1 . A small bowl bought at a yard sale in Connecticut for just $ 35 has been identified as a rare 15th-century Chinese antique.
The blue-and-white bowl was made by China's royal court during the Ming dynasty. It is now expected to sell for up to $500,000, according to Sotheby's auction(拍卖)house in New York, where the auction will take place next month.
The purchase was made last year near New Haven, Connecticut. “I was just hanging around there aimlessly. But when I saw this bowl, I didn't even bargain over the $35 asking price,” the owner said. Shortly after the purchase, he sent photos of the bowl to auction specialists, who identified it as an item of historical significance.
Upon closer inspection, the artifact was found to have originated from the period of Yongle Emperor, who ruled from 1403 to 1424 - a period noted for its distinctive porcelain (瓷器)techniques. It's now valued between $300,000 and $500,000, with the top estimate nearly 14,300 times the amount it was purchased for.
“I was deeply attracted by the techniques. You can see why this bowl is so highly-valued from the very smooth porcelain body, silky glaze(上釉)and special blue coloring, which were never reproduced in later dynasties,” McAteer, an auction specialist, said.
“The Yongle Emperor improved the porcelain techniques and elevated the importance of porcelain from being an ordinary bowl into a true work of art. This small bowl has both practical and artistic value, ”McAteer said.
1. What can we infer about the bowl's owner?| A．He found the bowl by accident. |
| B．He hesitated during the purchase. |
| C．He doubted whether the bowl was real. |
| D．He bought the bowl because it was cheap. |
| A．The blue color on it. | B．The long history it has. |
| C．The people who made it. | D．The unique techniques used. |
| A．Forsaw. | B．Promoted. |
| C．Assessed. | D．Acknowledged. |
| A．An Amazing Bowl | B．A Special Yard Sale |
| C．The Return of Porcelains | D．A Man Making Fortune |
2 . The idea of billions of people going through a few masks a week during this pandemic definitely rings alarm bells, but a team of researchers in Melbourne may have the solution.
They’ve discovered that adding millions of discarded face masks to road-paving (铺路) mixtures would actually lower the cost of the road, while preventing billions of them from landfills. Just one kilometer of road would need three million masks, and the polypropylene (聚丙烯) plastic used to make single-use surgical face masks also increased the flexibility and durability of the road.
The new material is a mixture of about 2% torn masks, with recycled concrete aggregate (RCA)—a material obtained from waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. This recycled material was found in the study to be ideal for two of the four layers generally required to create roadways. Paving a kilometer of two-way road with the RCA and three million face masks would result in a change of 93 tons of waste from landfills.
The final product then is more resistant to wear than asphalt (沥青), as well as being cheaper too, provided there was a method for collecting masks. The research team did a cost-analysis and found that, at $26 per ton, the RCA was about half the cost of mining raw materials, and as much as a third of the cost of shipping the used masks to a landfill.
The widespread application would be ideal for large infrastructure (基础设施) projects. For example, Washington has the 11th worst roads in terms of unaddressed repairs in the U.S. If the damaged roads in Washington state were repaired with the RCA/mask mixture, it would reuse nearly 10 billion masks, sparing American landfills hundreds of millions of tons of trash.
It’s said that the team is looking for private industry partners or governments willing to give their plastic mask road an opportunity for a large-scale test.
1. What does the underlined word “discarded” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Recycled. | B．Produced. |
| C．Mixed. | D．Abandoned. |
| A．2% torn masks, concrete and tons of trash. |
| B．Polypropylene plastic and building materials. |
| C．Single-use surgical masks and recycled concrete aggregate. |
| D．Waste concrete and other minerals from destroyed buildings. |
| A．To tell us what the team has found. |
| B．To prove this material is cost-effective in paving roads. |
| C．To explain repairing roads costs a lot of materials. |
| D．To praise the hard work the team has done. |
| A．The material used to pave roads is made of masks. |
| B．Generally speaking, it requires two layers to create roadways. |
| C．It remains to be tested whether the solution is practical. |
| D．The damaged roads in Washington were repaired with the RCA. |
3 . It might seem strange to be making predictions about 2021, but one thing is clear: technology has been affected just as much as every other part of our lives. Another clear thing is that today’s most important technology trends will play a big part in helping us deal with and adapt to the many challenges facing us. From the shift to working from home to new rules about how we meet and interact in public spaces, technology trends will be the driving force in managing the change.
One of the major technology trends that are likely to play out this year is 5G and enhanced connectivity. Each successive advance in mobile connectivity from 3G onwards has unlocked new use cases for the Internet. 3G made web browsing and data-driven services useful on mobile devices, 4G led to the growth of streaming video and music platforms as bandwidths (宽带) increased, and 5G, similarly, will open more doors in terms of what is possible.
5G means that services relying on advanced technologies such as augmented (增强的) reality and virtual reality, as well as cloud-based gaming platforms like Google’s Stadia, become a practical thing, anywhere at any time. They also threaten to make cable and fiber-based (光纤) networks redundant, with their need for us to be tied to a particular location.
In short, 5G and other advanced, high-speed networks make other new technologies available anywhere, any time. A great example is Norwegian fishery operator Salmar that uses a 5G network to automate the care and feeding of its fish. Image recognition algorithms (算法) are used to detect which fish are over or under-feeding, and automatically distribute food and medicine needed to keep them healthy. Initiatives like this will become increasingly important during 2021, where businesses look to increase automation across their workforces.
1. Which of the following is highly influenced by 5G technology?| A．Data-driven services. | B．Streaming video. |
| C．Music platforms. | D．Google’s Stadia. |
| A．Useful. | B．Unnecessary. | C．Expensive. | D．Special. |
| A．To show the development of Norwegian fishery. |
| B．To explain how to keep fish healthy. |
| C．To present the application of 5G technology. |
| D．To propose new initiatives for businesses. |
| A．Different predictions of technology trends. |
| B．Successive advances in mobile technology. |
| C．One of the technological highlights of the year. |
| D．The driving force in managing changes. |
4 . When he was two years old, Ben stopped seeing out of his left eye. His mother took him to the doctor and soon discovered he had cancer in both eyes. After possible treatments failed, doctors removed both his eyes. For Ben, vision was gone forever.
But by the time he was seven years old, he had developed a technique for feeling the world around him: he clicked with his mouth and listened for the returning echoes. This method enabled Ben to determine the locations of open doorways, people, parked cars, garbage cans, and so on. He was echolocating: bouncing his sound waves off objects in the environment and catching the reflections to build a mental model of his surroundings.
Echolocation may sound like an improbable feat for a human, but thousands of blind people have perfected this skill, just like Ben did. The event has been written about since at least the 1940s, when the word ''echolocation" was first invented in a science article titled “Echolocation by Blind Men , Bats, and Radar.”
How could blindness give rise to the amazing ability to understand the surroundings with one's ears? The answer lies in a gift on the brain; huge adaptability.
Mother Nature filled our brains with flexibility to adapt to circumstances. Just as sharp teeth and fast legs are useful for survival, so is the brain's ability to reset, which allows for learning, memory, and die ability to develop new skills.
In Ben's case, his brain's flexible wiring repurposed his visual cortex for processing sound. As a result, Ben had more neurons available to deal with listening information, and this increased processing power allowed Ben to interpret soundwaves in shocking detail. Ben's super-hearing proves a more general rule: the more brain area a particular sense has, the better it performs.
1. How did Ben “see” after he had his eyes removed?| A．By using a walking stick. | B．By asking others for help. |
| C．By inventing a new system. | D．By echolocating surroundings. |
| A．Skill. | B．Task. | C．Sense. | D．Invention. |
| A．He laughs best who laughs last. | B．Actions speak louder than words. |
| C．God shuts one door but he opens another. | D．Man becomes learned by asking questions. |
| A．Culture Shock. | B．Human Biology. |
| C．Scientific Technology. | D．Environmental Protection. |
5 . It’s easy to assume that a vacation to Bali will cost a small fortune. There are plenty of accommodations, food and local transportation, and even the spas offer massages and treatments at value prices. However, you can easily spend a week or two in Bali for under $2,000, without having to sleep on the beach. Here are a few things to consider when planning Bali on a budget.
What is the best time to visit Bali on a budget?
If you’re on a budget, consider visiting Bali during the lower, wetter season, which runs from October through March. The crowds will be fewer, and both hotel rates and flights from abroad are often cheaper, except during the holiday period between mid-December and early January, when crowds swell. The only trade-off for the lower prices is the wet season. This time of year isn’t always ideal for sunbathing, and serious rainfall can make outdoor activities, such as whitewater rafting and visiting waterfalls and rice terraces, less than appealing. That said, even during rainy season, it doesn’t usually rain all day long. Expect bursts of sunshine between the storms.
What is the cheapest way to get around Bali?
The absolute cheapest way to get around Bali is by local bus, but it can take a long time. There are also tourist buses, including hop-on, hop-off options, that travel between different hubs across the island. Bali is well-served by taxis, both of the car and motorbike variety, and the prices tend to be affordable by international standards. Most drivers will offer you a fixed rate for full-day hires or to get from point A to point B, rather than using a meter.
Remember to bargain; doing so is particularly easy when a driver is on his own rather than at a taxi stand.
How much does food cost in Bali?
If you’re into fine dining, you can end up spending a large chunk of your budget on food. Eating at the average restaurant geared towards tourists is the best way to have a meal in Bali on a budget. A good meal should cost you around 100,000 rupiah (around $7), but if you’re willing to subsist mostly off of local specialties such as nasi goreng (fried rice) and eat at local restaurants, you can expect to pay around 30,000 rupiah ($2) to get fed. Best of all, most hotels and guesthouses in Bali come with free breakfast, and many offer heavier options of noodles and meat that may keep you full until lunch.
1. Which of the following situation can be best described by the underlined word trade-off in paragraph 2?| A．Jack got a reward after he returned the lost bag to its owner. |
| B．Lily spent much money buying some handicrafts at the local fair. |
| C．Wendy cancelled her trip in order to prevent the spread of the virus. |
| D．Sam was scolded by his parents for what he did in school last night. |
| A．It’s better for outdoor enthusiasts to visit Bali during the off season. |
| B．Passengers had better fix the price with drivers before the taxi pulls out from the station. |
| C．If on a tight budget, one is advised to visit Bali at the end of December every year. |
| D．It’s relatively economical to eat merely at average restaurants tailored to visitors. |
| A．City and Transport. | B．Travel and Recreation. |
| C．Nature and Environment. | D．Food and Health. |
