2 . Despite the lack of new releases due to the outbreak of COVID-19, there was no shortage of good films in 2020. We've rounded out the top 4 films. Check them out!

Soul

In the first Pixar cartoon to have an African-American lead character. Jamie Foxx provides the voice of a music teacher who dreams of making it as a jazz pianist. But just after a successful interview, he falls down a manhole and finds himself in a soul world where human spirits are assigned their personalities. And things get even stranger from there.

Nomadland

When Fern loses her husband and can't afford to live in a house, she packs her few belongings into a camper and drives off into the Nevada desert. She encounters a large community of senior citizens who have also been forced to live on the road, supporting themselves with short-term- jobs along the way. What makes Nomadland unique is that while Fern is played by an Oscar-winning actress, nearly all she meets are real people who relate their own experiences. Written and directed by Chloe Zhao, the film is a combination of documentary and fiction.

The Croods: A New Age

The prehistoric family from 2013's hugely enjoyable cartoon, The Croods, directed by Joel Crawford, makes a welcome return, so we can expect more crazy adventures and unusual animals. In the much-delayed- sequel, they meet another family, the Bettermans, whose advanced lifestyle and technology make the Croods look even more primitive than they did already. There's conflict but they learn to appreciate each other's differences.

Wolfwalkers

The year's finest cartoon film comes from Cartoon Saloon, an Irish studio specialising in stylised hand-drawn 2D art. Its latest production is set in the mid-17th Century, when English soldiers are trying to occupy the wild woods. One hunter's daughter meets with a girl wolfwalker and they make joint efforts to rescue the forest. It's a heartwarming story of friendship and an inspiring adventure about two girls finding themselves Wolfwalkers stands proud as new classic.

1. What is the film Soul about?

A．pianist's dream coming true.	B．A musician's romantic journeys.
C．A music teacher's unusual experiences.	D．An African-American actor's success story.

2. Which movie will you go to if you are interested in the wandering life?

A．Soul.

B．Nomnadland.

C．The Croods: A New Age.

D．Wolfwalkers.

3. In which column of the website could we read this text?

A．Science.

B．History.

C．Entertainment.

D．Medicine.

3 . In the 1960s and 1970s, the greatest fear was that the human race, and possibly all advanced life forms on the planet, could be wiped out by nuclear missiles. Today, however, environmental problems have taken over as the greatest risk to life on Earth. Scientists are thinking of ways to lower this risk, such as replacing coal and oil with forms of renewable energy. But they are also preparing for the worst: what can we do if the terrifying scenes in films such as The Day After Tomorrow happen in real life? What is our plan B for Earth?

One option is to explore other planets to see if we could live on them. The most likely choice is Mars, which is relatively close to Earth and has an environment less hostile than that of other planets. Mars has fascinated people since ancient times, and today our interest in Martian exploration is greater than ever before. Besides, more governments are making efforts to educate the public on the Red Planet.

There is no doubt that humankind is drawn towards Mars. However, sending people there will require all the skill, courage and intelligence. While the Moon can be reached within days, it would take months to reach Mars, travelling through dangerous solar radiation. And even if the first settlers do reach Mars safely, they may not be able to return to Earth — ever. Staying alive will be a daily challenge, but as proved by the Biosphere 2 experiment, not impossible. As early as the 1980s, scientists were building Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert, consisting of a closed space in which people, animals and plants could live together. Although the two-year experiment was not a success, it did provide us with a better understanding of how humans might be able to live on another planet.       

For now, human settlement of Mars is still decades away. Until we are finally able to live on another planet, we need to take much better care of our own. Right now, it's the only one we have!

1. What was the biggest threat to humans in the 1960s and 1970s?

A．Human race themselves.	B．All advanced life forms.
C．Nuclear missiles.	D．Environmental problems.

2. Why is Mars so attractive to scientists?

A．It's closest to the earth.

B．It has relatively appropriate living conditions.

C．It has drawn the public's attention in recent years.

D．It has a more hostile environment.

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Humans have visited Mars.

B．The Biosphere 2 experiment proved to be valueless.

C．Humans will have to go and live on another planet.

D．Our Plan A includes developing renewable energy resources.

4. From which magazine would the passage probably be taken?

A．The Traveler.	B．Environmental Concerns.
C．All About Space.	D．Biology for Fun,

4 . Next-generation fitness equipment and robots help you cook dinner. Those are a few of the countless new products expected to be shown next week at CES, the annual tech conference that typically sets the tone for the biggest trends of the year. Home automation, health and 5G will once again be hot topics, but many companies will also introduce pandemic-specific features to reflect our increased time at home.

Each year, reporters, exhibitors and investors typically explore Las Vegas showrooms filled with giant TVs, smart cars and robots, but CES will be online only for the first time in its 54-year history due to Covid-19.

The Consumer Technology Association, the nonprofit behind the four-day event starting Monday, said 1,800 exhibitors from around the world will fill its "digital venue" this year—a number that's down significantly from 4,000 in-person exhibitors last year. The move will allow tech companies from countries which have never attended before to take part in the online exhibition, but could also make it harder for smaller companies to get noticed without a physical showroom.

Registered attendees will be able to stream and re-watch keynotes from companies such as Verizon (VZ) and General Motors (GM), tune in to breakout sessions — about how, for example, technology is playing a role in vaccine deployment—and search through a registry of exhibitors to watch new product presentations.

It'll lack some of the signature ingredients of the trade show, such as hands-on time with the latest small machines and networking. But the technology that makes our lives more connected and convenient will still gain popularity.

1. What are the new products mainly connected with?

A．People’s daily life.	B．Everyday busy work.
C．The popularity of 5G.	D．Countless housework.

2. What do we know about the tech conference?

A．It takes place every two years.	B．It attracts fewer exhibitors this year.
C．It is held mainly on the Internet.	D．It prohibits small companies to attend.

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards the move?

A．Supportive.

B．Disappointed.

C．Doubtful.

D．Casual.

4. Where are the text possibly from?

A．A brochure.

B．A textbook.

C．A newspaper.

D．A guidebook.

5 . Roboticists at the University of California San Diego have developed an affordable, easy to use system to track the location of flexible surgical robots inside the human body. The system performs as well as current state of the art methods, but the whole system, including the robot, magnets and magnet localization setup, costs around $100. Many current methods also require exposure to radiation, while this system does not.

The system was developed by Tania Morimoto, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, and mechanical engineering Ph. D. student Connor Watson.

“Continuum medical robots work really well in highly constrained (受限的) environments inside the body,” Morimoto said. “But it becomes a lot harder to track their location and their shape inside the body.” The researchers used existing magnet localization methods, which work very much like GPS, to develop a computer model that predicts the robot’s location.

GPS satellites ping (发送) smartphones and based on how long it takes for the signal to arrive, the GPS receiver in the smartphone can determine where the cell phone is. Similarly, researchers know how strong the magnetic field should be around the magnet placed in the robot. They rely on four sensors that are carefully spaced around the area where the robot operates to measure the magnetic field strength. Based on how strong the field is, they are able to determine where the tip of the robot is.

Morimoto and Watson went a step further. They then trained a neural network to learn the difference between what the sensors were reading and what the model said the sensors should be reading. As a result, they improved localization accuracy to track the tip of the robot. “Ideally we are hoping that our localization tools can help improve these kinds of growing robot technologies. We do want to push this research forward so that we can test our system in a clinical setting and eventually translate it into clinical use,” Morimoto said.

1. What be learnt about the system according to the text?

A．It’s complex.	B．It’s low-cost.
C．It’s delicate.	D．It’s radioactive.

2. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．The system’s working principle.

B．The function of GPS satellites.

C．The reason for inventing the system,

D．The necessity of inventing the system.

3. What do Morimoto and Watson expect of the system?

A．It’ll be environmentally-friendly.	B．It’ll be sold on the Internet soon,
C．I’ll be easy for us to operate.	D．It’ll be tested with real patients.

4. Where is this text most likely from?

A．A diary.	B．A guidebook.
C．A magazine.	D．A novel.

6 . It is called a mobility（移动性）system or wheelchair — and it can be seen at Tokyo Airport moving on its own.

The mobility system seats one person and is able to find its way on its own without hitting anything. It has a pre-programmed path of about 600 meters at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. The ride lasts several minutes. It travels from the security area to the boarding gate at a speed of 3.5 kilometers per hour. But many people hope this type of technology can help in other places, such as hospitals or parks. The technology uses sensors and cameras to see a clear path and avoid hitting those walking toward it. The person on the machine can start or stop it through a simple controller. It runs on batteries and is programmed to return to where it started from when its passenger gets off. It was demonstrated on Monday by WHILL, the company behind the technology.

WHILL Chief Executive Satoshi Sugie said robotics and self-driving technology reduce the need for a human at the wheel. They are especially useful in these difficult times when we are living with the   coronavirus（冠状病毒）. “We are… developing our business in order to help restore a world where people can enjoy moving around with peace of mind,” Sugie said.

The system is helping with social distancing while fighting the spread of the coronavirus. It also helps older passengers and those who need help walking the last few steps to the boarding gate. What’s more, it could help Japan free up labor. Japan, like many other nations, suffers from a labor shortage. The technology could free a worker to do another job.

Tests have been carried out at several airports since last year, including John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The company hopes to put it in airports around the world.

1. What is special about the mobility system?

A．It produces no pollution.	B．It works by solar energy.
C．It needs no help at the airport.	D．It adjusts the speed to the path.

2. What does Satoshi Sugie think of the wheelchair?

A．It is useless to some people.	B．It is well worth using widely.
C．It needs to be further tested.	D．It may not work well in other places.

3. What is paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．Various difficulties of boarding.

B．New treatment for the coronavirus.

C．The reasons for a labor shortage.

D．The advantages of the mobility system.

4. In which section of a magazine may this text appear?

A．Science and technology..	B．Business and culture.
C．Sports and music	D．Geography and history.

7 . Next time you go on holiday, it's going to feel pretty different. You may have to wear a face mask. And that means getting your point across in an unfamiliar language—all while keeping your mouth covered—could become a bit of a problem.

That's where the C-mask, by Japanese company Donut Robotics, comes in. It's a smart, Internet-connected mouth covering that can make calls, raise the wearer’s voice, and most helpfully for travelers, translate conversations into eight different languages.

If need be, you simply place it over a standard face mask and connect it via Bluetooth to a smartphone. A special app will then allow you to record live conversations, turn them into text and translate them into English, Chinese, French, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Spanish or Vietnamese (currently only from Japanese)—making it easy to understand what people are saying. It won't actually speak the translated phrases for you, but it does have a built-in amplifier（扩音器）to help you make yourself heard.

“We worked hard for years to develop a robot and we have used what we've researched to create a product that responds to how COVID-19 has reshaped society,'' Donut's CEO recently told reporters. The firm has already raised more than 28 million yen via crowdfunding to develop the product, which will go on sale for 3 ,980 yen in Japan.

There are all manner of fashionable, eco-friendly masks you can now get your hands on— check out these in London, Singapore and Barcelona. But in creating an affordable, high-tech mask, Donut could well be on to something.

1. The C-mask is developed to _______.

A．seek fashion.	B．reshape society.
C．replace cellphones.	D．promote communication.

2. What’s the main idea of Paragraph 3?

A．How the C-mask speaks.

B．How the C-mask works.

C．What advantages the C-mask brings.

D．What languages the C-mask translates.

3. What does the underlined phrase "be on to something" in the last paragraph mean?

A．take a look.	B．earn a living.
C．make a difference.	D．issue a warning.

4. In which column of a website do we probably read this text?

A．Health.

B．Tourism.

C．Fashion.

D．Technology.

8 . Most people feel that dreams are unique to humans, but many dog owners will likely disagree. They have noticed that their dogs at various times during the sleep may shake legs, snort (哼) and sometimes growl (低声吼叫) which gives the impression that they are dreaming. These things may wonder us about whether dogs dream.

Scientists confirm that dogs probably do dream. It turns out that dog brains and human brains have many similarities during sleep cycles. Researchers used special machines to measure electrical activity in a dog’s brain and a human’s brain. Scientists already knew that when humans dream, a certain part of the brain is active during sleep. Researchers discovered that the same part of the brain is active in sleeping dogs. Scientists have other data that back up these findings.

Many people dream that they are trying to move but cannot. Interestingly, part of that experience is not a dream. When people sleep, the brain produces a chemical that causes the dreamer to become temporarily paralyzed (使麻痹). Researchers think this happens so that people cannot physically act out dreams while they are sleeping. Dog brains make the same chemical. In one study during which this chemical was blocked, sleeping test dogs performed physical activities, such as standing up, sniffing around the room for imaginary rabbits, or chasing imaginary balls.

Because of these similarities, researchers believe that the content of a dog’s dream might come from the same source as a human’s dream. “People’s dreams are usually based on things they did that day,” says Dr. Samantha Hudspith. “So we have reasons to believe that dogs dream about the things they’ve done that day. Of course, there will never be a way to prove this. Dogs cannot describe their dreams the way that humans can.”

1. Which statement is TRUE?

A．Only humans dream.

B．The dogs’ shaking legs during the sleep means that they must be dreaming.

C．The contents of dogs’ dream is the same as those of humans.

D．Whether dogs dream of the things they’ve done that day can not be confirmed.

2. What happened to a sleeping dog when this chemical mentioned in paragraph 3 was cut off?

A．It woke up.	B．It stopped dreaming.
C．It acted out its dream.	D．It couldn't move its body.

3. Where is the passage from?

A．The guide

B．The report

C．The magazine

D．The brochure

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Similarities Between Humans and Dogs	B．Do Dogs Dream?
C．Signs of Dog Dreams	D．Why Do Dogs Dream?

9 . Most of the 500 whales stranded (搁浅)off Tasmania have now died. Dozens more stricken whales have been found in Australia’s largest ever mass stranding.The estimated total now stands at around 500, with the majority of that number dead and a tenth rescued by authorities on the Island state of Tasmania. Experts believe all of the animals would have been part of one large group. Officials began working to rescue survivors among an estimated 270 whales found on Monday on a beach and two sandbars near the remote coastal town of Strahan. Then another 200 whales were spotted from a helicopter on Wednesday less than 10 kilometres (six miles) to the south.All 200 had been confirmed dead by late afternoon. They were among the 380 whales that have died overall, with estimates from earlier today suggesting that 30 that were alive but stranded and 50 had been rescued since Tuesday, Mr Deka, Wildlife Service manager explained. He added,“We’ll continue to work to free as many of the animals as we can.We’ll continue working as long as there are live animals.”

It is not known what caused the animals to run aground. While stranding events are not unheard of, they are very rare in such large numbers. About 30 whales in the original stranding were moved from the sandbars to open ocean on Tuesday, but several got stranded again. About a third of the first group had died by Monday evening.

Australia’s largest mass stranding had previously been 320 pilot whales near the Western Australian town of Dunsborough in 1996.This week’s incident is the first involving more than 500 whales in Tasmania since 2009.Marine Conservation Programme wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon said the latest mass stranding was the biggest in Australia in terms of numbers stranded and died.

Marine scientist Vanessa Pirotta said there were a number of potential reasons why whales might become beached, including navigational errors.She explained, “They do have a very strong social system; these animals are closely bonded and that’s why we have seen so many in this case unfortunately in this situation.Rescuing them does not always work, because they are wanting to return back to the group, they might hear the sounds that the others are making, or they’re just disoriented and, in this case, extremely stressed, and just probably so exhausted that they in some cases don’t know where they are.” she added.

1. What can be inferred from the first paragraph?

A．270 whales were rescued on Monday.

B．380 whales were found dead on Tuesday.

C．500 whales were found stranded and dead.

D．200 whales spotted from a helicopter were dead.

2. Why did Kris Carlyon say this event is the biggest in Australia?

A．Rescue work is not done in time.

B．The number of the death is large.

C．The cause of the event is still a mystery.

D．There was no other similar event in recent years.

3. Which of the following is Not the cause of the stranding of the whales?

A．Navigational errors.

B．Overhunting of the human beings.

C．Whales’ group living style.

D．Whales’ confusion and exhaustion.

4. Where does this passage possibly come from?

A．A newspaper.

B．A magazine.

C．A textbook.

D．A travel brochure.

10 . SWITZERLAND TRIP PLANNING

Best Time to Go

Like any other country, you can visit Switzerland at any time of the year and have a fantastic time. However, there’s always a ‘best’ time for what you want to do there so it is always worth checking the seasons. It all depends on what your planned activities are. If you are intending to ski and snowboard, best to go when the snow is at its peak time. Activity in Switzerland can be broken down into three tourist seasons: Low Season (Oct. —Mar.), Mid Season! Apr. —Jun. & Sep.) and High Season (Jul., Aug. & Dec. —Apr. / In this season, everything is open and busy, and watch your budget).

Rough Budget

Switzerland is an expensive country to travel around but it is possible to travel here for approximately $ 70—100 per day if you stay in hostels, cook most of your meals and use local transport only when necessary. You’ll find that food is quite expensive as well as accommodation. However, the entire experience is 100% worth it. Here’s a rough cost of basic commodities.

Accommodation
Budget: $ 30—60 dorms / $ 80—120 budget hotels
Mid-range: $ 150—200
Splurge: $ 250—350+

Food (Typical Meal For One)
Self-catering lunch; $ 10—25
Restaurant: $ 20 lunch / $ 40 dinner
Very nice restaurant: $ 60+

Transport
City Buses: $ 2. 50—5
Intercity Trains: $ 25—50

Exciting Things to Do in Switzerland

With so much to see and do in Switzerland, planning a trip can be tough. Here are the things that we highly recommend doing in Interlaken as it is the adventure capital of Switzerland!

Whether you like skydiving, paragliding, or going on a jet boat, Interlaken offers everything and more for all adventure-seekers and anyone who loves the outdoors. Skydiving in Switzerland is a BUCKET LIST come true for any adventure-seeker. It is absolutely incredible and is something we highly recommend. So check out our full article on things to do in Interlaken for some ideas and see all the adventurous activities available in the area this year!

1. Which can contribute to your budget of $ 70 — 100 per day when traveling in Switzerland?

A．Choosing hotels for accommodation.	B．Cooking meals as much as you can.
C．Adopting local means of transport.	D．Attempting to travel in peak seasons.

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．You can enjoy yourself to the fullest when going skiing any time in Switzerland.

B．Interlaken also offers water activities besides adventure activities like skydiving.

C．Both accommodation and hiking in the mountain are expensive in Switzerland.

D．Planning a trip in Interlaken can be tough because the activities are dangerous.

3. Where is this article most probably from?

A．A geography book about Switzerland.	B．An English textbook.
C．A composition on Switzerland.	D．A travel brochure.