1 . Independent living at home is the ideal for every aging person. But a fall or other health-threatening incidents can change everything rapidly.
The wearable “panic buttons” introduced in the late 1980s were a great advance. But they only work if people actually wear them and can reach the button in an emergency. Today there are passive wearables that automatically detect falls, and camera-based systems to monitor elder safety.
Coming from a 40-year career in the semiconductor and wireless communication field, Rafi Zack decided to find a better alternative. “People aren’t devoted to wearing small devices 24/7, and camera-based systems are an invasion（侵犯）of privacy,” he points out, “The most challenging aspect is a fall. How fast we can detect a fall matters because the medical situation worsens quickly. Sometimes people stay on the floor for a long time. We have to find out how to solve that problem.”
Zack is a co-founder, CEO and vice president of R&D at EchoCare Technologies which has developed ECHO (Elderly Care Home Observer), a cloud-connected monitor based on radar technology and machine learning.
Because radar sees through walls, one ECHO unit fixed on the ceiling or wall can monitor one person (or two persons, in a future version) in a standard-sized apartment in a senior living facility. The device detects falls, breathing difficulties, drowning in a bathtub and other dangerous events. It gives out warnings to potential health worsening conditions by continuously monitoring and analyzing the person’s location, posture（姿势）, motion and breath. EchoCare tested the device in the United States, Japan, Australia and Israel. ECHO was certified（认证）in 2019 in Japan with the most aging population in the world.
“Bathrooms were the main testing area where about 17,000 deadly accidents happen annually.” said SMK Director and Executive Vice President Tetsuo Hara. “Bathroom makers, home security service providers and nursing homes are highly interested in EchoCare’s solution.” Zack noted, “As more and more elder people live alone as a result of social distancing, there is an increased need to monitor them without the burden of wearables or privacy-invading cameras.”
1. What’s the advantage of ECHO over “panic buttons”?| A．It has camera-based systems. | B．It has been widely accepted. |
| C．It can function without cameras. | D．Its buttons can be easily reached. |
| A．It is designed to send out warnings regularly. |
| B．It monitors dangerous health-related events. |
| C．It was certified in many developed countries. |
| D．It detects more than one person at the same time. |
| A．It’ll become more popular with the elderly. |
| B．It’ll stop 17,000 deaths happening annually. |
| C．It’ll be used in nursing homes and hospitals. |
| D．It’ll help elderly people to live an active life. |
| A．An Advanced Medical Instrument |
| B．A High-tech Monitor for the Elderly |
| C．The Invention of a Healthcare Device |
| D．The Improvement of a Medical Facility |
2 . Unless your parent is a head chef or bento box（便当盒）master, school lunch is usually nothing to write home about. For artist and father Dominick Cabalo, however, his son Nicholas’ lunches are an oil painting cloth for creativity. Cabalo makes carefully designed drawings on each of 12-year-old Nicholas’ paper lunch bags, usually representing popular lively characters and colorful superheroes.
Cabalo began drawing on the bags about three years ago to help Nicholas make new friends in elementary school. “I noticed he was a bit shy when it came to talking to others,” he said. “So by creating a piece of artwork to ‘break the ice’, kids would come up to him and start talking and hopefully a conversation, or better yet, a new friendship, would start.”
Though Nicholas is in middle school now, he still asks his dad to draw on the lunch bags, and will make requests for characters or drawings that he’d like to see on the next bag. Cabalo has drawn about 400 lunch bags in the past three years. He explained that the bags had really helped his son become more confident at school. “He’s broken out of his shell because of this, and I like to think that I had a hand in helping him do this with these bags.” he wrote.
Nicholas keeps most of the bags. “Some come back in better condition than others,” Cabalo said. “We may lose one due to the occasional wet sandwich or leaky drink, but that’s to be expected.” As for the bags that make it home undamaged, Cabalo posts their photos to social media. His favorites are the more time-consuming series of bags that can be joined up to create a larger image, such as the “Finding Nemo” triptych（三联画）.
1. What special feature makes Nicholas’ lunch bags distinguished?| A．Delicious food cooked by a head chef. |
| B．Beautiful oil paintings produced by artists. |
| C．Colorful superheroes drawn by Nicholas. |
| D．Lively characters drawn by the kid’s loving father. |
| A．To help his son to make new friends. |
| B．To make his son’s lunch bags attractive. |
| C．To encourage his son to be more confident. |
| D．To improve his son’s academic performance. |
| A．Friendly. | B．Noble. | C．Caring. | D．Gifted. |
| A．Cabalo draws popular lively characters and colorful superheroes for his son. |
| B．Dad’s special lunch bag drawings help his shy son come out of his shell. |
| C．Nicholas’ new friends in elementary school make him more confident. |
| D．Nicholas keeps the more time-consuming series of bags designed by his father. |
3 . When whales die and sink to the ocean floor, their bodies -known as whale falls -provide rich nutrients for other creatures of the deep.
Chinese scientists found a whale fall in the South China Sea during a recent scientific research voyage. It was the first time that Chinese researchers had run across this rare type of ecosystem. It was an important finding, showing China's progress in deep-sea exploration technology, Xie said, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University.
During the 22-day deep-sea exploration from March 10 to April 2. 60 scientists conducted 22 dives and successfully completed a number of scientific tasks. The research aimed to gather information about the key processes of typical seamount ecosystems in the Western Pacific: Ocean. The whale fall was found in a seamount 1,600 meters deep in the central South China Sea. Though the whale fall was only about 3 meters long, it was of great importance in understanding the sea ecosystems, Xie said.
There were dozens of white armored shrimp, red shrimp and several eels found near the whale fall. The eels were eating the tail muscles of the whale fall. This shows that the whale died not long ago and that the whale fall was still in the first stage of decomposition and thus had rare value for long-term observation, Xie said.
Like cold springs, whale falls are homes for creatures of the deep. In the northern Pacific Ocean, they have supported the survival of at least 12,490 kinds of organisms—classed in 43 species—and promote prosperity far beneath the surface, according to data from the university.
1. What do we know about the whale fall in the South China Sea?| A．It is found on March 10. | B．It is a rare sea ecosystem. |
| C．It is a kind of cold springs. | D．It is found 3 meters deep in the sea. |
| A．By giving data. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By giving definitions. | D．By making a contrast |
| A．Change | B．Disappearance. | C．Richness. | D．Tourism. |
| A．A deep-sea exploration led by China. |
| B．A whale fall found in the South China Sea. |
| C．China's progress in deep-sea exploration technology. |
| D．The protection of deep-sea biodiversity resources in China. |
4 . Chances are that you’ve seen a movie or played a video game that contains a cyborg（半人半机器的生物）. These half-man-half-machine beings have been a vision of many creative writers. But it seems that some people can’t wait for the future to arrive.
At the Body Hacking Conference in 2017, held in Texas, US, hundreds of science fiction fans from all over the world gathered to show off their body hacks. Rob Spence, 45, had his right eye removed after an accident. Soon after, he decided he wanted to replace it with something more interesting. The minute I learned that I was losing my eye, I began researching how I could turn it into a camera, he told Wired.
This is an extreme example, and body hacking doesn’t always take things so far. For example, around the world, many people are choosing to get NFC chips implanted in their hands. This is the same technology as used in smartphones, and it allows users to pay for things or even unlock their cars just by using their fingertips. The chip is the same size as a grain of rice and can be fixed and removed easily without much pain.
Hannes Sjoblad, founder of a Swedish body hacking group, believes that these implants are just the natural next step for smart technology that is already in wide use, such as smartwatches.
We are updating our bodies with technology on a large scale already with wearables. But all of the wearables we wear today will be implantable in 5 to 10 years, he told Business Insider.
Sjoblad believes that such implants will become a regular part of our lives. Indeed, his group was asked to put chips in the hands of employees at a company in Sweden, allowing them to do things like opening doors, paying for lunch, and using the copy machine in the office.
Who wants to carry a clumsy smartphone or smartwatch when people can have it in the finger-nail? he said.
1. A cyborg is mentioned in Paragraph 1 to _____.| A．share a new invention | B．introduce the topic |
| C．promote a game | D．stress technology |
| A．Rob Spence had his right eye replaced by a camera |
| B．Rob Spence thought it lucky to lose his right eye |
| C．Body Hacking Conference is just an attraction for the disabled |
| D．Body Hacking Conference is intended for science fiction writers |
| A．Body hacking is taking things 1oo far. |
| B．There will be no wearables in 5 to 10 years. |
| C．Compared with smartphones, implants are more convenient. |
| D．Implants are totally necessary for everyone in their daily life. |
| A．Life made easier through technology | B．Implants accepted worldwide |
| C．New choices are on the way | D．Body hacking brings a bright future |
5 . A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world’s poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity.
Yet spoiled food not only creates health risks but also economic losses. Farmers lose money when they have to throw away products that they cannot sell quickly.
But in nineteen ninety-five a teacher in northern Nigeria named Mohammed Bah Abba found a solution. He developed the “Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System.” It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system.
Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation(蒸发) process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving.
The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks.
People throughout Nigeria began using the invention. And it became popular with farmers in other African countries. Mohammed Bah Abba personally financed the first five thousand pot-in-pot systems for his own community and five villages nearby.
In two thousand, the Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland honored him with the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award recognizes people trying to develop projects aimed at improving human knowledge and well-being. A committee considers projects in science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects.
1. What keeps the food fresh in the container from spoiling?| A．The wet cloth covering the cooling system. |
| B．The moving drier air outside the container. |
| C．A drop in temperature by evaporation. |
| D．The wet sand between the containers. |
| A．Rich and advanced families. |
| B．Poor and underdeveloped areas. |
| C．Scientific experiment laboratories. |
| D．Supermarkets needing to store goods |
| A．financed the systems in all communities |
| B．invented the controversial cooling system |
| C．received financial assistance for his invention |
| D．invented a more complex cooling system later |
| A．Spoiled Food Creates Health Risks and Economic Losses |
| B．The Evaporation Process Creates a Drop in Temperature |
| C．A Few Degrees Can Make a Big Difference for Storage |
| D．A Cooling Way to Keep Food from Spoiling |
