4 . If businesses are to get workers back into the office, finding ways to keep social distancing(社会隔离)will be important. An Israeli company thinks it can help, using smart sensors installed on workplace ceilings.

PointGrab developed its technology before COVID-19 to help workspace managers optimize(优化)how employees use office space. About the size of a smoke alarm, the sensors can record the exact number and location of people in buildings including offices, hotels and restaurants. One of the company's first clients was Deloitte, which installed the system at its London office last year. PointGrab s sensors were connected to screens in the building to show the availability（利用率)of desks and shared areas in real time. PointGrab CEO Doron Shachar says it was one of a series of innovations that helped Deloitte fit 30% more people into 3% less space.

Now to prevent the coronavirus spreading face to face, PointGrab has adapted the technology to some degree so the sensors can also monitor social distancing by keeping track of how far apart people are, and whether they're traveling in one direction around a building. Workspace managers can set up alarm for when two people are closer than two meters for more than 30 seconds, for example. The sensors have been included in the “six feet office” concept created by a company Cushman & Wakefield to encourage employees to practice social distancing. They are currently being used in this way at a university in the Netherlands, and at an innovation centre in Belgium. While the social distancing innovation is new, PointGrab has installed more than 10, 000 sensors for workspace optimization, including in the offices of Coca-Cola, Facebook and Dell.

Workers might not like the idea of being monitored, but PointGrab says no images or identifying features are recorded. Instead, each employee is represented as a dot on a screen. “The sensor does not violate people’s privacy,” Shachar says. This is extremely important in the workspace.

1. What were the sensors used to do before COVID-19?

A．To identify employees.	B．To record locations.
C．To keep track of employees.	D．To make better use of office space.

2. What does the underlined word “adapted” probably mean in Paragraph 3?

A．Introduced.	B．Adjusted.
C．Formed.	D．Boomed.

3. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Smart sensors give away people’s privacy.

B．PointGrab is in good conditions.

C．Workers are in favor of the company management.

D．Worker appearance will not show clearly on the screen.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．How we can get workers back into their office

B．How we can improve the employees’ efficiency

C．Smart sensors make office social distancing easier

D．Smart sensors are a key technological innovation

5 . A glimpse at Spring Festival Chinese film releases

The clock is ticking down to 2021! We’ve handpicked some films to help you get in the spirit of the season.

Hi, Mom

The film is widely regarded as the top dark horse thanks to its tear-jerking narration of mother-daughter affection, which is directed by Jia Ling.

Time： Feb. 12—14 9：30 a. m.〜11 ：30 a.m.

Place： Room 1

Treats： Popcorn, Ice cream

Price： ¥80

Detective Chinatown 3

Directed by Chen Sicheng, this movie topped the list of the most-anticipated holiday films sent by movie ticketing platform Maoyan.

Time： Feb. 14-16 1：00p. m.〜3：00P.m.

Place ： Room 2

Treats： Popcorn, Ice cream （for free）

Price： ¥75

A Writer\ Odyssey

Director Lu Yang showed a boldly imaginative visualization of a horrible fantasy world, taking the third seat with 410 million yuan.

Time： Feb. 13—17 9 ：30 a. m. 11 ：30 a. m.

Place： Room 3

Price： ¥65

Endgame

The film illustrates a comical up and down fate between an unsuccessful theater actor and a famous professional assassin（刺客）who loses his memory accidentally.

Time： Feb. 15 — 18 3：30 p. m.〜5：30 p. m.

Place： Room 4

Price： ¥60

Welcome to book through the WeChat account!

1. Which room will show a film about family love?

A．Room 1.

B．Room 2.

C．Room 3.

D．Room 4.

2. What time can you get free treats?

A．Feb. 16 3：00 a. m.	B．Feb. 15 2：00 p. m.
C．Feb. 18 2：00 p. m.	D．Feb. 14 11 ：00 a. m.

3. Where is the text probably from?

A．A report.

B．A poster.

C．A journal.

D．A guidebook.

6 . My family loves the Golden Rule. But in all our years of treating others as we want to be treated, I have learned that this famous motto is a failure. That’s especially true in my family’s choice of food.

My family of two parents and three daughters eats together only on birthdays, and even then, only at dinner. The other 1,090 meals of the year are eaten around different schedules. Even though our lives are totally a mess, for the five important meals each year, we eat as a family.

When we were younger, my mother would prepare a delicious feast with the birthday girl (or birthday father) who was the guest of honor that day. Later, as my sisters and I were allowed to use the cookers, we made birthday meals for our parents.

My parents prepare Indian food for our birthdays. They cook special party foods: tiki, samosa and sweets that would make any dentist worried. Being from northern India, they also make southern food that we rarely taste: bland idly, spicy samber and much more. This is the food they love best, and to show love, they make for us what they enjoy. Yet this is not the food my sisters and I would choose.

For our parents’ birthdays, my sisters and I cook European foods: Finnish summer soup, German apple cake, Norwegian flat-bread and so on.

Although my parents appreciate the food, we know this is not the food that they care for. My mother tries to cover her criticisms (批评) in praise, saying, “The soup is delicious，but it has very little flavor (味道).” My father refuses to eat pie, wondering what makes Europeans eat cooked fruit and raw vegetables.

Despite different desires and tastes, we put the least bitter flavor into everything we cook according to the rule of treating others as we want to be treated.

1. When does the family eat together?

A．When they spend holidays.	B．When they celebrate festivals.
C．When they celebrate everyone’s birthdays.	D．When they celebrate the parents’ birthdays.

2. What would the author’s parents make for the kids’ birthdays?

A．Something the Europeans would eat.

B．Something the parents would like to eat.

C．Something the kids really wanted to enjoy.

D．Something that is only eaten in northern India.

3. What would the mother do after eating what the kids made?

A．She would refuse to eat what was not delicious.

B．She would tell her daughters what she loved directly.

C．She would bring forward her opinions in a polite way.

D．She would suggest raw vegetables instead of cooked fruit.

4. What does the author want to tell us in the text?

A．Being good at cooking is necessary.

B．Everyone has his own desire and taste.

C．Kids should be grateful to their parents.

D．Treat others according to their true preference.

7 . For some students, there's nothing better than sitting back during school breaks with some friends, family and a couple scary movies, not having to worry about homework. There are also students (such as myself) who get anxious during school breaks because we don't have anything to do. Over fall break I got a slight head start on my homework, wrote an article for this paper, did some laundry and other chores and slept about 10 hours every day. And I still found myself feeling bored.

During breaks many students take the opportunity to camp while it's still warm outside, or ski if it's not. But you know what's happening to the people who make a habit of avoiding homework or productive activities over breaks? They're messing up their sleeping patterns, by procrastinating and then cramming in homework that's suddenly due in two days, and finally wishing the break could last a little longer.

This is why we should make it a point to do homework over short breaks. I'm not saying that professors give students a 10-page essay to write or have them finish an entire book during a break — I'm just encouraging students to make use of time to get ahead.

Breaks are for family, friends and oneself. Doing a lot of homework during breaks can make one feel burnt out, but it will benefit everyone to take some time to catch up or get ahead so that when the break ends and we have to pull ourselves back to reality, we're not left hoping uselessly for a longer break.

When teachers give you homework over fall break, they' re forcing you to use your break the way you should. A break is meant to give you the gift of time, and it should be used wisely. Work today so you can party tomorrow. Party today and you'll be hating the work tomorrow.

1. What do we know about the author during school breaks?

A．She doesn't just want to get relaxed.	B．She never gets bored due to her study.
C．She tries to keep herself as busy as possible.	D．She enjoys the life without homework anxiety.

2. What does the underlined word “procrastinating” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Depending on.

B．Turning to.

C．Picking out.

D．Putting off.

3. Which of the following statements would the author agree with?

A．One should avoid parties over school breaks.

B．Studying properly over school breaks reduces stress.

C．School breaks are for students to relax rather than study.

D．Students should do much homework during school breaks.

4. What's most probably the author's purpose in writing the text?

A．To show the importance of homework.	B．To explain why school breaks are useful.
C．To tell us how we should spend school breaks.	D．To give us some tips on how to study at home.

8 . Scientists Diego Kersting and Cristina Linares have found that some coral species are able to recover from harmful warming events through a unique survival strategy（策略）—known as “rejuvenescence”（新生）—among corals in the Mediterranean Sea. The findings represent some rare good news for corals around the world,which are facing numerous severe threats—most notably,climate change.

“The main threats are climate change, overfishing, pollution and coastal urbanization,” Kersting said. “But currently, climate change is probably the one causing the most coral cover declines. Warming stresses corals up to a point that may cause death. Some corals bleach（白化）before dying. Other corals do not bleach but die directly.” He went on, “Our findings are significant because this survival strategy was only known from fossil corals that existed hundreds of millions of years ago. It is the first time that it has been found in a living coral. Thanks to our findings, we know now that some corals are able to recover, but unfortunately this is not enough in the currentclimate change context.”

For their research, Kersting and Linares monitored 243 colonies of the endangered reef-building coral Cladocoracaespitosa in Spain’s Columbretes Islands Marine Reserve over 16 years. The monitoring revealed that Cladocoracaespitosa in the Mediterranean uses rejuvenescence to cope with warming events. This process involves the polyps — or the individual coral animals in a colony—shrinking inward and abandoning their skeletons（骨骼）during warm periods, before rejuvenating at a later point. “What happens is that some polyps in a coral colony—sometimes just one—reduces completely its dimensions and partially retreats from its skeleton,”Kersting said. “Once the stressful event is over, the shrunken or rejuvenated polyp recovers its size and builds up a new skeleton. Eventually, it begins to reproduce itself through budding and begins to cover the deadcolony surfaces.”

He continued, “The results were very surprising because I started to observe colonies that were dead years ago, that were showing living parts many years after their death.”

1. What is the greatest threat to corals now ?

A．Overfishing.	B．Climate change.
C．City growth.	D．Light pollution.

2. What can we learn about the survival strategy?

A．It was found for the first time.

B．It is the cause of warming events.

C．It represents the evolution of the corals.

D．It will bring hope for the endangered corals.

3. What does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．How the extreme corals forms.

B．How the research was conducted.

C．How the polyps survive their competitors.

D．How the coral species manages to recover and regrow.

4. What is the purpose for the author to write the passage?

A．To entertain.	B．To persuade.
C．To inform.	D．To complain.

9 . A new wave of psychological research is pioneering Virtual Reality （VR） lo treat medical conditions from social anxiety to Alzheimer’s disease.

Riding a wave of interest in mental health tech, companies creating VR content for treatment are receiving a flood of attention and funding. And,while VR has been used successfully to treat post-traumatic stress disorder （PTSD） since the 1990s, these new programs address a much broader range of conditions.The library of Palo Alto–based Limbix, for instance, includes VR content designed to treat issues including alcohol addiction and teenage depression. Barcelona-based Psious offers treatments for eating disorders.

Today’s VR content is primarily designed to aid exposure treatment, a treatment for anxiety disorders in which patients are exposed to the “threats” they’re worried about in a safe, controlled environment, eventually learning that the “threats” are not actually very dangerous. For example, someone who fears heights might visit taller buildings under the guidance of their doctor, while someone with PTSD might revisit painful memories.

VR allows doctors to create a safe and controlled environment inside a VR headset. It’s a far safer, quicker and less expensive option. Using VR also gives doctors much more control over the intensity（强度）of their patients’ experiences,which can lead to better treatment outcomes, said Stephane Bouchard, a professor at the University of Quebec. VR treatment patients can also do things they couldn’t do in the real world. “In one of our studies, we asked patients who are afraid of heights to actually jump from a cliff,” Bouchard said.

However, not all VR treatment content is created equal. “Some companies show videos of VR environments that are incomplete, untested and definitely haven’t been tried out by psychologists,” Bouchard said. Clearer rules and standards will make it easier for patients and doctors to identify products that work.

1. What problems can VR be used to treat according to the passage?

A．Social anxiety, PTSD and alcohol addiction.

B．Sleeping disorders, deafness and computer addiction.

C．The fear of heights, blood pressure and eating disorders.

D．Alzheimer’s disease, heart attack and teenage depression.

2. What does the underlined word “outcomes” probably mean in Paragraph 4?

A．Benefits.

B．Results.

C．Causes.

D．Methods.

3. Which of the following best describes the future of VR treatment?

A．Worrying.

B．Uncertain.

C．Promising.

D．Passive.

4. What will be most probably discussed in the paragraph following the passage?

A．Criteria of VR treatment.

B．Wide use of VR treatment.

C．Problems VR treatment are facing.

D．Reasons why VR treatment standards are needed.

10 . When Stephen Mills spotted a dusty old safe(保险箱)in a museum in Canada, he thought he’d try to crack the code, “just like in the movies”. But when he began turning the dial, he wasn’t expecting a Hollywood ending.

For years, anyone who visited the Vermillion Heritage Museum in Alberta would have passed by a large,black metal box. Staff knew it had come from the long-gone Brunswick hotel and was donated to the museum in the 1990s. But its code and contents remained a mystery for decades – until Mills unexpectedly cracked the code.

Mills, who lived in Fort McMurray, Alberta, was visiting the museum with his family last month over a holiday weekend. As they wandered around the exhibits with the museum guide, Tom Kibblewhite, they spotted the safe.

Kibblewhite told the family what he told all other guests: the 900kg black box with a silver dial had remained closed for generations. For years, the safe has confused volunteers at the museum. The manufacturer was unable to provide advice on how to open its thick door.

A locksmith(锁匠) once suggested that years of in activity might have slowed down the gears, making it inoperable. But Mills, who is a “mechanically-minded person”, asked whether he could give it a try.

“Kibblewhite kept saying no one had opened it and that it was a mystery what was inside,” Mills said. “I thought this would be a great thing to do for a laugh for the kids. Maybe they can find some interesting historical things in it — like a time capsule.”

After pressing his ear against the cool metal, he began spinning the dial. With numbers ranging from zero to 60, he turned clockwise (顺时针方向地) three times to 20, counter-clockwise two times to 40, and then clockwise one time to 60. He was astonished to hear a click. “I jumped up and told everyone I’m buying a lottery ticket(彩票),” he said.

1. What do you know about Mills from parangraph 1?

A．He didn’t think he would open the safe.

B．Hc didn’t want to turn the dial at all.

C．He wished to win a lottery ticket in the end.

D．His museum trip was like a Hollywood film.

2. What do we know about the safe?

A．Nobody was interested in its cocle.

B．It was not valuable and expensive.

C．lt was donated by a rich businessman.

D．People regarded it as a mystery for decades.

3. Why did Mills call the safe “a time capsule”?

A．To tell people how last time flies.

B．To explain the content of the safe.

C．To remind visitors of the time limit.

D．To indicate the special value of the safe.

4. What does Mills probably mean by saying “I’m buying a lottery ticket”?

A．He wanted to become richer.

B．He opened the safe by luck.

C．He was good at cracking the code.

D．Buying lottery tickets leads to success.