1 . Smart thermostats (温控器)have become the face of smart home technology for most, but depending on what your home is like, it's possible to say the Ecobee3 is superior.
Most of the smart thermostats carry the same benefits, including the Ecobee3. They can learn your preferences and schedules, and then adjust the temperature accordingly. They're better-looking and more enjoyable to use than the basic pieces of plastic that occupy most households. And once you're able to heat up or cool down your house from your phone, without having to get out of bed, you won't want to go back to the past.
If you live in a larger house, the Ecobee3 can be much more convenient—offering you a couple of more remote sensors (传感器). Yes it gets pretty expensive at that point. But having those gives you effective control over the temperature in different rooms around your house. In comparison, other thermostats' measurements are largely limited to the area in which they're installed (安装).
If you live in a smaller place, that's no big deal；the Ecobee3 still has distinct advantages. It is touch-enabled, making it less annoying when you want to enter a Wi-Fi passwords see weather information, and so on.
Still, all the smart thermostats are pretty great. Which one is best just depends on whether you need a whole-home solution or a simpler one. For now, if it's the former, go with the Ecobee3. Their presence will probably make you more conscious about saving energy. Ecobee3 Smarter Wi-Fi Thermostat with Remote Sensor is available at all shopping websites.
1. How can you control Ecobee3?| A．By installing Wi-Fi. | B．By replacing its sensors. |
| C．By using the relative phone. | D．By closing power supply. |
| A．Its size is different | B．Its price is lower. |
| C．Its password is simpler. | D．Its coverage area is larger. |
| A．It makes us enjoy travelling and work better. |
| B．It leads us to hope to open a shop online. |
| C．It leads us to build our own smart houses. |
| D．It helps us pay attention to environmental protection. |
| A．To show the future of Ecobee3. |
| B．To attract people to buy Ecobee3. |
| C．To introduce how to use Ecobee3. |
| D．To explain why Ecobee3 was invented. |
2 . AIDS may be one of the most undesirable diseases in the world. Luckily, there is now hope for AIDS patients.
According to a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine，Chinese scientists have successfully used CRISPR technology -a method of gene editing-to treat a patient with HIV. While it may not have cured the patient fully, it still represents a huge step forward in fighting the disease.
The patient was a 27-year-old Chinese man who was diagnosed with both AIDS and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (淋巴母细胞白血病), a type of blood cancer. Despite his bleak situation, doctors offered him a little hope: a bone marrow (骨髓) transplant to treat his cancer and an experimental treatment for his HIV. They used this chance to edit the DNA in bone marrow stem cells (干细胞) from a donor before transplanting the cells into the patient.
Specifically, the treatment involved using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to delete a gene known as CCR5, which encodes (给…编码) a protein that HIV uses to get inside human cells. Without the gene, HIV is unable to enter cells. Talking about the gene, lead scientist Deng Hongkui told CNN, “After being edited, the cells and the blood cells they produce have the ability to resist HIV infection.” Nineteen months after the treatment, the patients leukemia was in complete remission( 缓 解 ) and donor cells without CCR5 remained, according to the research paper.
Though the transplant didn't cure the man’s HIV, it still showed the effectiveness of gene-editing technology, as there was no indication of any unintended genetic changes-a major concern with past gene-editing treatment experiments. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in the United States, who was not involved in the study, praised the treatment. “They did a very creative experiment, and it was safe,” he told Live Science. “It should be viewed as a success.”
Deng believes gene-editing technology could “bring a new dawn” to blood related diseases such as AIDS and sickle-cell anaemia ( 镰 状 细 胞 贫 血 ). “Thanks to this new technology, the goal of a functional cure for AIDS is getting closer and closer,” he said.
1. The underlined word “bleak” in Paragraph3 probably means “______”.| A．hopeless |
| B．unstable |
| C．embarrassing |
| D．unique |
| A．By identifying and killing HIV. |
| B．By changing the structure of HIV. |
| C．By preventing HIV entering cells. |
| D．By removing a protein HIV feeds on. |
| A．Gene-edited cells are able to resist HIV infection. |
| B．The number of cells infected by HIV has decreased. |
| C．CCR5 and other genes in the patient's cells are changed. |
| D．Unintended genetic changes have taken place in the patient's cells. |
| A．It pointed out the problems of gene treatment. |
| B．It provided a new way to cure AIDS patients fully. |
| C．It could offer a safe treatment for blood-related diseases. |
| D．It was the first example to use gene-editing tool to treat AIDS. |
3 . I work as the reception manager at my hotel.
A booking came in a few weeks ago with a note attached that a guest would be travelling with her deaf father. This note helped us in preparing for their arrival. As they would be here for a number of days, his daughter wanted to make his trip to Ireland as smooth as possible.
Upon seeing this note and knowing I would be the one to check them in, I decided to learn some very basic sign language. I greeted the guest in my usual fashion, asking for the surname on the booking. Once I heard the name，I immediately realized who was standing in front of me.
I had been learning for two weeks how to say: “Welcome to Ireland. My sign language is terrible, but please, if you need anything during your stay, just let me know and we will help you.”
I smiled at the father and daughter in front of me. Turning to the father, I greeted him in ASL (American Sign Language) and began the bit I had learned for him. His daughter broke down crying and told me I was sweet. But the father just smiled and was so happy. Honestly, seeing his reaction was enough for me. It was absolutely worth the last few weeks of learning basic ASL.
Sadly, I wasn’t working the day they checked out, but they left a gift for me, a small box with some chocolates and a book on ASL. Inside was a note saying: “Thank you very much for what you did. My father has been in amazing spirits from the time you checked us in and insisted we get you a gift before we left. You have no idea how much this meant to my father and me, and we can’t thank you enough. You've made his trip very special with one simple gesture.”
I cried for a solid five minutes when I came into work the next day and found this gift in my locker.
1. The daughter left a note when booking the hotel in order to __________.| A．ask for special service for herself |
| B．give some useful advice to the hotel |
| C．express gratitude to the hotel manager |
| D．make her father’s trip more comfortable |
| A．the author’s sign language was really terrible |
| B．her father was unwilling to live in that hotel |
| C．she appreciated what the author had done for her father |
| D．the author wouldn’t be working when they checked out |
| A．thankful | B．satisfied |
| C．disappointed | D．regretful |
| A．the author made the daughter’s check-out smooth |
| B．the author was deeply moved by an unexpected gift |
| C．the daughter cried for five minutes before they left |
| D．the daughter asked the author to learn sign language |
4 . “Birds” and “airports” are two words that, paired together，don’t normally paint the most harmonious picture. So it really raises some eyebrows when China announces plans to build an airport that is for birds.
Described as the world’s first-ever bird airport, the proposed Lingang Bird Sanctuary(保护区）in the northern coastal city of Tianjin is, of course,not an actual airport. Rather，it's a wetland preserve specifically designed to accommodate hundreds-even thousands-of daily takeoffs and landings by birds traveling along the East Asian-Australian Flyway. Over 50 species of migratory (迁徙的）water birds，some endangered, will stop and feed at the protected sanctuary before continuing their long journey along the flyway.
Located on a former landfill site，the 150-acre airport is also open to human travelers.(Half a million visitors are expected annually.) However，instead of duty-free shopping，the main attraction for non-egg-laying creatures at Tianjin’s newest airport will be a green-roofed education and research center, a series of raised “observation platforms” and a network of scenic walking and cycling paths totaling over 4 miles.
“The proposed Bird Airport will be a globally significant sanctuary for endangered migratory bird species, while providing new green lungs for the city of Tianjin.” Adrian McGregor of an Australian landscape architecture firm explained of the design. Frequently blanketed in smog so thick that it has shut down real airports, Tianjin is a city---China’s fourth most populous----that would certainly benefit from a new pair of healthy green lungs•
1. The underlined phrase “non-egg-laying creatures” in Paragraph 3 refers to?| A．Visitors. | B．Designers. |
| C．Endangered water birds. | D．Planes. |
| A．People cannot watch birds up close here. |
| B．It is located on a 150-acre landfill site. |
| C．It functions as an actual airport and a wetland preserve. |
| D．It provides migratory birds with food and shelter. |
| A．The airport will become a permanent home for birds. |
| B．Tianjin will win worldwide fame in the future. |
| C．Tianjin’s air quality will improve thanks to the airport. |
| D．Tianjin will be able to accommodate more people. |
| A．Airports shut down and open up. |
| B．China is to open the first Bird Airport. |
| C．Airports turn into green lungs. |
| D．Birds are no longer enemies to airports. |
5 . The National Gallery
Description:
The National Gallery is the British national art museum built on the north side of Trafalgar Square in London. It houses a diverse collection of more than 2,300 examples of European art ranging from 13th-century religious paintings to more modern ones by Renoir and Van Gogh. The older collections of the gallery are reached through the main entrance while the more modern works in the East Wing are most easily reached from Trafalgar Square by a ground floor entrance.
Layout:
The modern Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th-to15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, Van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli and Memling.
The main West Wing houses 16th-century paintings, and artists include Leonardo da Vinci, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titan and Veronese.
The North Wing houses 17th-century paintings, and artists include Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Claude and Vermeer.
The East Wing houses 18th-to early 20th-century paintings, and artists include Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Renoir and Van Gogh.
Opening Hours:
The Gallery is open every day from 10 am to 6 pm (Fridays 10 am to 9 pm) and is free, but charges apply to some special exhibitions.
Getting There:
Nearest underground stations: Charing Cross (2-minute walk), Leicester Square (3-minute walk), Embankment (7-minute walk), and Piccadilly Circus (8-minute walk).
1. In which century’s collection can you see religious paintings?| A．The 20th | B．The 17th |
| C．The 18th | D．The 13th |
| A．In the East Wing. | B．In the main West Wing. |
| C．In the Sainsbury Wing. | D．In the North Wing. |
| A．Charing Cross. | B．Leicester Square. |
| C．Embankment. | D．Piccadilly Circus. |
