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 . During the COVID-19 pandemic, Julia began her second year as a first grade teacher in an online classroom. One September afternoon, she received a call from and Cynthia, who was having technical difficulties with her granddaughter's tools for online learning.
Julia immediately knew something was wrong with Cynthia. The two women had spoken many times before, but Julia had never heard she sounded like this. Her words were so jumbled that Julia could barely understand her. Julia called her headmaster, Charlie, who convinced her that he would call and check on Cynthia himself.
Just like Julia, Charlie could barely understand Cynthia. He suspected she might be having a stroke (中风) — he recognized the signs from when his own father had suffered one. Charlie immediately became concerned that Cynthia's two grandchildren, ages six and eight, were probably home alone with her and scared. Charlie asked his office manager to send an ambulance to the grandmother's home.
The quick response from Julia and Charlie saved Cynthia's life. She arrived at the hospital in time to get treatment before long-term damage occurred. Thanks to an extended stay in the hospital, she has regained most of the movement throughout her body except for one hand and a region of her mouth.
“I'm proud of the people I work with, that they responded so quickly and that it did make a difference to Cynthia,” says Julia. “I am so pleased to be part of such a caring community.” But the school's crisis response is only one piece of the community's extraordinary efforts to help Cynthia and her granddaughters. Another family with young children took in the two girls.
Virtual learning has been a challenge across the country, but it's fair to say that it has helped the community grow closer. Many teachers there gave their personal phone numbers to students and families in case they needed extra help. In this case, the exchange was literally life-altering.
1. Cynthia called Julia in order to .| A．complain about the poor contents of online learning |
| B．consult about her granddaughter's academic performance |
| C．seek some help for lack of certain technical knowledge |
| D．volunteer her services as a teacher in an online classroom |
| A．brief |
| B．unclear |
| C．gentle |
| D．impolite |
| A．By recalling his own previous sufferings from the disease. |
| B．By using his professional knowledge to form the judgment. |
| C．By combining Julia's call with the granddaughters' description. |
| D．By identifying the symptoms that a stroke patient may have. |
| A．It has caused much inconvenience to parents. |
| B．It will bring about unavoidable leak of privacy. |
| C．It has provided more benefits than challenges. |
| D．It needs technical guidance to be highly effective. |
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| A．Students who fail to come up with original ideas. |
| B．Teachers who need help in marking the papers. |
| C．Authors who attempt to publish their own works. |
| D．Editors who want their work less time-consuming. |
| A．The services offered both instant and lasting benefits. |
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| A．Education. | B．Finance. |
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4 . With the social media freely available, I've realized how easy it is to become a jealous cow. The truth is that however much I remind myself of the many wonderful things I have in my life, there are still moments when I look at those around me and feel bitterly upset by their success.
It's a horrible thing to admit! In an ideal world, I'd never want to be jealous of another person's achievements and I'd want to celebrate the successes of my friends. But sometimes it's hard, even when we want to. But I don't want to live my life as a jealous cow, and I assume you don't either.
It's easier to celebrate other people's wins if you celebrate your own. How often do we take the time to enjoy our success rather than instantly move onto the next thing we want to achieve? Last year, I decided to write a book. It was the only professional goal I set for myself and, while it tired me out, I got there. But as soon as it was done, I started planning my next goal-making the book a success. As I saw other people publishing books, I stopped celebrating and instead began to fear that mine wouldn't compete.
When I told a friend how I was feeling, she reminded me how much easier it is to clap for someone else when we also clap for ourselves. So, I took myself out for lunch, ordered a glass of wine and wrote myself a congratulations card. When I saw all those other books being written on my social media, I felt proud of each and every one of us who had battled to the end of the word count.
The other trick for celebrating other people's success is to realize that there is no limit on success. We can make more, which means that while it might seem as if others have everything and we have nothing, the reality is that life turns quickly and our luck could change at any time. If others have achieved those things, we can too. When we celebrate others, we're acknowledging their achievements but also cheering for ourselves as well as for our hopes and dreams and our belief that we can make them happen. And hopefully, when we do, those people will cheer for us too.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?| A．Social media is the source of the author's jealousy. |
| B．Frequent successes on social media encourage envy. |
| C．It is a pleasure to face others' successes on social media. |
| D．People tend to be crazy about immediate success online. |
| A．Appreciate what's been done. |
| B．Show it off on social media. |
| C．Reflect on gains and losses. |
| D．Waite for others' congratulations. |
| A．pursuing those achievable goals |
| B．devoting yourself to the next goal |
| C．admitting personal incompetence |
| D．changing your attitude to success |
| A．I'm so happy for us! |
| B．What a considerate friend! |
| C．I don't care about it! |
| D．How selfless you can be! |
5 . A recent study suggests there's nothing soft about pink, as it is revealed that the pinkest flamingos are the toughest. Published in the Journal Ethology, a recent study found that a pink color of feathers was a good indicator of how aggressive a bird was when feeding, as well as a sign of good health or a signal that the bird was ready to breed(繁育）.
For the study, researchers observed the behavior of flamingos in different feeding situations, ranging from small indoor spaces to large outdoor spaces, with or without a pool.
They found that compared to indoor birds competing for food from a bowl, the outdoor-raised flamingos spent twice as much as time searching for food, so they had less time to show aggressive behaviors. Interestingly, their findings also revealed that when the race for food turned hot, the birds most likely to appeal to arms were the pinkest, whether they were male or female.
“The color of flamingos comes from their food, more specifically, from the algae(藻类）that they absorb from water. So the more food they have, the pinker the birds are,” said Dr. Paul Rose, from the University of Exeter, in a statement. “Flamingos live in large groups with complex structures, in which color plays an important role.”
Flamingos don't have a breeding season. Instead, they breed when they are healthy enough to do so. Their health is indicated by the color of the feathers, which is pinker in their prime and paler when they weak. So, the signal that a bird is ready to breed is described as a pink flush in its feathers, which goes away when the bird parents a chick or already passes its best reproductive time.
A healthy pink flamingo will have more time and energy to be aggressive and dominant when feeding. When birds have to crowd together to get their food, they fight more and therefore spend less time feeding, leading to the fading color of flamingos that are already weak. “And this definitely is unfavorable for their reproduction,” Rose said.
The research provides a direction for zoos to feed their flamingos and keep them content and colorful. That is, ensure captive birds are fed in a wide space, as crowded conditions are more likely to result in fights. “Based on my observations, I suggested some changes. And the keepers were willing to try them out. As a result, we've got pinker, more relaxed flamingos," said Dr. Rose.
1. What's the purpose of the author by writing Paragraph 1?| A．To propose an example. |
| B．To make an argument. |
| C．To make a comparison. |
| D．To introduce the topic. |
| A．Health condition. |
| B．Social structures. |
| C．Feeding activities. |
| D．Breeding activities. |
| A．Body size determines status. |
| B．Family is taken as a basic unit. |
| C．Healthy flamingos control the whole group. |
| D．Pinker flamingos enjoy a breeding advantage. |
| A．Enlarging the raising space. |
| B．Raising all flamingos indoors. |
| C．Limiting the population of a group. |
| D．Increasing the frequency of providing food. |
6 . The world has seen many inventions. While most people are proud of those associate with their names, there are things making inventors feel the other way.
The pop-up (弹出) advert, by Ethan Zuckerman
Pop-up ads are convenient for those who are interested, but most people get annoyed when they are on computers. They may contain computer viruses. Just as we would blame the inventor, the man humbly accepted his invention isn’t one of the best. In his essay, Zuckerman wrote about the most hateful thing, “I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in it.”
The emoticon, by Scott E. Fahlman
Emoticons began to occupy screens crazily in 2011 and gained great popularity, especially with young men. It had been four years since Fahlman first used a “smiley face” in a computer message. He created the emoticon as a joke marker. But things are different. “It has gone to places I don’t approve of,” he complained to The Wall Street Journal in 2013. “It shouldn’t have been created.”
The office cubicle (隔间), by Bob Propst
In 1968, Bob Propst came up with the idea office cubicles, something that “would build a futuristic and tidy office style with no real walls or doors and provide a more comfortable environment”. But the man has come to hate what he has invented, as Propst recalled to Fortune at age 80, “They’ve changed and just become cubicles”.
The K-Cup, by John Sylvan
It seems everyone has a Keurig coffee maker for K-Cups. John Sylvan invented the K-Cup, aimed at facilitating office life of white-collar workers. Now it’s common in houses and companies. However, the single-serve plastic coffee cups aren’t eco-friendly. “I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it”, Sylvan admits. But! Good news for Mr. Sylvan: Keuring now offers varieties of recyclable K-Cups.
1. When was the emoticon invented?| A．In 2007. | B．In 2009. | C．In 2011. | D．In 2013. |
| A．The pop-up advert. | B．The emoticon. | C．The office cubicle. | D．The K-Cup. |
| A．They benefit human life greatly. |
| B．Their creators are blamed by the public. |
| C．Their inventors feel regretful. |
| D．They are very popular with young people. |
7 . Hartley got to Gentral Slalion nearly an hour before his train was due to leave. A lifetime in the theatre had given him a healthy — indeed excessive (过分的) — sense of punctuality; a lifetime of unwanted cups of coffee, constant checking of the time, yet another turn around the block before that all too often pointless, tiresome audition (试镜).
Hartley was 75 — pretty fit for his age, legs holding lip, memory still ticking over nicely — though the occasions for punctuality were now rather fewer. But he was a creature of habit and couldn’t change now.
He repaired to the restaurant purchased a coffee and a blueberry muffin, tired and failed to find a litter-free table. The coffee was awful, the muffin was stale — but the coffee was always awful, the muffin always stale. Hartley refused to let himself be annoyed. His visit to the city had not been without its pleasures. Lunch with an old actor-chum (好友), then a film — regrettably not utilizing (利用) his own talents — had rounded out an agreeable day.
Hartley was a good actor, although the calls on his talents were now infrequent. But really, he thought draining his awful coffee, he’d had a reasonably good career. Something to be proud of. But he’d never had that break-through part.
He headed for his platform. Just as the train was about to pull out a man ran down the platform, jumped aboard as the door slammed shut and sank into the seat next to Hartley.
“Cutting it a bit fine”, he said.
“Indeed”, Hartley replied. “A close run thing”.
The man — forty-ish, amiable looking — gave him an amused glance.
This brief exchange served as an adequate ice-breaker and they chatted their way through the outer suburbs and into the countryside. Having satisfactorily disposed of the sad state of the railways, country versus city living, his neighbour asked Hartley what he did—or had done—for a living.
Hartley hated telling people he was an actor. He was not ashamed of his job. Not in the least, but he had long tired of reactions ranging from “what have I seen you in” to “how do you learn all those lines”.
So in situations like this he simply selected an occupation from a former role. Bit risky, of course. You say you’re a doctor and find yourself meeting the quizzical（疑问的）gaze of a heart surgeon. But he’d never been caught out and it was harmless enough game, Hartley felt. It amused him, and he’d given some damn good performances too.
“I’m a lawyer”, he replied. “Retired several years ago. Property law. Bit of criminal stuff”.
The train was slowing down. The man glanced out of the window.
“My station. I had you quite wrong then”.
He stood and took down his briefcase from the overhead rack.
“Yes, I’d have said you were an actor. The voice especially. Still, lawyers are actors in a way, don’t you think? Plenty of drama in a courtroom”.
The train drew into the station.
“I’m a film director. Casting a feature at the moment. You study faces. On the train. Everywhere. Always on the lookout. Anyway, enjoyed our chat. Bye.”
1. What did Hartley think of his not telling his occupation?| A．Harmful to his acting career. | B．Amusing despite the risk |
| C．Helpful to protect his identity | D．Upsetting when caught out. |
| A．He assumed Hartley had given another answer. |
| B．He understood Hartley’s profession was acting. |
| C．He thought Hartley practiced a different profession. |
| D．He mistook Hartley for another person. |
| A．shows the readers how unexpectedly Hartley’s career ends |
| B．describes Hanley’s shock on finding the man is a director |
| C．confirms Hartley's lack of luck in spite of his acting skills |
| D．proves the man will reconsider giving Hartley a chance to act |
| A．Acting up | B．Employ talents |
| C．Selecting an occupation | D．Casting a feature |
8 . With the world’s attention on vaccines (疫苗), now feels like a good moment to sing the praises of an often forgotten contribution to their development. Three hundred years ago this month, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu got her daughter inoculated (接种) against smallpox, making her child the first person in the West to be protected in this way. Without Montagu’s willingness to adopt a practice she had learned from other cultures, the introduction of vaccines around 80 years later would never have taken place.
Montagu first witnessed inoculation when she accompanied her husband to Turkey in 1717. Inoculation had started in Asia, probably in China, as early as the 10th century AD. Montagu observed how older women in Turkey took a tiny amount of pus (脓) from a person with smallpox. They then used needles to make cuts on people’s wrists and ankles and added the pus to their bloodstream. This helped people gain immunity from future infection.
Like other visitors to the country, Montagu took steps to ensure that her son was inoculated in Turkey. This worked well, but she knew that trying it in England would be far more challenging. Inoculation performed by unlicensed amateurs would threaten doctors’ professional standing and potentially rob them of valuable income. Churchmen also disagree with the practice, as they saw it as going against nature.
Back in England, Montagu observed the increased severity of smallpox infections. Eventually, in April 1721, she decided to use the Turkish practice to have her daughter inoculated, because she believed that the rewards would outweigh the risks. After a safe time had passed following the inoculation, Montagu allowed doctors to examine her daughter.
Doctors in Britain gradually accepted the practice. About so years later, a pioneering physician found smallpox vaccines to destroy smallpox completely. As early as last century, academics argued that Montagu was no more than an enthusiastic amateur. In truth, she made a vital scientific contribution towards finding the cure for smallpox.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The origin of smallpox inoculation. |
| B．Montagu’s first access to inoculation. |
| C．The benefits from smallpox inoculation. |
| D．Turkish women’s invention of inoculation. |
| A．it was against human nature | B．it might harm doctors’ interests |
| C．it was beyond doctors’ abilities | D．it might shake churchmen’s belief |
| A．The increased severity of smallpox infections. |
| B．A physician’s discovery of smallpox vaccines. |
| C．The result of Montagu’s daughter’s inoculation. |
| D．Montagu’s focus on its rewards rather than its risks. |
| A．An unsung hero | B．No limit to creation |
| C．Development of vaccines | D．A historic medical innovation |
Shooting down an ice-covered track, a bobsled（大雪橇）can go faster than 80 miles an hour, and riders can feel force five times stronger than the pull of gravity. A race can be won or lost by one hundredth of a second. How do bobsleds go faster than cars on a highway? The answer is a combination of athletics and science.
At the start of a race, the crew push their sled, building up speed before they jump in for the ride. For months before the race, the crew have built up power in their legs. The push is the crew's only chance to add speed. All other work goes into keeping friction and drag（摩擦力和阻力）from slowing the sled down.
The design of the sled's runners（滑板）reduces their friction with the ice. The friction of a moving runner melts a little ice right under the runner, and the runner rides on that thin layer of water. The runners are rounded on the bottom. Runners that are too flat may not melt enough ice for fast ride. Runners that are too round may become too warm, softening the ice and slowing the sled down. No amount of rounding is perfect for all races because the hardness of the ice depends on the weather on race day.
Bobsleds used to be open. The riders did not sit inside a hull（外壳）. As the crew sped down the track，the air would create drag. Today, a sled's hull reduces drag by splitting the air in front of the sled and making it flow smoothly along the slides. As with the runners，strict rules apply to the hull. For example，no team may add any part that would create helpful air currents.
Reducing friction and drag creates another challenge: high speeds. “The faster the sleds car travel on the run, the more thrilling the race,” one research team wrote. “But the track must not be too fast: he crew still need to be able to reach the bottom safely.”
1. What's the text mainly about?| A．The shape of the sled. | B．The design of the runners. |
| C．The safety rules applying to the sled. | D．The elements relating to the sled's speed |
| A．Proper amount of melted ice is needed for a fast ride. |
| B．The rounder the runners are, the faster the sled goes. |
| C．Thin layer of water would drag the runners backward. |
| D．A sled's movement has nothing to do with weather. |
| A．It's comfortable to sit in. | B．It leads to beneficial air flow. |
| C．It helps to create a safe ride. | D．It's free from strict rules. |
| A．Safety is the most important. | B．Keeping high speed is difficult. |
| C．Riders' desire to win is understandable. | D．The crew's cooperation is necessary. |
10 . The idea of billions of people going through a few masks a week during this pandemic definitely rings alarm bells, but a team of researchers in Melbourne may have the solution.
They’ve discovered that adding millions of discarded face masks to road-paving (铺路) mixtures would actually lower the cost of the road, while preventing billions of them from landfills. Just one kilometer of road would need three million masks, and the polypropylene (聚丙烯) plastic used to make single-use surgical face masks also increased the flexibility and durability of the road.
The new material is a mixture of about 2% torn masks, with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA)—a material obtained from waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. This recycled material was found in the study to be ideal for two of the four layers generally required to create roadways. Paving a kilometer of two-way road with the RCA and three million face masks would result in a change of 93 tons of waste from landfills.
The final product then is more resistant to wear than asphalt (沥青), as well as being cheaper too, provided there was a method for collecting masks. The research team did a cost-analysis and found that, at $26 per ton, the RCA was about half the cost of mining raw materials, and as much as a third of the cost of shipping the used masks to a landfill.
The widespread application would be ideal for large infrastructure (基础设施) projects. For example, Washington has the 11th worst roads in terms of unaddressed repairs in the U.S. If the damaged roads in Washington state were repaired with the RCA/mask mixture, it would reuse nearly 10 billion masks, sparing American landfills hundreds of millions of tons of trash.
It’s said that the team is looking for private industry partners or governments willing to give their plastic mask road an opportunity for a large-scale test.
1. What does the underlined word “discarded” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Recycled. | B．Produced. |
| C．Mixed. | D．Abandoned. |
| A．2% torn masks, concrete and tons of trash. |
| B．Polypropylene plastic and building materials. |
| C．Single-use surgical masks and recycled concrete aggregate. |
| D．Waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. |
| A．To tell us what the team has found. |
| B．To prove this material is cost-effective in paving roads. |
| C．To explain repairing roads costs a lot of materials. |
| D．To praise the hard work the team has done. |
| A．The material used to pave roads is made of masks. |
| B．Generally speaking, it requires two layers to create roadways. |
| C．It remains to be tested whether the solution is practical. |
| D．The damaged roads in Washington were repaired with the RCA. |
