1 . Robotic surgery is one thing, but sending a robot inside the body to carry out an operation is quite another, which has long been a goal of some researchers to produce tiny robotic devices being capable of traveling through the body to deliver drugs or to make repairs without the need for a single cut, the possibility of which has just got a bit closer.
However, unlike the plot of one film—which featured a microscopic crew and submarine traveling through a scientist's bloodstream—this device could not be put into blood vessels because it is too big. While other types of miniature swallow able robots have been developed in the past, their role has mostly been limited to capturing images inside the body. In a presentation this week to the International Conference, Daniela Rus and Shuhei Miyashita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology described a robot they have developed that can be swallowed and used to collect dangerous objects accidentally taken in.
To test their latest version, Dr. Rus and Dr. Miyashita designed a robot as a battery hunter, which might seem to be an odd task, but more than 3,500 people in America alone, most of them children, swallow the tiny button cells used in small electronic devices by accident every year. To start with, the researchers created an artificial esophagus (食道) and stomach made out of silicone. It was closely modeled on that found in a pig and filled with medical liquid; the robot itself is made from several layers of different materials, including pig intestine (肠),and contains a little magnet. This is folded up and wrapped in a 10mmx27mm capsule of ice. Once this reaches the stomach, the ice melts and the robot unfolds which is moved and guided with the 1se of a magnetic field outside the body. In their tests, the robot was able to touch a button battery and draw it with its own magnet, and during dragging it along, the robot could then be directed towards the intestines where it would eventually be gotten rid of through the anus (肛门). After it, the researchers sent in another robot loaded with medication to deliver it to the site of the battery bum to speed up healing.
The artificial stomach being transparent (透明的) on one side, the researchers can see the batteries and visually control the robots. If not, that will require help with the help from imaging system, which will be a bit more of a challenge, but Dr. Rus and Dr. Miyashita are determined to succeed.
1. According to the passage, the robot operation will probably be able to ________.| A．travel through a scientist's bloodstream | B．photograph the body to convey to the doctor |
| C．enter the body to deliver drugs or make repairs | D．operate on a person outside the body completely |
| A．the researchers did the experiment on a chosen animal |
| B．the robot took necessary drugs besides a little magnet |
| C．digesting the swallowed batteries is difficult for children |
| D．the actual size of the robot may be larger than the capsule of ice |
| A．The surgeries will cost patients. much money. | B．Patients will suffer less for some surgeries. |
| C．Fewer children will swallow the button cells. | D．A robot will be invented traveling blood vessels. |
| A．An Experiment on Robot | B．Tiny Robot, Significant Role |
| C．The Fantastic Robotic Voyage | D．The Exploration of Robot Technology |
2 . The fitness center offers a variety of activities for members of all ages throughout the week.
Activities for Monday 12 July, 2017:
Learn to swim. Classes for preschool children aged five and under start at 10 am. Classes last 30 minutes and parents must attend with their children. Don't forget to book in advance, as places are limited, and to pack some warm clothes for after the lesson.
Woman's aerobics（有氧运动）. Sessions are for one hour and begin at 10:45 am, led by Melissa. Come along and join us every Monday for an exhilarating hour of exercise and fun. Leave your kids at the nursery and take time out for yourself. Wear a tracksuit or something similar.
Lunch time yoga. Take a break at lunchtime （1:00-2:00 pm） for an hour of meditation and yoga. Enjoy the peace and quiet of our meditation room, and relaxing sessions designed for active people with busy lives. Use your own mat（垫子）for floor work or huy one from us with some money.
Family Shootaround. 10:00-5:30 pm. Family Shootaround is open for members and guests to bring the family out for basketball. Half court games are only during this time. There are no full court games during Family Shootaround hours. All participants must sign in at the front desk and wear a wistband during the play.
1. When will Melissa be working?| A．From 10:00 am to 10:30 am |
| B．From 10:45 am to 11:45 am. |
| C．From 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. |
| D．From 10:00 am to 5:30 pm. |
| A．Lunchtime yoga. | B．Women's aerobics. |
| C．Learn to swim | D．Family Shootaround. |
| A．The need to sign in |
| B．The need to book in advance. |
| C．The need to bring something. |
| D．The need to become a member. |
3 . My family and I belonged to a country club located across the street from the Long Island Sound. Each summer, the big attraction for us was the pool. I learned how to swim and joined the swimming team but was never really a good swimmer. However, swimming in my younger days was a way to keep cool, and swimming on a team gave me identity and a sense of belonging. It also became invaluable many years later.
Fast-forward (快进) to 1973 – I was married, pregnant and had a home. What made our little home even more wonderful was when I discovered that four blocks away was Rath Park Pool! For the next 30 years, most of our summer days were spent around that pool.
Each of my five kids took swimming lessons and learned all the different swimming strokes (姿势). They later joined the swim team and competed in meets. My daughter even became a lifeguard at the town pool. I sat back and happily took it all in!
As much as I would have liked to have life stand still, it doesn’t. My children outgrew their pool days and moved on. But the pool was still four blocks from my home, so I began to take up swimming again. And it was far better than I ever could have imagined. I got so much out of it that I joined the local pool so I could swim year-round. Whenever I swam, I would always come out feeling physically and mentally refreshed. I often felt that if I looked hard enough, I would be able to see all of the worries and problems I’ve had in life, sitting at the bottom of the pool!
What has swimming taught me? I’ve learned that balance is the key to being a good swimmer. If you are balanced in the water, you have no resistance. Working on staying balanced made me realize the similarities between life in and out of the swim lane (泳道). If you work on keeping yourself balanced, you will be able to swim right through the stress and problems life throws at you!
1. What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 1?| A．Her family taught her how to swim. |
| B．She swam with friends more often in summer. |
| C．Swimming brought her lifelong benefits. |
| D．She was elected to be the swim team captain. |
| A．The author loved the pool days with her kids. |
| B．Swimming was losing its appeal to the author. |
| C．Her kids’ winning competitions made her proud. |
| D．The author preferred to have a peaceful life. |
| A．Sports can give you the courage to face difficulties. |
| B．She mastered more swimming skills than expected. |
| C．It enabled her to see how to handle problems in life. |
| D．Swimming made her remember her younger days. |
| A．The wonderful pool days with the author’s family. |
| B．The influence of swimming on the author’s life. |
| C．The physical and mental benefits of swimming. |
| D．The similarities between swimming and life. |
4 . Jules Verne was born on 8 February 1828 in the French city of Nantes. From an early age, he had a fascination with exploration and discovery. When he was six, his teacher, Madame Sambin, told him stories about her husband, who disappeared while travelling the world on a ship 30 years before. She told her class that he was like Robinson Crusoe, a fictional (虚构的) castaway who lived on a desert island. Verne would later write stories about similar characters.
In 1847, Verne was sent by his family to study law at a university in Paris, but he preferred to write novels, poems and plays. After graduating, he realized he wanted to write science adventure stories. This had never been done before, but Verne was sure that it would be a success. His first story, Five Weeks in a Balloon, was published in September 1862. His career lasted for more than 40 years, during which time he wrote more than 60 gripping (扣人心弦的) stories.
To begin with, Verne wrote positive and optimistic books. Many of these were to be his most popular creations. Although some included fantastical elements, they were usually based on scientific facts, making them believable. These happy stories weren’t to last. As he got older, Verne became less confident in the idea that science and technology were always good for the planet. His books started to include more scientists who used technology for their own—sometimes evil—purposes. Verne died on 24 March 1905, but new books continued to be published until 1919. These stories were based on ideas Verne had written about while he was still alive, but featured new characters and plots created by his son, Michel.
In the 20th century, his books were translated into more than 140 languages and several successful film versions came out. His creations have been recognized as an inspiration for many scientists and inventors. Many of the futuristic ideas from his most popular books have since come true.
1. What is the function of paragraph 1?| A．To describe Verne’s discovery. |
| B．To introduce the characters of his stories. |
| C．To present the adventure of Sambin’s husband. |
| D．To show the teacher’s impact on Verne’s writing. |
| A．Studying law. |
| B．Graduating from university. |
| C．Writing novels, poems and plays. |
| D．Writing science adventure stories. |
| A．They covered happy elements. |
| B．They were unbelievable stories. |
| C．They revealed Verne’s doubt on science. |
| D．They were partly written by Verne’s son. |
| A．Talented and productive. | B．Popular and caring. |
| C．Optimistic and generous. | D．Friendly and honest. |
5 . The situation of the world’s plants is not good. One fifth of the kinds of plants are in danger of disappearing, according to a report.
“Plants are very vital to human beings,” said Kathy Willis, who led the new report. “Plants provide us with everything—food, fuel, and medicine, and they are very important for our climate controlling. Without plants we would not be here.”
The good news is that deforestation rates around the world have dropped largely since the 1950s. However, this report on the health of plants around the world shows that there is much more to be done.
The report predicts that there are now 390,900 kinds of plants. And about 21 percent of those plants are in danger of disappearing. “The good side is that we’re still discovering lots of new plants, about 2,000 each year,” said Dr. Willis. “The bad side is that we’ve seen a huge change in land cover, mainly caused by cultural activity, with a little bit of climate change in there as well.”
Human activity has a great effect on the danger of plants disappearing. As humans cut down forests to make room for agriculture, towns and cities, biodiversity is lost. This could not only affect our own food supply directly, but also affect the food web.
1. What does the underlined word “vital” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Useless. | B．Friendly. | C．Equal. | D．Important. |
| A．New plants are more than ever before. | B．About half the plants will disappear soon. |
| C．Many new plants are found every year. | D．Plants mustn’t be used to produce medicine. |
| A．We have made little progress. | B．There is a long way for us to go. |
| C．We have achieved our goal. | D．There will be nothing we can do. |
| A．Biodiversity Being Lost | B．Human Social Activity |
| C．Environment Protection | D．Nature Climate Change |
6 . One dilemma that the super famous face is balancing the needs of privacy and recognition.
For some stars privacy is an overvalued thing. In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford went on their European honeymoon. The two international idols had divorced their previous spouses （配偶）and were concerned about how they would be greeted. They needn’t have worried. In London their car was surrounded by admiring women who pulled Mary out of the car to shake her hand, still grateful after two years for her efforts selling war bonds. In Paris they couldn’t get any sleep with crowds gathering below their hotel room to sing and play for them. In Amsterdam they attended a party and were mobbed （包围）by other guests who wanted to get close to them. The athletic Fairbanks placed his wife on his shoulder and escaped through the window. Finally, they found privacy in Hamburg, where their movies were not shown because of World War I. For an hour the famous newly-married couple walked the streets unnoticed until the bored Mary turned to her husband and said, “Doug, I’m sick of this. Let’s go back to one of those countries where they mob us.”
Joan Crawford had similar feelings. Once in the 1930s she was staying in New York getting over her breakup with Clark Gable. Tired of staying around her hotel feeling so down she told her entourage （随从） they should go out and get some fresh air. The entourage, who had trouble keeping up with the star’s quick pace, were shocked when she walked away from their planned road. "Oh my God. She’s going into Grand Central Station!" Someone shouted, “Look, it’s Joan Crawford! And she was mobbed. It took them thirty minutes to escape the crowd and get back to their hotel suite. Her hair disheveled （凌乱），her dress tom and her face scratched, Crawford leaned against the door out of breath. "Oh.,. oh my. That was wonderful. Let’s do it again!”
1. What did Douglas and Mary worry about before going to Europe?| A．Nobody would greet them. |
| B．They wouldn’t be welcomed. |
| C．Their war bonds wouldn’t sell well. |
| D．Their schedule would be made public. |
| A．Hamburg was too quiet a place for her. |
| B．Her movies weren’t shown in Hamburg. |
| C．She fell ill after arriving in a new place. |
| D．She didn’t really enjoy privacy so much. |
| A．Amusing. | B．Enjoyable. | C．Dangerous. | D．Embarrassing. |
| A．they may feel down from time to time |
| B．they deserve people’s love and respect |
| C．they need both privacy and public attention |
| D．they are not always popular around the world |
7 . The next time your brain refuses to recall a simple fact or name, be thankful. That could be a sign that your brain is getting rid of unnecessary information so that it can operate more efficiently, and help you make better decisions.
Researchers who study how the brain stores information find that when neurons （神经元）are connected to the hippocampus — a region of the brain that plays a significant role in learning and remembering - they overwrite （覆盖）old memories, making them harder to access.
Why does the brain spend so much energy erasing memories? Researchers believe that forgetting old information makes the brain more efficient. In a 2016 study, a team of scientists taught a group of mice to locate a maze （迷宫）.The researchers erased the memories of some mice with drugs and moved the maze. The mice who still had memories of its original location had a harder time finding the new site than those that had no memory.
Additionally, the team believes that keeping too much detail could prevent people from making good decisions. In fact, evolution has shaped our memory not to win a game of unimportant matters, but to make intelligent decisions. And when we look at what’s needed to make intelligent decisions, we would argue that that it’s healthy to forget some things.
The scientists say what the brain decides to forget is determined by our daily life. The memories the brain decides to lose are exactly those details from your life that don’t actually matter and that may be keeping you from making good decisions.
So the next time you are unable to recall a seemingly important fact, don’t be hard on yourself. Your brain is making room for information that can contribute to making you smarter! Remember, even Albert Einstein was absent-minded!
1. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Old memories. | B．New memories. |
| C．Neurons. | D．Researchers. |
| A．Old memories affects decision-making. |
| B．Old memories can’t be erased by drugs. |
| C．Mice can’t locate a maze without memories. |
| D．Drugs make mice smarter in locating a maze. |
| A．It isn’t easy to make intelligent decisions. |
| B．Einstein was as ordinary as normal people. |
| C．It’s normal for people to forget small things. |
| D．Einstein is a good example of absent-mindedness. |
| A．How Does Your Brain Work? |
| B．How Can We Become Smarter? |
| C．Forgetting Makes You Smarter |
| D．Brain Chooses What To Memorize |
8 . A few books recommended by Bill Gates
Reading is my favorite way to indulge （放纵）my desire to know the world. Although I get to meet with a lot of interesting people and visit fascinating places through my work, I still think books are the best way to explore new topics that interest you. Here are four amazing books I read recently:
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond. If you want a good understanding of how the issues that cause poverty are twisted （交织）together, you should read this book. Desmond gave me a better sense of what it is like to be poor in this country than anything else I have read.
Energy and Civilization: A History, by Vaclav Smil. Smil is one of my favorite authors, and this is his most famous book. He presents clearly how our need for energy has shaped human history. It’s not the easiest book to read, but at the end you’ll feel smarter and better informed about how energy innovation changes the course of civilizations.
The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui. This novel explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee （难 民）.The author’s family fled Vietnam in 1978. After giving birth to her own child, she decides to learn more about her parents’ experiences of growing up in a country torn apart by foreign occupiers.
Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and JazzChickens, by Eddie Izzard. Izzard’s personal story in this book is attractive: he survived a difficult childhood and worked continuously to overcome his lack of natural talent and become an international star. If you’re a huge fen of him like I am, you’ll love this book. His written voice is very similar to his stage voice, and I found myself laughing out loud several times while reading it.
1. What does Matthew Desmond try to explore?| A．Different causes of poverty. |
| B．The struggle of poor people. |
| C．How to escape from poverty. |
| D．Ways to live in a poor country. |
| A．economy | B．education | C．literature | D．history |
| A．They are popular around the world. |
| B．They are expected to inspire readers. |
| C．They focus on lives of ordinary people. |
| D．They are based on personal experiences. |
9 . If you think of pumpkins as an orange-colored squash that's carved as the key ingredient for holiday season pies, you wouldn't be wrong.
But there's much more to pumpkins, which are full of nutrients that provide an impressive collection of health benefits, says Lisa Jones, a registered dietitian based in Philadelphia. Pumpkins may be good for carving, but they're even better for a variety of healthy nutrients, she says. “Pumpkins provide a diverse variety of nutritional benefits in addition to being an ingredient in pies or festival decoration.”
The best part about pumpkin is that it's so easy to work it into your daily food. When preparing various dishes, add pumpkin to things like soups or bake with it in breads. There are so many things you can do with pumpkin beyond pumpkin pie. Pumpkins are seasonal, ripening in fall. But you can get pumpkin products, like canned puree or soup, in many stores throughout the year.
Consuming pumpkin can help fight cancers, says Mahmoud Ghannoum, professor and director in a medical center. Pumpkins have plenty of beta carotene, which is an antioxidant, playing an important role in protecting the body from cancers. Pumpkin is a good source of minerals, vitamin C and fiber, all of which are associated with heart health and keep your skin strong, healthy and, hopefully, wrinkle-free. The squash also contains a healthy amount of vitamin E, which helps reduce damage caused to your skin by ultraviolet light. Besides, the fiber in pumpkin can help you feel full ——which, in turn, boosts your odds of consuming healthy portions of food. Every half-cup of cooked pumpkin provides about 3 grams of fiber. Pumpkins are also low in calories: a cup of cooked pumpkin contains about 50 calories, which helps with weight management.
1. What does Lisa Jones think of pumpkin?| A．It can be used in various western dishes. |
| B．It is more than used in dishes or decoration. |
| C．It is easy to carve pumpkin into diverse shapes. |
| D．It suits people from diverse cultural backgrounds. |
| A．It ripens in fall. | B．It can be bought all over the year. |
| C．It is not hard to add it to daily dishes. | D．It can be made into various products. |
| A．The classification of pumpkin. | B．The characteristics of pumpkin. |
| C．Different ways to consume pumpkin. | D．The potential benefits of consuming pumpkin. |
| A．A review. | B．A guidebook. | C．A fiction. | D．A website. |
10 . Slowly but surely, we’re moving closer and closer to 5G world. From smart-home security to self-driving cars, all the internet-connected devices in our life will be able to talk to each other at lightning-fast speeds with reduced delay. Objectively speaking, the fastest 4G download speeds in the US top out at an average of 19.42Mbps. But by comparison 5G promises gigabit (千兆) speeds.
“5G is one of those heralds (使者),along with artificial intelligence, of this coming data age.” said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for the Consumer Technology Association. The self-driving vehicle is a great emblem of this data age, and that is to say, it is a sign of time, because with one single task, driving, you have massive amounts of data coming from the vehicle itself, and a variety of sensors are collecting a lot of information to model its environment as it moves. It’s pulling in data from other vehicles about road conditions down the lane. It could be weather information, and also connected infrastructure (基础设施) construction. There’s lots of data behind that task, which is why we need the high speed.
And virtual reality glasses and headsets haven’t yet broken the mainstream, but tech companies are joyfully betting that these devices will eventually replace our smartphones. With 5G, that could actually happen. This is notable because companies such as Apple are reportedly developing AR glasses to assist — or even replace — smartphones.
Ericsson stated at February's Mobile World Congress how smart glasses could become faster and lighter with a 5G connection, because instead of being weighed down with components, the glasses could rely on hardware for processing power.
But don’t get too excited. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the meantime, including various trials to make sure the radios play nicely with hardware and infrastructure construction so 5G isn’t concentrated only in big cities.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The security of 5G. | B．The present world of 5G. |
| C．The future of 5G. | D．The super speed of 5G. |
| A．exhibition | B．symbol | C．sponsor | D．explanation |
| A．They will be heavier than present ones. | B．They will process power on their own. |
| C．They will bring a big fortune to tech companies. | D．They will take the place of smartphones. |
| A．How to fully expand 5G coverage. | B．How to effectively reduce 5G trials. |
| C．How to nicely operate 5G hardware. | D．How to widely construct 5G big cities. |
