looked at how to produce it cheaply, on a smaller scale and using renewable energy. Their new production method does not rely on fossil fuel resources, nor give of CO2.
“And once it becomes available commercially, the technology could be used to produce ammonia directly on site and on demand- farmers could even do this on location using our technology to make fertilisers- which means we negate the need for storage and transport There's a huge benefit to society as well as the health of the planet,”Dr. Lovell says.
1. What do we know about the Haver-Bosch process?| A．It does harm to the earth. |
| B．It requires green materials. |
| C．It uses less energy and is cheap. |
| D．It transforms fossil fuels into ammonia. |
| A．To remind people to protect the environment. |
| B．To give an example of the risk in ammonia storage. |
| C．To convince farmers to transport ammonia elsewhere. |
| D．To stress the choice of a proper centralised location. |
| A．Inspect. | B．Avoid. | C．Suit. | D．Accept. |
| A．To solve a problem. | B．To explain a process. |
| C．To advocate a theory. | D．To introduce a method. |
10 . Range anxiety(里程焦虑), the fear of running out of power before being able to recharge an electric vehicle, may be a thing of the past, according to a team of Penn State engineers who are looking at lithium iron phosphate batteries(磷酸铁锂电池) that have a range of 250 miles with the ability to charge in 10 minutes.
“We developed a pretty clever battery for mass-market electric vehicles,” said Chao-Yang Wang, a professor and director of the Electrochemical Engine Center at Penn State. “There is no more range anxiety and this battery is affordable”. The researchers also say that the battery should be good for 2 million miles in its lifetime.
They report today in Nature Energy that the key to long-life and rapid recharging is the battery’s ability to quickly heat up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, for charge and discharge, and then cool down when the battery is not working.
The battery uses a self-heating approach previously developed in Wang’s center. The self-heating battery uses a thin nickel foil(镍箔) with one end attached to the negative terminal and the other extending outside the cell to create a third terminal. Once electrons flow it rapidly heats up the nickel foil through resistance heating and warm the inside of the battery. Once the battery’s internal temperature is 140 degrees F, the switch opens and the battery is ready for rapid charge or discharge.
“This battery has slenderized weight, volume and cost,” said Wang. “I am very happy that we finally found a battery that will benefit the mainstream consumer mass market.” According to Wang, these smaller batteries can produce a large amount of power upon heating—40 kilowatt hours and 300 kilowatts of power. An electric vehicle with this battery could go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3 seconds and would drive like a Porsche, he said. “This is how we are going to change the environment and not contribute to just the luxury cars,” said Wang. “Let everyone afford electric vehicles.”
1. Which can best describe the battery in the text?| A．Cheap and heavy. | B．Costly but beneficial. |
| C．Expensive but small-sized. | D．Affordable and efficient. |
| A．It is environmentally friendly. | B．It heats up and cools down rapidly. |
| C．It helps speed up the car instantly. | D．It charges when it doesn’t work. |
| A．How the battery works. | B．Advantages of the battery. |
| C．How the battery is produced. | D．Applications of the battery. |
| A．promoted | B．gathered | C．combined | D．reduced |
