1 . Drone（无人机）Training for Recreational Flyers
When: Saturday 12 December 9 a. m. to 1 p. m
Website: www. drone-wise. com. Au
Where: Hall ACT
Cost: $ 285 pp（per person）
This is the perfect training course if you plan to buy a drone soon. Best of all, no experience is required and the drones will be provided，so you just need to book online and come along on the day. The training course is held at Hall ACT. The 4-hour beginners course is $285. This includes written material, use of the Drone-wise aircraft for flying and morning tea. If you are under 18 years of age, you will need to be accompanied by a parent or grown-up friend or relative. Book your place today at drone-wise. com. au/our-training-courses.
Led by Martin Bass and Tim Robinson, commercially rated drone pilots with considerable experience, this training course is a chance to get.
Basic Knowledge
Recreational drone flying and the law
Risks and how to manage them
Flying environment
Basic Flying Skills
Pre-flight planning and checks
Aircraft handling skills
Obstacle avoidance
Your Instructors:
Martin Bass. Martin is a pilot with over 20-year experience He is also a commercial drone pilot and enjoys recreational drone flying as well. In his other role as a consultant and trainer to local government, Martin is an experienced educator and holds an honorary position with the University of Western Sydney.
Tim Robinson: Tim is an experienced photographer as well as a commercial drone pilot. His photos are about nature and wildlife. Tim is also an experienced adult educator and has lectured at the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Canberra.
1. What do we know about this training course?| A．it will last for an hour. |
| B．It requires experience of flying drones. |
| C．It asks people to pay more for morning tea. |
| D．Adolescents are not allowed in with no companion. |
| A．High-level drone flying skills. |
| B．A chance to be a commercial drone pilot. |
| C．An understanding of different aircraft types. |
| D．Knowledge of dealing with risks of drone flying. |
| A．They work at the same university. |
| B．They are experienced in photographing. |
| C．They are good at commercial drone flying. |
| D．They pay much attention to wildlife protection. |
2 . These days there is so much tempting technology to look at: smart phones, tablets, computer games and TV screens. Much of children's entertainment and education comes from using them, so it's no wonder they spend so much time staring at them. But even if the saying that looking at a screen for too long gives you square eyes isn't true, there is still some concern. So, should we be worried?
Certainly for children who spend hours glued to a screen, there is a concern that their health might be at risk. Also there is a fear that their eyesight is declining too. Although there's not much evidence to prove this yet, recent findings have brought the problem into light.
Chris Hammond, consultant at St Thomas' Hospital, says “We find short-sightedness is becoming more common It has greatly spread in East Asia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea where approaching 90 of 18-year-olds are now short-sighted.”
But can this be linked to children's obsession with using electronic gadgets? Annegret Dahlmann, expert at Moorfields Eve Hospital in London. says lack of natural light seems to be the key issue. She's suggested that children in East Asia study a lot, using computers, smart phones or tablets, and they go outside less. Wearing glasses is one solution, but it's not ideal.
This leads to a dilemma: achieving short-term academic success or protecting your long-term eyesight. It's always going to be a challenge to drag children away from their screens and it's likely that more and more studying will be done online. But despite that, Professor Hammond says. “In countries like urban China, where 10% of children in each class per year are becoming short-sighted from about the age of six. there's an argument for saying we should be trying to prevent it.” It's evidence we can't turn a blind eye to. So, maybe it's time to hit the “off” button and get our children outside?
1. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?| A．Recent findings have opened our eyes to the issue of eyesight. |
| B．Looking at a screen for too long will get you square eyes. |
| C．It has been confirmed that children's eyesight is failing. |
| D．Using electronic gadgets affects children's education. |
| A．Wearing glasses. | B．Heavy school work. |
| C．Lack of natural light. | D．Booming technology. |
| A．Learning online or offline. |
| B．Reading for pleasure or exams. |
| C．Focusing on study or protecting eyesight. |
| D．Protecting eyesight or promoting technology. |
| A．Study hard. | B．Head outdoors. | C．Quit computer. | D．Challenge more. |
3 . Bioluminescence, unlike other sources of light（the sun, fire, light bulbs）, which produce energy from heat, is defined as “the emission of light from living organisms（such as fireflies and bacteria）as the result of internal chemical reactions”. It is one of the wonders of nature that just about any of us can witness.
While a few organisms can produce bioluminescent light outside of the oceans（think fireflies）, most of the bioluminescence going on is in salt water. In fact, the vast majority of bioluminescent organisms evolved in order to provide light in deep sea marine ecosystems—either to light up prey or as a warning against predators（捕食者）—far below sunlight's reach into the water column.
Humans have been putting natural bioluminescence to work for a while—19th century coal miners would trap fireflies（instead of open-flame candles or lanterns that could cause explosion）in jars to light their way. But nowadays researchers are hard at work synthesizing（合成）the chemical reactions behind bioluminescence for a range of modern-day applications.
Using bioluminescence to help cure disease is a big focus of some biomedical research companies, given the promise of using heat-free organic light to detect metastasizing（转移的） cancer cells, stem cells, viruses or bacteria within living tissue. The military also has big hopes for applying the chemical reactions of bioluminescence to create light that won't cause the heat-seeking sensory equipment of the enemy whether on land，at sea or in the sky. Some other practical applications of bioluminescence include an effort to connect genes from bioluminescent organisms into trees that would light up when the sun sets.
While none of these “technologies” is yet ready to become mainstream, it's good to know that the future looks bright.
1. What exactly causes biolunninescence?| A．Heat energy. | B．Chemical reaction. | C．Salt water. | D．Living organism. |
| A．To ensure safety. | B．To seek comfort. |
| C．To provide convenience | D．To save money |
| A．The heat-seeking sensory equipment | B．A simple cure for all kinds of diseases. |
| C．An all-natural alternative to street lights. | D．An effective virus-killer within living tissues. |
| A．The good and bright future should be ours. |
| B．Bioluminescence is widely used in our life. |
| C．The technologies are good enough to apply. |
| D．The search is on for the use of organic light sources. |
4 . The spot of red was what first caught Randy Heiss's attention on December 16. He was biking on his ranch in Patagonia, Arizona, a town near the U. S. -Mexico border. Heiss walked toward it, and found on the grassland was a broken balloon with its string attached to a piece of paper.
“Dayami,” it read on one side, in a child's writing. It was a Christmas wish list, all in Spanish He suspected that a child had tried to send Santa Claus a Christmas wish list by balloon, something he used to do himself when he was a kid. And he wondered whether he could find the child who had sent this one.
It would be difficult, but based on the prevailing wind, Heiss was pretty sure where it came from—just across the border, the city of Nogales, Mexico.
Heiss then posted about his quest on Facebook, attaching photos, hoping his friends in Nogales might know the girl's family.
A few days passed with no leads. Heiss worried that time was running out before Chirstmas. On December 19. he sent a private Facebook message to Radio XENY. a radio station based in Nogales The next morning. Heiss awoke to a message from Radio XENY: They had located Dayami, an eight-year-old girl, and her family, who indeed lived in Nogales. “It just changed my entire day.” said Heiss. Having bought just about everything on Dayami's list and a few other toys, as they had learned that Dayami had a younger sister, Heiss and his wife. at the Radio XENY. met the family.
“Their eves were wide open with wonder.” Heiss said of the two sisters' reactions. “Like. ‘Oh my gosh, this really did work!’”
Not wanting to disappoint the girls who still believed in Santa Claus, Heiss and his wife told them they were “Santa's helpers”.
“It was a beautiful and healing experience for us...” Heiss said, “Since our only son died ten years ago, being around children at Christmas time has been absent in our lives.” Heiss said. “We now have friends for life. And, for a day, that border fence with its wire melted away.”
1. What did Heiss find when hiking on his ranch.| A．A Christmas wish list from a child | B．A mass of grassland. |
| C．A letter addressed to him. | D．A beautiful red balloon. |
| A．Examples. | B．Clues. | C．Suggestions. | D．Plans. |
| A．He wanted to make up for his lost son. |
| B．He wanted to make friends with Dayami. |
| C．He wanted to realize his childhood dream. |
| D．He didn't want to spoil Santa Claus for the girls. |
| A．Love knows no borders. | B．A bold attempt is half success. |
| C．God helps those who help themselves. | D．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
5 . The first known dress, as well as the earliest known bar and restaurant in France, were identified this week. The discoveries, reported in the journal Antiquity, provide a glimpse of what early life was like in both ancient Egypt and southern France thousands of years ago.
The garment, which dates to around 3482 BC, is known as the Tarkhan Dress, and now looks like a shabby and dirty shirt. When new, however, the linen dress would have looked fashionable even today, as researchers determined it featured a natural pale gray stripe with pleated sleeves and bodice. Its edge is missing, so the original length of the dress is unknown.
"The survival of highly perishable textiles（纺织品）in the archaeological record is exceptional（例外的）, the survival of complete, or almost complete, articles of clothing like the Tarkhan Dress is even more remarkable," Alice Stevenson, head of the University College London（UCL）Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, said in a press release.
Now that the dress' age has been confirmed, it has been named Egypt's oldest garment and is the oldest known surviving woven garment in the world. To calculate its age. Michael Dee of the University of Oxford and colleagues measured a small Sample of the dress to determine how much radiocarbon remained in the linen. Linen is especially suitable for radiocarbon dating, according to the researchers, because it is made of flax fibers that grow over a relatively short time. The dress, currently on display at the UCI.
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, features wear and tear that date back to its earliest days. The researchers believe that a young teenager or a very slim woman wore it.
A separate study in the same journal reports the discovery of a hotel in southern France. At first the researcher thought that they had found a bakery, since they determined that the site once featured three huge ovens. They later, however, found that another nearby room across from a courtyard, had furniture lining its walls.
1. Why is it difficult to determine the length of the garment?| A．Its bottom edge is gone. | B．It has broken into pieces. |
| C．Part of the bottom is missing | D．The edge of sleeves is missing. |
| A．Really in high quality. | B．Valuable and unusual. |
| C．Lasting for quite a long time | D．Being rotten or destroyed easily. |
| A．linen is especially suitable for radiocarbon dating |
| B．the dress proves to be the oldest woven one in the world |
| C．how radiocarbon in the linen is measured by the researchers |
| D．the researchers of University of Oxford knew the dress' age |
| A．TV series. | B．A book review. |
| C．A science report. | D．A fashion show. |
6 . Some time ago, in my class I was about to fail a student for his answer to a physics question when the student claimed he deserved a better score. The examination question sounded “safe”.
“Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer（压表）.” The student had answered: “Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building.”
I argued that a high grade should prove his competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. I suggested that the student have another try. Immediately, he worked out his answer: A second best way is to take the barometer to the top of the building. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula to calculate the height of the building.
I was shocked by his answer. His method gave me not only a broken barometer but a U-turn in my teaching philosophy. I gave him full marks.
On his leaving my office, I recalled that he suggested there could be a better answer. So I asked him what it was. “Oh, yes,” said the student, “There are many ways. Probably the best,” he said, “is to take the barometer to the basement and ask the superintendent （楼管）. You speak to him as follows: Mr.Superintendent, here I have a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of this building, I will give it to you.
At this point, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school instructors’ trying to teach him how to think, and to use the so-called “scientific method”. He just wanted to solve the problem in a practical manner, not just answer the question in an expected way. Hearing this, I really had nothing to do but give the boy a firm handshake, feeling thankful that I hadn’t failed him in the first place and even more thankful, neither had he.
1. Why did the author want to fail the student in the first place?| A．The student challenged his authority. |
| B．The student’s answer was not practical. |
| C．The student didn’t show his academic ability. |
| D．The student had a poor performance in physics class. |
| A．Without love, there is no education. |
| B．A man becomes learned by asking questions. |
| C．Teaching is to make two ideas grow where only one grew before. |
| D．You can lead your horse to the river, but you can’t make it drink. |
| A．Lack of physics-related knowledge. |
| B．Ignorance of the teacher’s expectation. |
| C．Intention to deeply impress his teacher. |
| D．Disapproval of existing teaching concepts. |
| A．The superintendent was a greedy person. |
| B．School education restricted this student’s thinking. |
| C．The teacher appreciated the student’s answers finally. |
| D．The examination question is a lough physics problem. |
