1 . How can you apply to be a firefighter at Clayton County Fire & Emergency Services? First, you need to know more about your work choice and what it takes to get there. Each and every emergency places physical demands on our firefighters, from medical emergencies to apartment fires and everything in between. Do not wait to get in shape; start right now. Our physical agility (敏捷性) test is designed to simulate (模拟) not only actions you would take at a fire but also the tiredness you will go through. Our “Firefighters Combat Challenge” course serves as the physical agility test that applicants are expected to complete and our firefighters complete it every year.
Selection Process and Requirements:
◇ Applicants must be at least 18 years old
◇ Must have got a High School Diploma
◇ Have a Driver's License
◇ Written Exam
◇ Physical Agility Test / Firefighter's Combat Challenge Course
Once these steps are completed, all application information will be turned over to the Fire Chietand you'll be notified whether you are chosen for an interview.
To see if we are hiring, click https: / selsenice. claytoncountyga. gov / MSS. aspz and Lock under “Fire & Emergency Science”. (This page is renewed weekly, so check back regularly.) If we are not hiring at present, click to be placed on a notification list. You will be contacted by mail when the application process opens. To learn about our courses and how to sign up, visit the “Train Here” pages under the Join / Train menu at the top.
1. What do we know about the physical agility test?| A．Those who fail it can still apply for the job. | B．It better prepares firefighters for the job. |
| C．It works in the form of a written exam. | D．Applicants under 18 needn't take it |
| A．Trained. | B．Accepted. | C．Told. | D．Examined |
| A．To stress firefighters’ physical agility. | B．To show the requirements for firefighters. |
| C．To explain the process of job application. | D．To tell how to join the Services as a firefighter. |
| A．A textbook. | B．A magazine. | C．A note. | D．A website. |
2 . China’s lunar mission (任务) that took off from Earth in December has successfully returned from the moon with rock and soil samples, marking the country's first-ever extraterrestrial (地球外的) launch.
The Chang’e 5 ascender (上升器) must reach lunar orbit and stay with an awaiting spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter and return capsule, before transferring the soil container to the return capsule. The spacecraft will then fly toward Earth before releasing the return capsule once it reaches Earth's atmosphere.
According to the National Space Administration, extraterrestrial takeoff is difficult to pull off for several reasons, including the lack of launch infrastructure (基础设施) available on Earth and different, less familiar environmental conditions.
In addition, without benefiting from a satellite navigation system, the ascender must rely on its onboard sensors, with only limited assistance from ground control.
As New York Times reported, “In this century, so far only China has successfully put robotic spacecraft on the surface of the moon: Chang’e 3 in December 2013, and Chang’e 4, which in January 2019 became the first spacecraft to land on the far side of the moon. Chang’e 4’s rover, called Yutu 2, is still operating, studying lunar geology nearly two years later. Although China explored space much later than the United States and the former Soviet Union, the country has made huge progress over the past decade, and is now among the top ranks of space-faring nations.”
Actually, apart from the lunar missions, China’s astronauts have stayed in orbit with space stations of the country’s own construction three times. In July, the Tianwen 1 mission set course for Mars, and will try to land on the red planet’s surface next year.
1. What does the underlined phrase “pull off” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?| A．Carry on. | B．Put off. |
| C．Succeed. | D．Imagine. |
| A．China has made great advances in moon exploration. |
| B．China’s moon exploration is much later than the US’s. |
| C．China’s moon exploration is developed to compete with the US’s. |
| D．China has successfully sent several robotic spacecrafts on the moon. |
| A．Chang’e 5 will land on Mars next year. |
| B．China’s astronauts will stay in space station. |
| C．Tianwen 1 mission will also land on the moon’s surface. |
| D．China will make future attempts to explore another planet. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A textbook. |
| C．A science journal. | D．A science paper. |
3 . With its wonderful coastline and many historic sites, Croatia is the ideal destination for the family wishing to combine beach with a bit of culture.
BEST TIME TO GO
High season for Croatia is from July to August but the Croatian coast is wonderful from spring on. Swimming is generally possible from May to September when the sea is still around 23°C. But if you arrive in April, you may enjoy Carnival in Rijeka.
COST
Croatia is still reasonably inexpensive as a Mediterranean destination, but prices go up in July and August. Privately-run rooms are also often a better bet than hotels, which tend to be unfriendly. If you haven’t made a reservation, the local tourist offices or travel agencies will be able to help. There is usually a 30% discount for stays longer than three nights. The agencies offer a very reasonable deal on a flight plus car hire.
GETTING AROUND
Croatia is a small country; it only takes a few hours at most to travel from one region to another. It might be worth staying in one place for the whole holiday and doing day trips. The buses, rather than the trains, reach the places of great distance.
1. When is Croatia most visited?| A．In May. | B．In September. | C．In July. | D．In April. |
| A．They tend to be unfriendly. |
| B．They offer a 30% discount. |
| C．They charge a little more in winter. |
| D．They arrange flight plus car hire at good price. |
| A．A book review. | B．A science report. |
| C．A travel magazine. | D．A diary. |
4 . Let's take a look at some of the world's unspoilt places that are beautiful because they have been left untouched, and remember the importance of keeping them pristine.
Nunavut, Canada
Auyuittuq National Park, which means “the land that never melts”, is just one of the shocking wonders in Nunavut, There are many icefalls, mountains, and deep valleys while hikers cross the 60m Akshayuk Pass in the summer. And that's just one attraction. From narrow seas to mountains, there are three areas in Nunavut, all with beautiful natural land feature. Visitors can hunt, fish, mountain hike, and walk across ice flows.
Namib Desert, Namibia
A coastal desert in the southern area of Africa, it is known for its burnt orange-golden sands. The Namib has been dry for at least 55 million years and possibly as many as 80 million. The name means “vast space”, and it spreads more than 1200 miles. The hill of sands can reach up to 980 feet high and 20 miles long. Amazingly, the temperatures striking against cold currents create a fog belt that often covers the desert.
Antarctica
Perhaps the last unspoilt place, Antaretica is an empty landscape. No trees grow here, and one must travel with a tourism company in order to visit. Admire icebergs, sea lions, whales, and listen to the sound of absolutely nothing.
Fiordland, New Zealand
One of the most shocking areas of New Zealand, Fiordland can be seen on foot, by air, or by water. The Milford Track is one of the most famous walks, with the tallest waterfall in the country and impressive valley views. Lake Monowai is a glassy, mirrorlike body of water surrounded by mountains and best explored by boating on a still day.
1. Hunting and fishing are available for visitors in_________.| A．Nunavut | B．Namib Desert | C．Antarctica | D．Fiordland |
| A．Ice flows. | B．Burnt sands. | C．High hills. | D．Valley views. |
| A．Unknown. | B．Unreachable. | C．Unmelted. | D．Undamaged. |
| A．Travel. | B．Space. | C．Opinion. | D．Sports. |
5 . In recent days, Americans have lost two civil rights leaders of the twentieth century, Dorothy Height and Benjamin Hooks.
Dorothy Height died this Tuesday at the age of ninety-eight. She witnessed more civil rights history than any other African-American leader of her time. She said the greatest change she witnessed was the ending of racial segregation(隔离) laws in the United States.
She was the longtime chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women. She was an activist, humanitarian and advisor to presidents including Barack Obama. He remembered her as “The godmother of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Dorothy Height grew up in Pennsylvania. She won a four-year college scholarship, the top prize nationally in a public speaking contest on the Constitution.
She arrived at school in New York City-only to learn that an unwritten limit of “two Negro students per year”had already been met. Dorothy Height: “I was accepted at Barnard College and I was denied admission when I arrived because they had a quota(指标) of two. And they did not know that I was not white. And so when I got there I was turned away.”
Dorothy Height went on to earn bachelor and master's degrees in four years at New York University. She worked with Marin Luther King Junior in the push for civil rights for blacks in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Yet she had to push to make herself heard as a woman among mostly male civil rights leaders. She was the only woman standing nearby as Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington
Dorothy Height received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal for her work for racial and gender equality.
1. Which of the following best shows Dorothy’s suffering?| A．Dying of old age. | B．Being a consultant to Obama. |
| C．Being rejected by Barnard College. | D．Joining King Junior in fighting for blacks. |
| A．Dorothy Height was eager to be a civil rights leader. |
| B．It was difficult for then women to voice their opinions. |
| C．Dorothy made a difference in King Junior’s life. |
| D．Dorothy was the best woman of her time. |
| A．News report. | B．Biography. |
| C．Fiction. | D．Scientific journal. |
6 . 
At this special rate, you’ll save more than 73% off the cover price with our Continuous Renewal Guarantee! You’ll also get FREE access for 6 months to the Reader’s Digest Digital Edition for iPad or Kindle Fire, with your paid subscription (n.订阅).
Subscribe (v.订阅) to Reader’s Digest today and Read up!
Continuous Renewal:
Your subscription will be automatically (自动地) renewed at great savings off the cover price, unless you tell us to stop. You allow us to charge your credit card for your renewal subscription before your present subscription expires (到期) at the low renewal rate then in effect. If your credit card can’t be charged for any reason we will bill you directly instead. This service will continue each year until you tell us to stop. Cancel at any time at www.rd.com/customer-care and get the money back on all unmailed issues.
Offer is good in U.S. only.
One-year cover price is $47.78. Each 1-year subscription includes 12 issues. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of your first issue. Free access to the iPad edition is available one time only for 6 months with paid subscription; the following print subscriptions will not qualify subscriber for free access to the iPad editions.
For customer service, please click here.
1. According to the picture and the passage, you will save around _____ against the cover price with Continuous Renewal Guarantee in two years .
| A．$46 | B．$73 | C．$23 | D．$71 |
| A．If you stop the continuous renewal, you can’t take the money back. |
| B．If you continue to subscribe it, the service will end in one year. |
| C．If you want to stop the service, you can visit the website to cancel it. |
| D．If your credit card can’t be charged, delivery of issues will directly be stopped. |
| A．only readers in America can get the discount |
| B．1-year subscription covers 12 issues and free delivery |
| C．the subscribers will be guaranteed to get free information |
| D．if you pay money, you can access the digital edition without limit |
| A．To sell copies of Reader’s Digest. |
| B．To offer customer service to readers. |
| C．To introduce Reader’s Digest. |
| D．To recommend continuous renewal subscription. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A website. |
| C．A magazine. | D．A travel guide. |
7 . China Science Daily announced Thursday that it has used software to automatically generate news stories about the latest discoveries from the world’s leading science journals. The robot science reporter, called “Xiaoke”, was co-created by the newspaper and researchers from Peking University in about half a year.
It is the latest case of Chinese news organizations using computer technology to create content. According to its inventors, Xiaoke has generated over 200 stories based on the English abstract of papers published in journals such as Science, Nature, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Before publication, the automatically generated articles will go through a review process. A group of scientists and the newspaper’s editors will check the content or give supplementary (补充的) information.
Zhang Mingwei, head of the program and vice editor-in-chief of the newspaper, said inventors would make Xiaoke a “cross-linguistic (跨语言的) academic secretary” to help Chinese scientists overcome language barriers and have easy and quick access to the latest scientific advances in English-language publication. Lead researcher Wan Xiaojun, of Peking University in charge of the system’s design and technology, stressed that the content generation tool could do far more than translation. According to Wan, Xiaoke is good at selecting complex words and sentences, which can help turn articles full of confusing technical terms into easy and readable news reports.
The readers of the robot reporter is not limited to professionals but also includes the general public. Science reporting is important in spreading information about discoveries and in popularizing knowledge to people.
1. What can we learn about “Xiaoke”?| A．It is a professional translator. |
| B．It has the most advanced AI. |
| C．It can make up fiction stories. |
| D．It generates science news reports. |
| A．Upgrade the artificial intelligence. |
| B．Select complex words and sentences. |
| C．Check the content and add information. |
| D．Help it get the latest scientific advances. |
| A．Science. |
| B．Education. |
| C．Entertainment. |
| D．Health. |
| A．The robot writer of science news. |
| B．The readers of the science reports. |
| C．The editor-in-chief of the newspaper. |
| D．The latest case of news organizations. |
8 . Thanks to this new hands- free suitcase, carrying around heavy luggage may soon become a thing of the past. Designed by Israeli company NUA Robotics, this “smart” suitcase can follow you everywhere you go.
The carryon suitcase, now a prototype(雏形), connects to a smartphone app via bluetooth. It has a builtin camera sensor that can “see” you and follow you around on flat floors. It comes with an antitheft alarm to prevent someone carrying it away when you’re not looking.“It can follow and carry things for people around while communicating with their smartphone, and avoiding bumping into other objects,” explained Alex Libman, founder of NUA Robotics.“We’re combining sensor network, computer vision, and robotics. So if you download our app(应用), press the ‘follow me’ button, the luggage recognizes its user and knows to follow and communicate.”
NUA is still testing the products and trying to improve features like speed and customization(客户订制), but they hope to make the suitcase available to customers in a year’s time. If it proves successful, they want to use the bluetooth pairing technology to automate(自动化操作）lots of other products, like shopping carts at the supermarket. These products are especially meant to be useful to the physically disabled and elderly.“Any object can be smart and robotic，” Libman told Mashable.“We want to bring robots into everyday life.”
The Israeli tech company made it clear that the finished product will look just like a common suitcase. They’re planning to partner with a carryon luggage maker, since the product that makes it “smart” weighs just 2.5 pounds and can be fitted on oldfashion luggage.
With NUA’s smart suitcase, carrying around heavy luggage isn’t a burden. But how their invention will handle tough blocks like stairs? It will be interesting to wait.
1. According to the passage, the “smart” suitcase ________．| A．can go everywhere |
| B．is on sale now |
| C．was designed by Alex Libman |
| D．can make our hands free during traveling |
| A．look at it all the time |
| B．avoid obstacles |
| C．download the app |
| D．carry a camera |
| A．It was founded by Mashable. |
| B．It has improved the features of the device. |
| C．It will make the suitcase available to customers in a month. |
| D．It wants to bring more smart and robotic devices into everyday life. |
| A．A poster. | B．A website. |
| C．A textbook. | D．A biography. |
9 . American and Canadian ocean scientists are taking an unexpected opportunity presented by the coronavirus pandemic（冠状病毒大流行）. They are trying to discover whether Pacific Northwest whales benefit from the drop in boat traffic and underwater noise.
Stay-home laws have greatly reduced entertaining boat trips and ferry crossings this spring. Commercial（商业的）whale watching tours remain on hold. Large ships carrying goods continue to come and go less often. Noise and boat disturbance are considered main reasons for the decrease of the Northwest’s endangered killer whales besides reducing food supply and pollution.
“From a killer whale’s point of view, not having fast moving boats around might be quite beneficial,” said oceanographer Scott Veirs of Seattle, who is in charge of an underwater microphone network called Oreasound.
However, the decrease in sea traffic by the coronavirus pandemic may be short-lived, meaning archers have to act fast to document if the quieter seas make happier, healthier whales.
“We are all trying to remain ready,” Veirs said. “If the pandemic continues to affect boat traffic for the next couple of months, we’ll have a very rare activity when noise levels are reduced. I hope that happens, opportunity to observe killer whale activity when noise levels are reduced. I hope that happens.”
The population of killer whales in the waters of the U. S. Pacific Northwest and southwestern British Columbia has reduced to around 73. They use sound to hunt. locate and communicate, and noise from boat engines can affect the sound waves they make for echolocation（回声定位）. Other larger whales that live in Northwest waters communicate over longer distances in a frequency band（波段）that is almost the same with the low frequency noise made by large container ships.
Viers believes if we continue to not have any commercial whale watching and limit our entertaining boating, the killer whales would certainly experience less of noise disturbance with the boats.
1. What do killer whales benefit from the coronavirus pandemic?| A．Stricter laws on ocean pollution. |
| B．More whale watching tourists. |
| C．Reduced noise and boat disturbance. |
| D．Increased food supply. |
| A．The ocean traffic may increase before long. |
| B．The echolocation function of whales is damaged. |
| C．The frequency band whales use is similar to boats. |
| D．The population of killer whales drops too quickly. |
| A．The population of killer whales. |
| B．The frequency band killer whales use. |
| C．How killer whales use sound waves. |
| D．Why noise from boats affects the life of whales. |
| A．A brochure. | B．A news report. | C．A science fiction. | D．A travel diary. |
10 . China has taken new measures to boost new-energy vehicle (NEV) and home appliance consumption. On June 6, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecological Environment and the Ministry of Commerce jointly released a guideline. It aims to upgrade the country’s consumption and form a strong domestic market in 2020.
According to the guideline, the cost of NEV production will be largely lowered and the research of a new generation of NEV batteries will be accelerated. Local governments are strictly banned from imposing any limit on the consumption and use of NEVs. Places where the limits exist should call them off. The guideline also encourages local governments to subsidize (补贴) the purchase of first NEVs of car-free families and reduce parking fees for NEVs. In this way, the move would help meet the demand for millions of vehicles in cities across the country, analysts say.
Amid the flat market in China’s auto industry, “methods to boost consumption in the auto market are still being rolled out in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai,” said Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association.
Some netizens held that the measures could be difficult to carry out in metropolises due to traffic pressure. Cui responded that “the traffic problems could be eased by upgrading the traffic management systems.” Cities like Beijing and Shanghai should address traffic problems in different areas based on their different levels of congestion (堵塞) through corresponding driving restrictions. The restrictions on NEVs could also be eased in some far-reaching areas in the cities, he explained.
China saw strong and healthy sales growth of NEVs in the first four months this year with 360, 000 NEVs sold, jumping by 59.8 percent from the same period a year earlier. The market could see a new round of increases under the efforts, according to industry experts.
1. Where can we most probably read the passage?| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a car magazine. |
| C．In a guideline book. | D．In an advertisement. |
| A．To increase home consumption. |
| B．To boost overseas consumption. |
| C．To occupy a powerful overseas market. |
| D．To build up a powerful market home and abroad. |
| A．No parking fees are allowed for NEVs. |
| B．The research of new NEV batteries will be sped up. |
| C．Families can be subsidized when buying their first NEVs. |
| D．Local governments have no right to monitor the use of NEVs. |
| A．Useless. | B．Successful. | C．Practical. | D．Creative. |
