1 . At a Dalkomm Coffee shop in Seoul, a robot takes orders from you through a mobile app or a touch screen and then makes fresh coffee. Coffee is just one of the many industries that use automated(自动化的) services in this technologically forward-thinking nation. Others include restaurants, food stores, banks and factories. The development comes as many Koreans, especially the young, are struggling to find work.
Just this week, workers who operate about 2,500 large cranes(吊车) at building sites went on strike(罢工).They were against the growing use of robotic small cranes for building. Other labor unions have also been against the use of automated devices instead of human workers at Emart, South Korea's biggest food store group.
South Korean officials also changed plans to completely automate the nation's road fee collection system. They acted after receiving blame for cutting 6,700 jobs. Instead, the system will be partly automated and keep all its existing human fee collectors.
South Korea had the highest percentage or robots to human workers in the world in 2017. The International Federation of Robotics says South Korea has 710 robots for every 10,000 workers. The international average is 85 robots per 10,000 employees.
South Korea's lowest permitted worker wage has increased by 27.3% over the last two years. This has led more businesses so cut labor costs by using automation, says Suh Yong Gu of the Business School at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul.
Even with the job losses, South Korea's businesses are replacing employees with automation and young people are welcoming the change. Suh said, "Nowadays, Millennials those who were born after 1980 are prime consumers. This generation tends not to like meeting other people. So they like technology that enables people to minimize face-to-face interactions."
1. Why did construction workers go on strike this week?| A．6,700 workers had been out of work. |
| B．They feared being replaced by robots. |
| C．Their wages were cut down by 27.3%. |
| D．Their demand for a pay rise was refused, |
| A．They're less competitive in modern world. |
| B．They're victims of modern high technology. |
| C．They're unwilling to communicate face to face. |
| D．They're strongly against the use of automation. |
| A．Human fee collectors have disappeared. |
| B．South Korea produced the most robots in 2017. |
| C．Robots have taken the place of humans in building. |
| D．It remains a problem whether to make full use of robots. |
| A．Robots Made Their First Appearance in Cafes |
| B．Koreans Are Ready for Challenges from Robots |
| C．Automation: A Double-edged Sword in Job Market |
| D．South Korea: A Leading Country in Technology |
2 . An international group of electronic music composers is taking beats from the dance club to jungles and forests and back, all to help save nature's greatest singers. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean is a new album that includes the sounds of endangered birds. The album will come out next month, whose proceeds will go directly towards efforts to save birds.
The whole project was born out of this idea of trying to combine birdsong, electronic music and conservation. A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean was organized by activist, music producer, Robin Perkins. He invited artists from each of the endangered birds 'homelands to build their own songs around the birds’ songs. There are contributions from ten artists in eight different countries.
First single Black Catbird was created by The Garifuna Collective, from Belize. Al Obando, guitarist and producer of the group, always took in national parks and viewed birds when on the road with the band. “There are no trails, and there are no signs there to tell you about what you reseeing,” Obando says. “So we're trying to do something for the birds and nature tourism.”
Another musician who responded to Robin's call is Tamara Montenegro, an artist from Nicaragua. She was shocked to hear of the serious situation of the Guardabarranco after being approached: “This beautiful creature I grew up adoring also faced the influence of the systematic human activities”. In response, she created a song inspired by this bird and the challenges it faces to live naturally.
The new album is the second edition, following on from A Guide to the Birdsong of South America, produced by Robin in 2015. That first album has raised, to date, over $15,000 benefitting conservation projects in South America. As with the first album, all of the money from the sales of the new album will support specific organizations, including Birds Caribbean.
1. What does the underlined word “proceeds” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Profits. | B．Budgets. | C．Challenges. | D．Effects. |
| A．He created a hit single himself. |
| B．He was fond of observing birds. |
| C．He was the organizer of the new album. |
| D．He did a lot for birds in South America. |
| A．It was friendly to humans. |
| B．It was beautiful in appearance. |
| C．It was losing its living environment. |
| D．It was facing challenges from other birds. |
| A．To collect money for a project. |
| B．To popularize electronic music. |
| C．To recommend some famous artists. |
| D．To introduce a new album of electronic music. |
3 . Most of us get our earliest life lessons from fairy tales, like “True love can overcome anything”, and “Even a frog can turn into a prince”. However, at a certain age, we start to learn new things about life, particularly that love doesn't always win, and that a frog is just a frog. But somehow, our love for fairy tales never dies. Just look at animated films like The Lion King and Frozen, which have millions of fans, young and old.
“Fairy tales stay here because they are the stories of our lives in the simplest form,” wrote US author Laura Packer on the National Storytelling Network website. “They are stories of love and loss, desire and death, riches and ruin.” Fairy tales are all about reality. But if children only see just one side of reality, adults usually see the other.
For example, in the 2014 film Maleficent, we’re told the tale of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective (视角) of the evil queen. Unlike the children's version of the story, we see that the queen wasn’t born evil. Instead, she suffers great losses growing up, leading to the creation of her “evil” side.
It looks as if fairy tales aren’t just stories our parents read us at bedtime. They may usually start with “Once upon a time…”, but as we grow older, we learn that every story doesn’t always need a “Happily ever after” to be a good one.
1. Why do young children like fairy tales?| A．Because it is their parents that tell them. | B．Because tales involve love and wonder. |
| C．Because children are affected by them. | D．Because tales will become life lessons. |
| A．Fairy tales just tell us the wonderful side of the reality. |
| B．The tales about love and loss can attract more children. |
| C．Fairy tales exist forever because of their simplest style. |
| D．Different from kids, adults read tales from other angles. |
| A．To remind that parents should tell the fairy tales from the perspective of children. |
| B．To support the idea that adults are likely to associate the fairy tales with the reality. |
| C．To tell us the danger of the fairy tales if they are told from the perspective of adults. |
| D．To correct the impression that the queen is evil. |
| A．Objective | B．Critical | C．Disagreeable | D．Indifferent |
4 . I rescued my little Foxy several years ago. I wasn't looking for her, but she just crawled （爬）up onto my lap and went to sleep, so I took her home. She spent the night with her head on my pillow, and I knew she belonged to me.
I was her person. She didn’t really like other dogs or people.. .until I met my wife-to-be. The day Angelika came over to visit for the first time was the last time Foxy was truly my dog. She abandoned me for the love of a tender （温柔的）woman, and who can blame her? I would have done the same. Then Angelika and I got married, and we became a happy family.
The three of us always walk together through our village from the hills to the lake. We get exercise and have fun because Foxy enjoys her walks and strolls （漫步）through the neighborhood like a 10-pound prize pony （小马）.
How sweet and lovely, you say, but there is dark side to the little furball! Foxy is now a one-woman dog - she has totally bonded with my wife and won’t go for a walk at all if Angelika is out. She just lies in her bed by the window waiting for her angel to come walk through the door, and I have to tell you, I feel a little rejected. But it is pretty cute.
I understand animal bonding. My therapy dog, Mercy, was with me for over a decade, and we were a total item. In fact, it wasn’t until Mercy died that I decided to remarry. That’s how much unconditional love she gave me.
Now my wife is getting to experience that kind of bond for the first time. Young or old, big or little, when your dog finds you, it’s an amazing experience, and the love you feel just makes your life sweeter.
When you adopt an animal, remember that it’s a lifetime commitment. And if your pet falls for your other half, just enjoy watching the love.
1. What can we know about Foxy?| A．Foxy was always friendly to strangers. |
| B．Foxy introduced Angelika to me by accident. |
| C．Foxy’s love for the author remains unchanged. |
| D．Foxy fell in love with Angelika at first sight. |
| A．Jealous. | B．Delighted. | C．Embarrassed. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．Plain. | B．Lively. | C．Ironic. | D．Serious. |
| A．Pets can keep us company and never leave us. |
| B．Pets can bring us more joy than sorrow in our life. |
| C．Pets are our lifelong partners and deserve our care. |
| D．Pets are so cute that they are in great demand nowadays. |
5 . Jack Andraka was 15 when he came up with an idea for a new way to test for pancreatic (胰腺) cancer. When Andraka was 14, a family friend died of the disease, and this affected him deeply. This kind of cancer is particularly serious because there is no test you can have done to find it in the early stages. By the time standard tests determine you have the disease, it is often too late. Realizing that this was the case, Andraka decided to try to develop a test that might catch problems at the earliest stages.
The road ahead looked difficult for Andraka. He was still a high school student, and he wanted to create something that no one else had done. But Andraka read endlessly about the disease, wrote a proposal for his idea, and sent it out to 200 cancer researchers. Only one professor, Dr.Anirban Maitra, responded positively. Dr.Maitra agreed to work with Andraka on his idea, giving him guidance and access to a laboratory.
The next big reward for Andraka’s perseverance was winning the grand prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. This great award is given to young innovators who have developed a world-changing idea. Developing the test is likely to take many years, but Andraka hopes the test will eventually improve people’s lives and maybe save them.
Jack Andraka is not alone as a young innovator. After all, there were 1,499 other contestants for the Intel award, and all of them had ground-breaking ideas. For Andraka, having a family that loves science and encourages creative thinking gave him an advantage. But the key for Andraka is that reading, research, and discovery are just plain fun, and the chance to improve the world around him in the process makes it even better.
1. Why did Andraka decide to develop a test for pancreatic cancer?| A．His friend’s encouragement. | B．An upsetting experience. |
| C．His extensive reading. | D．An important test. |
| A．Lack of positive replies from experts. | B．Heavy pressure from his schoolwork. |
| C．Little access to research equipment. | D．Great need of money to develop a test. |
| A．The competition with other contestants. | B．His determination to improve the world. |
| C．The support from his family. | D．His passion for discovery. |
| A．Practice makes perfect. | B．Hard work leads to success. |
| C．One good turn deserves another. | D．Failure is the mother of success. |
6 . 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. |
7 . After Scott Kelly spent a year in space, his genetic expression changed, according to a NASA study that compared the bodily changes between the astronaut and his identical twin, who stayed on Earth while Kelly was aboard the International Space Station. About 7 percent of Kelly’s gene activity has yet to “return to normal” — almost two years after his yearlong spaceflight mission came to an end. Kelly has since retired from NASA.
The Twins Study，as it’s been called，looked at what happened to Kelly — both physiologically and psychologically :— before，during and after his trip in space，and then compared that data to Kelly’s twin brother，Mark Kelly，also a retired NASA astronaut.
Unlike his brother who spent months at a time in space，Mark’s missions were on the shorter side. His last — and longest — mission，which took place in 2011，lasted 15 days.
“By measuring large numbers of the brother’s metabolites，cytokines (代谢物、细胞活素）and proteins，researchers learned that spaceflight is associated with oxygen deprivation (匮乏）stress， increased inflammation (炎症），and nutrient changes that affect gene expression，” NASA said.
Although most of the biological changes Kelly experienced in space disappeared in the hours and days (and in some cases? weeks) after his return to Earthy, NASA said some changes appear to have continued. While 93 percent of his genetic expression has returned to normal, several hundred “space genes” still have changed activity levels，the data suggests， which, NASA said, could indicate “longer-term changes” in genetic expression caused by the stresses of spaceflight.
NASA said the research could provide important knowledge of the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body, and that it will influence its planning for a mission to Mars, which would see astronauts spending some three years in space.
Reacting to the news of the study results, Kelly expressed amazement at his body’s changes， and also used the opportunity to make fun of his brother. “This could be good news,” he joked on Twitter. “I no longer have to call Mark my identical twin brother anymore.”
1. What can be learnt about Mark Kelly?| A．He’s still working for NASA. |
| B．He has only been to space once. |
| C．He hasn’t gone on a spaceflight mission yet. |
| D．He never stayed in space for a whole month. |
| A．They’re dangerous to astronauts. |
| B．Most of them won’t last very long. |
| C．They’re mainly caused by psychological stress. |
| D．Some can occur during short-term spaceflight. |
| A．It involved many twin participants. |
| B．It ended soon after Scott Kelly’s last spaceflight. |
| C．It only studied Scott Kelly’s physical changes. |
| D．It will be valuable to NASA’s Mars mission. |
| A．Mark Kelly will lose his twin brother soon. |
| B．Scott Kelly always looks on the bright side. |
| C．Scott Kelly doesn’t like his twin brother. |
| D．Scott Kelly seems to have a sense of humor. |
8 . After traveling more than seven months in space, Tianwen 1 is one step closer to Mars! Tianwen 1, China’s first Mars probe （探测器）, successfully entered Mars orbit in February, according to the China National Space Administration （CNSA）. It will stay in orbit for about three months before landing on the red planet.
A small step on the red planet will be a big step for human beings. Humans have launched 46 Mars exploration missions since October 1960, but only 19 of them have been successful, according to China Daily. It’s China’s first spacecraft to Mars, and the missions are rather ambitious. Tianwen 1 aims to achieve “orbiting, landing, and roving （环绕，着陆，巡视）” all in one journey, which will make the country the world’s first to accomplish all three goals with one probe, mission scientists said. Among the three tasks, touchdown on the red planet is the most difficult. The result mainly depends on the “breathtaking seven minutes,” which will deploy multiple cutting-edge technologies and accurate timing of each action, including the burning of engines and opening of parachutes （降落伞）to ensure a safe landing, according to the Global Times. The previous success of Chang’e 5 has accumulated experience in this regard which “boosts our confidence”, Wang Ya’nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times. Tianwen Vs ultimate goal is to land a rover on Mars in May or June, and it will conduct scientific investigations on Mars’ soil, geological （地质学的）structure, environment, atmosphere and water, according to China Daily.
February was Mars month. NASA’s Perseverance Rover landed on Mars on Feb 19, and China’s Tianwen 1 and United Arab Emirates’ （UAE） Hope have arrived within orbit of the red planet. Although they started their Mars journeys at almost the same time, their missions vary. “When we step into the far planets of the solar system, the magnitude （量级）of the resources and timeline required will take a global commitment,” US Congressman Frank Lucas said, highlighting the importance of international cooperation in space.
1. What can we learn about Tianwen 1?| A．It’s the world’s first probe to enter the orbit around Mars. |
| B．It will spend 10 months preparing for its landing. |
| C．It is expected to land on Mars in May or June. |
| D．It’s one of the 46 successful Mars exploration missions. |
| A．Landing a rover on the red planet. | B．Staying in orbit around Mars for months. |
| C．Bringing back samples from Mars. | D．Orbiting, landing and roving with one probe. |
| A．Lack of advanced technologies. | B．Achieving a safe landing. |
| C．Completing tasks quickly. | D．Insufficient landing experience. |
| A．There are risks in exploring other planets. |
| B．Space exploration calls for global cooperation. |
| C．Tianwen 1 will reach other planets besides Mars. |
| D．Exploring space takes considerable time and resources. |
9 . 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 |
10 . The world is literally a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and data from NASA satellites has revealed a source for much of this new greening phenomenon: China and India. This new insight was made possible by a nearly 20yearlong data record from a NASA instrument orbiting the Earth on two satellites.
Taken all together, the greening of the planet over the last two decades represents an increase in leaf area on plants and trees equal to the area covered by all the Amazon rainforests. There are now more than two million square miles of extra green leaf area per year, compared to the early 2000s—a 5% increase.
“China and India account for onethird of the greening, but contain only 9% of the planet's land area covered in vegetation—a surprising finding, considering the common phenomenon of land degradation in populous countries from overuse, ” said Chi Chen, lead author of the study.
“This longterm data lets us dig deeper, ” said Rama Nemani, a coauthor of the new work. “When the greening of the Earth was first observed, we thought it was due to a warmer, wetter climate and fertilisation from the added carbon dioxide(CO2) in the atmosphere, leading to more leaf growth in northern forests. Now, with the data that lets us understand the phenomenon at really small scales, we see that humans are also contributing.”
China's outsized contribution to the global greening trend comes in large part(42%) from programmes to conserve and expand forests. These were developed in an effort to reduce the effects of soil erosion, air pollution and climate change. Another 32% there—82% of the greening seen in India—comes from intensive growing of food crops. How the greening trend may change in the future depends on numerous factors, both on a global scale and the local human level. For example, increased food production in India is promoted by groundwater irrigation. If the groundwater is running out, this trend may change.
The researchers point out that the gain in greenness seen around the world and led by India and China does not offset the damage from loss of natural vegetation in tropical regions, such as Brazil and Indonesia. The consequences for sustainability and biodiversity in those ecosystems remain.
Nemani is pretty excited about the findings, and not just because the greener, the better. “Once people realise there's a problem, they tend to fix it, ” he said. “In the 70s and 80s in India and China, the situation around vegetation loss wasn't good; in the 90s, people realised it; and today things have improved. Humans are incredibly adaptable.”
1. The Earth is getting greener mainly because of ________.| A．the expanding of leaf area in tropical countries |
| B．the determined efforts to preserve Amazon rainforests |
| C．the treeplanting programmes and intensive agriculture |
| D．a favourable climate and increased CO2 in the atmosphere |
| A．The greening trend in India will continue to go upwards. |
| B．More “greening” means better control of climate change. |
| C．Land overuse threatens the success in the greening on the Earth. |
| D．The sustainability in global ecosystems will be greatly improved. |
| A．Prevent. | B．Survive. | C．Interrupt. | D．Balance. |
| A．They are a positive indicator of overall human nature. |
| B．Their accuracy and reliability need to be further proved. |
| C．They undervalue humans' contribution to the environment. |
| D．Their significance for future research cannot be overemphasised. |
