1 . Imagine a world where you move around in front of a personal computer in your own sound space. You listen to your favorite songs, play loud computer games or watch a movie — all without other people hearing the sound and without headphones.
That is the possibility presented by “sound beaming”, a new technology from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company. On Friday, the company introduced a desktop device that sends sound directly to a listener without the need for headphones or a special receiver.
Noveto Systems gave The Associated Press (AP) a chance to test its SoundBeamer 1.0 before its introduction. The AP’s Louise Dixon writes that listening to the device is like something from a science fiction movie.The sound seems so close that it feels like it is inside your ears while also in front, above and behind them.
Noveto expects the device will have many uses. Office workers could listen to music or conference calls without others hearing. People could play a game, a movie or music without waking up others in the same room. Because the device does not use headphones, it is possible to hear other sounds in the room clearly.
The device uses a 3-D sensing module that finds and follows the ear position of the listener. It sends ultrasonic waves (超声波) to create sound pockets by the user’s ears. The 3-D method creates sound on all sides of the listener, therefore the listeners feel completely transported into the scene.
By changing a setting, the sound can follow a listener around when he moves his head. It is also possible to move out of the sound beam's path and hear nothing at all.
While the idea of sound beaming is not new, Noveto was the first to launch the technology.
According to the chief executive officer Christophe Ramstein, a “smaller” version of the device will be ready for release to consumers next year.
1. What does the underlined word “possibility” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The listener may put on music to block out other sounds. |
| B．The listener may hear sound only for him or her without using headphones. |
| C．The listener may enjoy songs or movies without being interrupted by others. |
| D．The listener may have the ability to pick up some special sounds. |
| A．Amazing. | B．Impossible. |
| C．Strange. | D．Meaningful. |
| A．It places the listener on the scene to hear the sound. |
| B．It fixes a sound beam’s path which can not be changed. |
| C．It follows the listeners around to send and receive sounds. |
| D．With 3-D tracking technology, it sends ultrasonic waves to the target listener. |
| A．To promote the SoundBeamer. | B．To introduce a new sound device. |
| C．To recommend new headphones. | D．To explain a technical phenomenon. |
2 . Starman, the dummy(仿真人) riding a cherry-red Tesla Roadster(特斯拉敞篷车) through space, has made his closest approach ever to Mars. The electric roadster and its passenger were attached to the top of a Falcon Heavy rocket during the SpaceX rocket’s first test launch on 6 February 2018.
Two years later, the Falcon Heavy rocket and the vehicle at its tip are making their second trip around the Sun. Mr. McDowell, a Harvard astrophysicist, found that Starman passed 7.4 million kilometers from Mars at 06:25 GMT 7 October, 2020.
The closest recent approach between the Earth and Mars was 56 million kilometers in 2003, though the planets are often hundreds of millions of miles apart depending on where they are in their orbits. No one can see the Falcon Heavy rocket at its current distance, but orbits over periods of a few years are fairly straightforward to predict, and Mr. McDowell used data about how the rocket was moving when it left the Earth’s gravity behind to locate its recent movements exactly.
Last time Starman circled the Sun, McDowell said, it crossed Mars’ orbit while the Red Planet was quite far away. But this time the crossing lined up with a fairly close approach, though still not close enough to feel a strong tug from Mars.
At this point in time, if you were able to go look at the Roadster, it would probably look pretty different. The strong solar radiation environment between the planets would probably have destroyed all the exposed organic materials.
Without the Earth’s atmospheric and magnetic(磁场的) protection, even the plastics and carbon-fibre materials would start to break up. Over the course of decades or centuries, the car will end up with its aluminium(铝) frame and hard glass parts----that’s assuming that none of them get destroyed in impacts with passing space rocks.
1. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?| A．Starman is now circling around the Earth in its orbit. |
| B．Starman has set out on its second trip around the Sun. |
| C．Starman has traveled 7.4 million kilometers after launch. |
| D．Starman still has a long way to go before getting to Mars. |
| A．By keeping Starman under visual observation. |
| B．By predicting its future orbit around the earth. |
| C．By seeking professional help from SpaceX. |
| D．By analyzing data about the rocket’s movement. |
| A．pull | B．drive | C．resistance | D．pressure |
| A．It is circling around Mars and will finally crash onto it. |
| B．It will finish its mission and return to SpaceX on earth. |
| C．Starman is likely reduced to at most its frame and glass. |
| D．SpaceX will try to recover it during its next space mission. |
3 . Every year, thousands of teenagers participate in programs at their local art museums. But do any of them remember their time at museum events later in life? A new report suggests that the answer is yes - and finds that alumni (毕业生)of arts-based museum programs credit them with changing the course of their lives, even years after the fact.
The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles recently asked researchers to conduct a study to find out how effective their long-standing teen art programs really are. They involved over 300 former participants of four programs for teens that have been in existence since the 1990s. Alumni, whose current ages range from 18 to 36, were invited to find out how they viewed their participation years after the fact.
Among the alumni surveyed, 75 percent of alumni rated die teen program experience as the most favorable impact on their own lives, beating family, school and their neighborhoods. Nearly 55 percent thought that it was one of the most important experiences they'd ever had, regardless of age and two-thirds said that they were often in situations where then experience in museums affected their actions or thoughts.
It turns out that participating in art programs also helps keep teens enthusiastic about arts even after they reach adulthood: 96 percent of participants had visited an art museum within the last two years, and 68 percent had visited an art museum five or more times within the last two years. Thirty-two percent of program alumni work in the arts as adults.
Though the study is the first of its kind to explore the impact of teen-specific art programs in museums, it reflects other research on the important benefits of engaging with the arts. A decade of surveys the National Endowment for the Arts found that childhood experience with the arts have linked arts education to everything from lower drop-out rates to improvement in critical thinking skills.
1. What does the underlined phrase “the fact” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Changing the course of children's life. |
| B．Participating in childhood art programs |
| C．Organizing arts-based museum programs. |
| D．Remembering the time at museum events. |
| A．The result of the study. |
| B．The process of the study. |
| C．The approach to the study. |
| D．The object and content of the study. |
| A．Passion for arts may remain long in kids' whole life. |
| B．No other studies exist concerning the benefits of arts. |
| C．Age matters in how people view their art experiences. |
| D．Most children taking part in art programs will work in arts. |
| A．How is Art Connected to Our Life? |
| B．Can Art Education Affect Our Income? |
| C．What Should Art Museums do for Kids? |
| D．Should Children Walk into Art Museums? |
4 . Research has shown that disrupting one's natural “morning lark” (早起鸟) or “night owl” (夜猫子) tendency can result in immoral behavior at work.
Who doesn't love a flexible work schedule? Being able to make your own hours, come in when you're ready and leave when you're done, step out to attend a child's presentation at school, have a midday appointment, or even squeeze in a quick workout or nap as a guaranteed pick-me-up — flexibility greatly improves one's quality of life.
The benefits don't stop there, however. Research has shown that having flexible work hours actually makes one a better person. How so? It's been found that disrupted sleep patterns —in the form of having to act outside of your normal inclination to be a morning “lark” or a night “owl” — can result in strange, unethical, and out-of-line behavior.
Science journalist Linda Geddes said, “If you don't get enough sleep, research suggests you are more likely to have unethical behavior, such as being mean, bullying your fellow employees or falsifying receipts. But it's not just owls: the larks tend to behave more unethically in the evening, and owls in the morning. So ideally, you want to introduce flexible working."
Employers would be wise to allow their employees to start whenever they feel ready — whether it's at the crack of dawn or at 11 a.m., and to allow breaks or pauses in the day as needed — because that would mean better productivity, performance, and behavior.
This shift is already happening, with the New York Times recently reporting that 27 percent of US employers now offer the flexibility to work outside normal business hours, up from 22 percent in 2014; and 68 percent allow telecommuting as needed (up from 54 percent in 2014). With the national unemployment rate at its lowest in 50 years, employers are having to become more competitive in what they offer workers, and flex-hours seem like a no-brainer, highly beneficial to all.
1. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?| A．Ways to improve life quality. |
| B．People's activities in their free time. |
| C．Methods to get a flexible work schedule. |
| D．The advantages of flexibility in work time. |
| A．Judgment. | B．Tendency. | C．Reaction. | D．Choice. |
| A．They will show their nature more easily. |
| B．They tend to suffer from sleep problems. |
| C．They tend to behave immorally in their work. |
| D．They will get more flexibility in working time. |
| A．The unemployment rate is increasing. |
| B．Employers are getting more free time. |
| C．Flexible working has been creating more jobs. |
| D．More employers adopt a flexible work schedule. |
5 . When the explorers first set foot upon the continent of North America, the skies and lands were alive with an astonishing variety of wildlife. Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely. Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources. Millions of waterfowl ( 水 禽 ) were killed at the hands of market hunters and a handful of overly ambitious sportsmen. Millions of acres of wetlands were dried to feed and house the ever-increasing populations, greatly reducing waterfowl habitat.
What does the underlined word “decimate” mean in the first paragraph?
| A．Acquire. | B．Export. |
| C．Destroy. | D．Distribute. |
6 . E-cigarettes Ban:Good news for Tobacco?
The proposed ban on flavored e-cigarettes may drive many Americans back to cigarettes,said Christopher Palmeri and Jeff Green in the Los Ange Times.
Responding to an outbreak of hundreds of serious lung illnesses from vapes(电子烟)that killed a seventh person this week, FDA(食物药品监管局)will outlaw everything but tobacco-flavored-cigarettes, as Michigan and New York state recently did. Flavors like buttered popcorn and mango helped create "an explosion" in teen vaping. But hundreds of thousands of teens already addicted to nicotine-and 9 million adults who vape--may simply replace vaping with tobacco products. By banning favored vapes the government may be "closing the shed door after the horse has gotten out."
Nobody vapes "because the flavor is so amazing," said David Marcus in The Federalist com. That's why the ban is so clueless."If kids want to taste bubble gum,they can buy,you know,bubble gum." Vaping giants like Juul need to be honest about the fact that they’re in the nicotine business, and monitor themselves accordingly. They should spend billions ensuring that stores don’t sell to minors instead of touting the "scientific conclusion"that e-cigarettes are safer than smoking. The burning involved in smoking cigarettes creates tar and a bunch of chemicals not present in e-cigarettes' watery vapor. True, but nicotine is also a dangerous and addictive drug and vaping liquid itself contains chemicals that damage blood vessels(血管)."The idea of safe smoking" is"a lie," and the vaping industry's fruit- and candy-flavored pods" are proof of evil intent."
"The massive increase in teen vapers" is a reasonable concern, said Robert Gebelhoff in Washington Post.com.But the evidence suggests that the lung illnesses that led the government to act were caused by black-market products cut with dangerous substance.Banning favored vapes will only drive more nicotine addicts and teens to the black market,which will be happy to provide fruity pods. Instead of banning flavors, the government "should empower the FDA to fully regulate the industry." That would let science,"not panic,guide our policy."
1. What led to the proposed ban on e-cigarettes?| A．Popular flavors like mango led to teen nicotine addiction. |
| B．The lack of proper legal supervision in the vaping industry. |
| C．An increased number of deaths resulting from lung diseases. |
| D．The sharp increase in the sale of unhealthy tobacco products. |
| A．FDA would regulate the tobacco industry more effectively. |
| B．The vaping industry would be more strictly monitored. |
| C．The evil intent of the vaping industry would be revealed. |
| D．The tobacco industry might regain its previous glory. |
| A．Promoting | B．challenging | C．assuming | D．tolerating |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving | C．Uninterested | D．Impartial. |
7 . The first patient who died on my watch was an older man with a faulty heart. We tried to slow it down with treatment, but it suddenly stopped beating completely. Later, whenever I would have a case like that one, I found myself second-guessing my clinical management. However, it turns out that thinking twice may actually cause more harm than good.
In a working paper, Emory University researchers found that when doctors delivering a baby have a bad result, they are more likely to switch to a different delivery method with the next patient, often unnecessarily and sometimes with worse results.
Because doctors make so many decisions that have serious consequences, the fallout from second-guessing appears especially large for us. A 2006 study found that if a patient had a bleed after being prescribed (开药) warfarin, the physician was about 20% less likely to prescribe later patients the blood thinner that prevents strokes (中风). However, if a patient was not on warfarin and had a stroke physicians were still no more likely to prescribe warfarin to their other patients.
These findings highlight interesting behavioral patterns in doctors. In the blood-thinner study, doctors were more affected by the act of doing harm (prescribing a blood thinner that ended up hurting doctors were more affected by the act of doing harm(prescribing a blood thinner that ended up hurting a patient) and less affected by letting harm happen (not prescribing a blood thinner and the patient having a stroke). Yet a stroke is often more permanent and damaging than a bleed.
But this phenomenon is not unique to medicine. ''Overreaction to Fearsome Risks'' holds true for broader society.
For instance, sensational headlines about shark attacks on humans in Florida in 2001 caused a panic and led the state to prohibit shark-feeding expeditions. Yet shark attacks had actually fallen that year and, according to the study, such a change was probably unnecessary given the extremely small risk of such an attack happening.
Humans are likely to be influenced by emotional and often irrational (不理性的) thinking when processing information, bad events and mistakes. As much as we don't want to cause an unfortunate event to happen again, we need to be aware that a worst situation that can be imagined doesn't necessarily mean we did anything wrong. When we overthink, we fail to rely on thinking based on what we know or have experienced. Instead, we may involuntarily overanalyze and come to the wrong conclusion.
I have treated dozens of patients who presented with the same illnesses as my first patient, who died more than a year ago. Instead of second-guessing myself, I trusted my clinical instinct (本能) and stayed the course. Every one of those patients survived. You should trust your instinct in your life, too.
1. The first two paragraphs suggest that________.| A．bad medical outcomes affect doctors |
| B．delivering babies can be difficult work |
| C．some doctors are not very experienced |
| D．doctors sometimes make silly mistakes |
| A．tend to prescribe less effective medicine |
| B．are more concerned about the patients' safety |
| C．become less confident in writing a prescription |
| D．believe a stroke is more treatable than a bleeding |
| A．Result | B．Benefit | C．Difference | D．Absence |
| A．we should not doubt our own decisions |
| B．our experience will pave way for our future |
| C．humans are emotional and irrational on the whole |
| D．instincts don't necessarily lead to wrong directions |
8 . Professor Stephen Hawking recently came out with a serious warning for people. While at the Starmus Festival, a festival in Trondheim, Norway, celebrating science and the arts, Hawking warned people that the human race is in serious danger.
Hawking criticized President Donald Trump for denying climate change. Then the physicist warned the audience, “I am not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, unlike Donald Trump, who may just have taken the most serious, and wrong, decision on climate change this world has seen.”
Hawking proposed that the leading countries should send astronauts to the Moon before 2020 to restart a movement of more exploration in space. BBC reported that Hawking suggested that we “build a lunar base in 30 years’ time and send people to Mars by 2025.”
According to BBC, Professor Hawking said, “Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity.” He continued, “I hope it would unite competitive nations in a single goal, to face the common challenge for us all.” The physicist shared more ideas to motivate the younger generation to continue exploring space. Hawking stated, “a new and ambitious space program would excite (young people), and stimulate interest in other areas, such as astrophysics and cosmology.”
Hawking also revealed his vision for other forms of energy that could move us to a new planet. He warned the audience, “The Earth is under threat from so many areas that it is difficult for me to be positive.” He continued, “Our natural resources are being drained, at an alarming rate. We have given our planet the disastrous gifts of climate change, rising temperatures, reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation, and decimation (大量毁灭) of animal species. We can be ignorant, unthinking lot (人).”
The professor warned the audience that doing nothing would lead nowhere. He said, “If we succeed, we will send a probe (航天探测器) to Alpha Centauri within the lifetime of some of you alive today. It is clear we are entering a new space age. We are standing at the threshold (起点) of a new era. Human colonization and moving to other planets is no longer science fiction, and it can be science fact.” Hawking advised the audience to move to other worlds because we are running out of space.
1. According to Hawking, what is the first step for humans to spread out into space?| A．To build a lunar base. |
| B．To send people to Mars. |
| C．To send astronauts to the Moon. |
| D．To change the future of humanity. |
| A．Spreading out into space. |
| B．Facing the common challenge of humans. |
| C．Stimulating young people’s interest in other areas. |
| D．Motivating the younger generation to explore space. |
| A．speeded up | B．stored |
| C．used up | D．explored |
| A．Worried. | B．Confused. |
| C．Positive. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．To warn the audience that humans are in danger. |
| B．To predict what will happen to the earth in future. |
| C．To stress that humans are entering a new space age. |
| D．To encourage the audience to move to other planets. |
| A．the Earth is under threat and the human race is in serious danger |
| B．a new and ambitious space program would excite young people |
| C．astronauts have found a better world in the space than the Earth |
| D．humans have found other forms of energy to move to a new planet |
9 . Time and how we experience it have always puzzled us. Physicists have created fascinating theories, but their time is measured by a pendulum (钟摆) and is not psychological time, which leaps with little regard to the clock or calendar. As someone who understood the distinction observed, ''When you sit with a nice girl for two hours it seems like a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove, a minute seems like two hours. ''
Psychologists have long noticed that larger units of time, such as months and years, fly on swifter wings as we age. They also note that the more time is structured with schedules and appointments, the more rapidly it seems to pass. For example, a day at the office flies compared with a day at the beach.
Expectation and familiarity also make time seem to flow more rapidly. Almost all of us have had the experience of driving somewhere we've never been before. Surrounded by unfamiliar scenery, with no real idea of when we’ll arrive, we experience the trip as lasing a long time. But the return trip, although exactly as long, seems to take far less time. The novelty of the outward journey has become routine.
When days become as identical as beads (小珠子)on a string, they mix together, and even months become a single day. To counter this, try to find ways to interrupt the structure of your day-- to stop time, so to speak.
Learning something new is one of the ways to slow the passage of time. One of the reasons the days of our youth seems to be full and long is that these are the days of learning and discovery. For many of us, learning ends when we leave school, but this doesn't have to be.
1. What is the underlined sentence in paragraph 1 used to show?| A．Psychological time is quite puzzling. |
| B．Time should not be measured by a pendulum. |
| C．Physical time is different from psychological time |
| D．Physical theory has nothing to do with the true sense of time |
| A．Our sense of time changes. |
| B．We spend less time at the beach |
| C．More time is structured and scheduled |
| D．Time is structured with too many appointments. |
| A．excitement | B．unfamiliarity | C．imagination | D．amusement |
| A．To give various explanations about time |
| B．To describe how we experience time physically |
| C．To show the differences of two kinds of time |
| D．To explain why time flies and how to slow it down |
10 . Doctors in hospital emergency rooms often see accidental poisonings. A frightened parent arrives with a child who swallowed a cleaning liquid. Or perhaps the harmful substance is a medicine. Or it might be a chemical product meant to kill insects. These are common causes of accidental poisoning.
In cases like this, seek medical help as soon as possible. Save the container of whatever caused the poisoning. And look on the container for information about anything that stops the effects of the poison. Save anything expelled from the mouth of the victim. That way, doctors can examine it.
In the past, some people forced poisoning victims to empty the stomach. They need a liquid syrup of ipecac(催呕剂) to do this. But an organization of children’s doctors no longer advises parents to keep syrup of ipecac. The American Academy of Pediatrics says some poisons can cause additional damage when they come back up the throat.
Millions of people know a way to save a person who is choking on something trapped in the throat. The method is commonly known as the Heimlich Manoeuvre or abdominal thrusts(腹部按压), which you can do by getting directly behind a sitting or standing person. Put your arms around the victim’s waist. Close one hand to form a ball. Place it over the upper part of the stomach below the ribs. Place the other hand on top. Then push forcefully inward and upward. Repeat the abdominal thrusts until the object is expelled from the mouth. For someone who is pregnant or very fat, place your hands a little higher than with normal abdominal thrusts.
Red Cross experts say taking these steps can save many lives. But they also warn that abdominal thrusts are not for people who have almost drowned. They say the use of the method could delay other ways to re-start breathing in the victim. Abdominal thrust should be used only in cases where a near-drowning victim is choking on an object.
To learn more about first aid, ask a hospital or organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent Society for information. There may be training classes offered in your area. If you know first aid methods, you can be calmer and more helpful in case of emergency.
1. Which of the following is NOT the common cause of accidental poisonings?| A．A harmful medicine. | B．A cleaning liquid. |
| C．Poisonous insects. | D．Dangerous pesticide. |
| A．coming out | B．taking up |
| C．going away | D．getting down |
| A．Abdominal thrusts are very complex to perform. |
| B．The Heimlich Manoeuvre is not suitable for the overweight. |
| C．Syrup of ipecac once had a postive effect on poisoning victims. |
| D．It is more cautious to save a drowning person using abdominal thrusts. |
| A．To warn people to avoid accidental poisonings. |
| B．To provide a short medical guide to first aid. |
| C．To show how to perform abdominal thrusts. |
| D．To help people deal with accidental poisonings. |
