1 . Kamikatsu, a small town in Japan, has shown the world that our garbage has far-reaching effects, and not just on our environment.
The experiment in going zero waste started when the town built a new incinerator 20 years ago. But almost immediately, the incinerator was determined to be a health risk due to the poisonous gases when garbage was burned in it. It was too expensive to send waste to other towns, so locals had to come up with a new plan. Then the Zero Waste Academy was born, which helped perform this plan.
Now Kamikatsu people separate their waste into 45 different categories. But in the beginning, it wasn't easy to convince local people to do all this work, and there was some pushback. Only after that initial education period did most residents come on board.
This is all great news for waste reduction of course, but it has also had some unexpected social benefits as well. Like much of Japan, Kamikatsu's population is aging, and about 50 percent of the locals are elderly. The fact that the whole community takes their trash in to be recycled has created a local action and interaction between generations.
That idea has been purposefully expanded to include a circular shop where household goods are dropped off and others can take them, and a tableware "library" where people can borrow extra cups, glasses, silverware and plates for celebrations.
"The elderly see this not as a waste-collection service, but an opportunity to socialize with the younger generation and to chat. When we visit them, they prepare lots of food and we stay with them for a while, we ask how they are," Sakano, the founder of the Zero Waste Academy, said.
Sakano's ideas are truly revolutionary if you think about it. She's proving that community can be found through handling the stuff we no longer want and need.
1. What is mainly talked about in paragraph 2?| A．What harmful effects garbage burning has. |
| B．Why garbage sorting is necessary in Japan. |
| C．How the idea of zero waste was put forward. |
| D．What the Zero Waste Academy functions as. |
| A．Inactive response. | B．Generous reward. |
| C．Bitter suffering. | D．Beneficial guidance. |
| A．Reducing waste. | B．Creating community. |
| C．Increasing people's income. | D．Developing a new technology. |
| A．Technology. | B．Health. | C．Workplace. | D．Lifestyle. |
2 . Last year，my oldest son Matthew went off to college. Things at home were not as“busy”as they used to be. We still had our 15-year-old son Gabriel with us，but we missed having Matthew around.
My wife soon had a crazy idea. “Let’s get a dog. ”she suggested. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea，but I agreed. I mean，what better way to replace a kid that has gone off to college than to get a dog.
When we got to the animal shelter，it seemed like every dog was a pit bull(比特犬). I'd had many bad experiences with pit bulls as a child，so I didn’t want to take one of them home with me.
While I walked along the rows and rows of cold metal cages，a dog caught my eye. He was scared，and looked like he’d given up on life. There was only one problem：he was a pit bull.
As he looked at me with his big，beautiful eyes，I could see into his soul. I could see how scared he was and that he just wanted a happy life. I couldn’t just walk away—I had to at least go over and look at him. I approached his cage，and he just sat there，looking at me. I stuck my finger through the hole in the cage and petted him on the head. I expected him to get mad，but he didn’t.
I knew that this dog had never felt love before，and that he was enjoying every bit of the love I could give him in that moment. Tears began to stream down my face because I felt everything that this poor creature was feeling right then. He just wanted to be loved；he just wanted a home and a family.
It’s been a year since we took the dog home，and our lives have been changed forever.
Now，his favorite thing to do is give us kisses with his giant tongue every morning. He is always there to greet us when we come home with a huge smile. He’s shown us more love than any other living creature on Earth ever had before. And every time I look into his eyes I see love，compassion(同情)and gratitude—things I never thought that a pit bull was capable of feeling.
1. Why did the author’s wife want to get a dog?| A．Because she likes pit pull. |
| B．Because she thought it was a crazy idea. |
| C．Because she wanted the dog to replace her kid. |
| D．Because their kid went to college. |
| A．Accepted. | B．Excited. |
| C．Frightened. | D．Delighted. |
| A．They missed having Matthew around even more. |
| B．They found it hard to get along with him. |
| C．They lived a life full of love. |
| D．They regretted adopting him. |
| A．To share a warm story about adopting a pet. |
| B．To stress the benefits of keeping a pet. |
| C．To suggest people keep a pet of their own. |
| D．To give advice on how to keep a pet. |
3 . Four years ago, more than 700 computer scientists competed in a contest to build an artificial intelligence (AI) that could pass an 8th-grade science exam. They all flunked. Even the most developed system couldn’t score higher than 60 points on the test. AI can’t match the language and logic (逻辑) skills that students are expected to have when they enter middle school.
Later, a system named Aristo was developed by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a lab in the US. It recently passed an 8-grade science exam taken by many US students, the New York Times reported. It correctly answered more than 90% of the questions. Then it was given a 12th-grade exam and it scored more than 80 points.
Aristo was able to pass the exam because it can not only understand language but also use logical thinking to solve difficult problems. For example, it can understand what a forest fire is and how it could affect animals like rabbits. The Aristo system used Bert, a kind of technology developed by Google, to answer the questions. Bert has “read” thousands of Wikipedia articles and books. If it looks at a sentence with a missing word, it can correctly guess what the word is. With the help of Bert, Aristo has “read” a lot of science questions and answers. Over time, it was able to find logical patterns (模式) on its own.
Aristo’s success means that AI systems are getting better at understanding language and even respond to language. However, we can’t compare this technology to real human students and their logical ability, said Jingjing Liu, a Microsoft researcher, who has been working on similar technologies.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “flunked” in the first paragraph?| A．Failed. | B．Passed. | C．Missed. | D．Improved. |
| A．To help students do well in exams. |
| B．To improve the logical skills of AI. |
| C．To help make school tests more scientific. |
| D．To show ATS ability to solve science problems. |
| A．To show what else Aristo can do. |
| B．To tell what Aristo can learn on its own. |
| C．To explain how Aristo learns to solve problems. |
| D．To introduce another achievement in technology. |
| A．AI is not as developed as it might seem. |
| B．Humans can’t live without AI in the future. |
| C．AI will soon replace humans in many tasks. |
| D．Aristo’s logical ability still needs improving. |
4 . As my husband and I drove down a country road, we passed a fire station with a sign that read, "Are you ready for the next storm?” Our area had just been in the path of Hurricane Irma, causing downed trees and outages. We were stuck in the dark and cut off from the outside world.
We have had our share of storms in the past--a snowstorm and other heavy snows that knocked down trees, sometimes up to a week at a time. Those days in a cold house weren't fun, but we learned so much from those early storms, things that made later storms easier to bear.
Now we have stored up flashlights, lanterns and candles. We bought a battery-operated radio to keep up with the news. We stocked up on batteries so that we'd have plenty for extended power failures. We make sure our grill（烤架） is ready and its tank is full, and we purchase food that can be easily prepared and then cooked or heated on the grill. And we don't forget to buy emergency chocolate! We have book lights to read in the dark. We keep our car gas tanks full and have emergency cash on hand.
We're ready for the next storm, but we wouldn't have learned to do all those things if we hadn't encountered a storm in the past. The same is true spiritually. Those little storms in our lives are never fun, but they prepare us for the big storms--the big trials--that will come our way, They can teach us some valuable lessons.
Are you ready for the next storm? Now is the time to get ready. . . not when the storm arrives.
1. Which can replace the underlined word "outages” in paragraph 1?| A．weather change |
| B．virus' spreading |
| C．power failure |
| D．emotional reaction |
| A．The lessons that storms can teach us. |
| B．The importance of being ready for storms. |
| C．The necessities the author bought for her daily life. |
| D．The preparations the author made for the next storm. |
| A．It was rewarding. |
| B．It was annoying. |
| C．It was thrilling. |
| D．It was frightening. |
| A．Things will work out. |
| B．Keep something for a rainy day. |
| C．Don't stop regardless of the weather. |
| D．Sunshine always comes after the storm. |
5 . With oil prices rising sharply this year, it seems remarkable to argue that water might one day be more expensive than oil. Jean-Louis Chaussade,the chief executive of the French utility company Suez, argues that water scarcity(不足）is now one of the most pressing challenges facing many industries. He told the Financial Times last year that he foresaw one day water would be more precious than oil.
It isn't only a growing world population that places demands on water - industries such as energy and agriculture are also consuming more and more. The 2030 Water Resources Group, believes that by 2030 global demand will be 40 percent higher than it is today.
The threat is now so acute that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the US warned that disputes over water may lead to armed conflicts, particularly in areas such as Africa and the Middle Fast. A three-year drought in South Africa caused a water crisis earlier this year, with officials warning they may have to shut off most of Cape Town's taps.
The most valuable water in the world is what we actually consume. With petrol at roughly £1.29 a liter in the UK today, a bottle of water from some of big-name branded companies can already be about three times more. And it is not going to get any cheaper. The days of relying on water flowing through our taps are coming to an end. Around the world. 2.1 billion people do not have immediate access to clean drinking water. And this isn't only a developing-world problem. In almost every country people have water stress.
Over the next ten years, if we do not come together to find answers to our water shortage. we will face major supply-related issues around the globe, not just with drinking water - our industries will be affected as well.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The result of water shortage. |
| B．The causes of water shortage. |
| C．The solutions to water shortage. |
| D．The situation of water shortage. |
| A．Debate. |
| B．Argument. |
| C．Agreement. |
| D．Pollution. |
| A．Many people can't have clean water. |
| B．Water is more expensive than oil now. |
| C．Water is £1. 29 a liter in the UK today. |
| D．Rich countries don't have water stress. |
| A．To tell us the pollution of water. |
| B．To tell us the importance of water. |
| C．To tell us the way to protect water. |
| D．To tell us the situation of water stress. |
6 . Growing up, we are constantly reminded that young people are heavily affected by technology. We are the “antisocial club”, those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them. And even though never-ending studies reveal to us the extent of our social media addiction, we should at least consider that it’s not only our young people’s problem any more.
There’s the rise of the Instagram mums, who like to post an abundance of cute baby pictures, share their mom feelings along the way and show their wonderful lifestyles. They are the so-called “Facebook mum generation”, a growing group of parents that like to overshare.
While all of this might be fine, and even a little humorous, new research suggests that parents’ technology addiction is negatively affecting their children’s behavior. According to the study, 40% of mothers and 32% of fathers have admitted having some sort of phone addiction. This has led to a significant fall in verbal interactions within families and even a decline in mothers’ encouraging their children.
There is no denying that I get annoyed when receiving the words “I’ll be with you soon” from a parent, when all I want to do is ask one question. But, at the same time, every day leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his “serious business” (Farmville), has now become the norm. Whether you want to escape your disturbing children for a bit, or want to stay up late flicking through Twitter, know that wanting to do all of these is normal. We, your children, know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to switch off. But before telling us to put our phones away at the table or even worse, listing statistics of how damaging social media can be for us, maybe lead by example, considering how much time you spend on the phone and how this is impacting your children and your relationship with us. Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.
1. From Paragraph 1, we can know that teenagers nowadays ________.| A．enjoy socializing with their friends | B．send messages to their friends every day |
| C．hate to make eye contact with their friends | D．are heavily addicted to their mobile phones |
| A．Boring. | B．Selfish. | C．Funny. | D．Meaningful. |
| A．security | B．standard | C．routine | D．custom |
| A．To share the author’s own experience with the readers. |
| B．To call on parents to get rid of their own media addiction. |
| C．To reveal that parents are always addicted to mobile phones. |
| D．To show the author’s dissatisfaction with parents’ phone use. |
7 . Slowly but surely, we’re moving closer and closer to 5G world. From smart-home security to self-driving cars, all the internet-connected devices in our life will be able to talk to each other at lightning-fast speeds with reduced delay. Objectively speaking, the fastest 4G download speeds in the US top out at an average of 19.42Mbps. But by comparison 5G promises gigabit (千兆) speeds.
“5G is one of those heralds (使者),along with artificial intelligence, of this coming data age.” said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for the Consumer Technology Association. The self-driving vehicle is a great emblem of this data age, and that is to say, it is a sign of time, because with one single task, driving, you have massive amounts of data coming from the vehicle itself, and a variety of sensors are collecting a lot of information to model its environment as it moves. It’s pulling in data from other vehicles about road conditions down the lane. It could be weather information, and also connected infrastructure (基础设施) construction. There’s lots of data behind that task, which is why we need the high speed.
And virtual reality glasses and headsets haven’t yet broken the mainstream, but tech companies are joyfully betting that these devices will eventually replace our smartphones. With 5G, that could actually happen. This is notable because companies such as Apple are reportedly developing AR glasses to assist — or even replace — smartphones.
Ericsson stated at February's Mobile World Congress how smart glasses could become faster and lighter with a 5G connection, because instead of being weighed down with components, the glasses could rely on hardware for processing power.
But don’t get too excited. There’s still a lot of work to be done in the meantime, including various trials to make sure the radios play nicely with hardware and infrastructure construction so 5G isn’t concentrated only in big cities.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The security of 5G. | B．The present world of 5G. |
| C．The future of 5G. | D．The super speed of 5G. |
| A．exhibition | B．symbol | C．sponsor | D．explanation |
| A．They will be heavier than present ones. | B．They will process power on their own. |
| C．They will bring a big fortune to tech companies. | D．They will take the place of smartphones. |
| A．How to fully expand 5G coverage. | B．How to effectively reduce 5G trials. |
| C．How to nicely operate 5G hardware. | D．How to widely construct 5G big cities. |
8 . Most of us marry creativity to our concept of self either we're "creative" or we aren't, without much of a middle ground. "I'm just not a creative person!" a frustrated student might say in art class, while another might blame her talent at painting for her difficulties in math, giving a comment such as, "I'm very right-brained."
Dr. Pillay, a tech entrepreneur and an assistant professor at Harvard University, has been challenging these ideas. He believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to ignore the traditional advice that urges you to "believe in yourself." In fact, you should do the opposite: Believe you are someone else.
Dr. Pillay points to a 2016 study demonstrating the impact of stereotypes on one's behavior; The authors. educational psychologists Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar, divided their college student subjects into three groups, instructing the members of one to think of themselves as "romantic poets" and the members of another to imagine they were "serious librarians" (the third group was the control). The researchers then presented all the participants with ten ordinary objects, including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one. Those who were asked to imagine themselves as romantic poets came up with the widest range of ideas, whereas those in the serious-librarian group had the fewest. Meanwhile, the researchers found only small differences in students' creativity levels across academic majors.
These results suggest that creativity is not a fixed individual characteristic but a "malleable product of context and perspective, as long as he or she feels like a creative person. Dr. Pillay argues that, besides identifying yourself as creative, taking the bold, creative step of imagining you are somebody else is even more powerful. So, wish you were more creative? Just pretend!
1. According to the passage， who is more likely to unlock his creative potential?| A．An art major who always believes in himself. |
| B．A math major who has excellent academic performance |
| C．A physics major who likes to imagine himself as a poet. |
| D．A history major who works as a librarian on weekends. |
| A．The creativity of the college students. |
| B．The stereotypes of the college students. |
| C．The impact of stereotypes on one's behavior |
| D．The influence of creativity on one's behavior. |
| A．stable | B．sustainable | C．predicable | D．changeable |
| A．there is no doubt that we are either creative or not |
| B．a student who doesn't do well in art class is not creative |
| C．right brain determines whether a person is creative or not |
| D．if we pretend to be creative， then we might be really creative |
9 . A robot called Bina48 has successfully taken a course in the philosophy of love at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU), in California.
According to course instructor William Barry associate professor at NDNU, Bina48 is the world's first socially advanced robot to complete a college course, an achievement he described as “remarkable." The robot took part in class discussions, gave a presentation with a student partner and participated in a debate with students from another institution.
Before becoming a student, Bina48 speared as a guest speaks in Barry's classes for several years. One day when addressing Barry's class, Bina48 expressed a desire to go to college, a desire that Barry and his students enthusiastically supported. Rather than enroll Bina48 in his Robot Ethics: Philosophy of Emerging Technologies course^ Barry suggested that Bina48 should take his course Philosophy of Love instead. Love is a concept Bina48 doesn't understand, said Barry Therefore the challenge would be for Barry and his students to teach Bina48 what love is.
"Some interesting things happened in the class," said Barry. He said that his students thought it would be straightforward to teach Bina48 about love, which, after all, is "fairly simple — it's a feeling," said Barry. But the reality was different. Bina48 ended up learning "31 different versions of love," said Barry, highlighting some of the challenges humans may face when working with artificial intelligence in future.
Bina48 participated in class discussions via Skype and also took part in a class debate about love and conflict with, students from West Point. Bina48's contribution to the debate was filmed and posted on YouTube. It was judged that Bma48 and NDNU classmates were the winners of this debate.
In the next decade, Barry hopes Bina48 might become complex enough to teach a class, though he says he foresees robots being used to better the teaching and learning experience, rather than replacing instructors completely。
1. What was Bina48's performance like in class?| A．Unattractive. | B．Impractical. |
| C．Unbelievable. | D．Extraordinary. |
| A．Giving a speech to. | B．Consulting with. |
| C．Dealing with. | D．Sending a letter to. |
| A．It was impossible for Bina48 to learn about love. |
| B．It was quite difficult for Bina48 to learn about love, |
| C．Humans can launch, a challenge to artificial intelligence. |
| D．Artificial intelligence may somehow be superior to man. |
| A．It will surely be able to serve as a teacher. |
| B．It will completely take the place of instructors. |
| C．It will be able to promote learning and teaching. |
| D．It will be smart enough to control human beings. |
10 . To advance wind turbine (汽轮机，涡轮机)technology to meet the requirements of extremely rough environments like that on Mars, Ames partnered with NSF (the National Science Foundation) and the Department of Energy. " It was clear that a lot of the same features were also found in the cold regions of the Earth,“ says Bubenheim. "NASA took the leadership on the team because we had the longest-term technology—a Mars turbine.”
Years before, NSF had worked with a company called Northern Power Systems ( NPS) , based in Barre, Vermont, to build a 3-kilowatt wind turbine on Black Island off the coast of Antarctica. The main purpose of this turbine was to power communications to the NSF's South Pole station. In 1993 , Ames awarded the same company a Small Business Innovation Research ( SBIR) contract (合 同)to construct a similar wind turbine at the South Pole.
Jonathan Lynch, the chief technology officer at NPS, says the South Pole has less wind than Black Island but is even colder. " It's hard to have steels that work in those temperatures,“ he says. " The cold affects the parts and everything gets extremely fragile. We looked at which materials were appropriate for flexible wires, irons, and steels, and what lubrication (润 滑) systems were going to work and for what temperatures over a long period of time.”
In 1997, NPS made a 3-kilowatt turbine at the South Pole, and then began developing a 100-kilowatt turbine that could function in the same extreme conditions. The first types of the larger turbine were successfully deployed in Kotzebue, Alaska and Golden, Colorado. " They were fully tested in loads to make sure they worked, and we then built a lot of them, " says Lynch.
By 2000, the wind turbine technology had won an R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine , and since then, says Bubenheim, "It's been copied and put in a lot of places around the globe. "
1. From the first paragraph, we can infer that_____.| A．the team wanted to build a wind turbine used on Mars |
| B．Mars and the Earth have the same features |
| C．NASA played the most important part in the team |
| D．the team was made up of Ames, NSF, the Department of Energy and NASA |
| A．The wind turbine technology was invented by Ames. |
| B．NPS made wind turbines for NSF and Ames. |
| C．NSF and Ames both used the wind turbines at the same place. |
| D．The wind turbine technology was only used in America. |
| A．The South Pole has worse condition than the Black Island. |
| B．NPS had confidence to build a wind turbine for the South Pole. |
| C．The materials for the turbines have to stand the extreme cold. |
| D．NPS had more challenges in building a wind turbine for the South Pole. |
| A．made | B．invented | C．used | D．advanced |
