1 . On March 25, 2010, Kate and David heard the words every parent fears: Their newborn wasn’t going to make it. Their twins — a girl and a boy — were born two minutes apart and 14 weeks ahead of time, weighing just over two pounds each. Doctors had tried to save the boy for 20 minutes but saw no improvement. His heartbeat was nearly gone, and he’d stopped breathing. The baby had just moments to live.
“I saw him gasp, but the doctor said it was no use,” Kate told the Daily Mail five years later. “I know it sounds stupid, but if he was still gasping, that was a sign of life. I wasn’t going to give up easily.”
Still, the Sydney Couple knew this was likely goodbye. In an effort to cherish her last minutes with the tiny boy, Kate asked to hold him.
Kate unwrapped the boy, whom the couple had already named Jamie, from his hospital blanket and ordered David to take his shirt off and join them in bed. The first-time parents wanted their son to be as warm as possible and hoped the skin-to-skin contact would improve his condition. They also talked to him.
“We were trying to entice him to stay,” Kate told the Daily Mail. “We explained his name and that he had a twin that he had to look out for and how hard we had tried to have him.” Then something miracle happened. Jamie gasped again — and then he started breathing. Finally, he reached for his father’s finger.
The couple’s lost boy had made it.
“We’re the luckiest people in the world,” David told Today.
Eight years later, Jamie and his sister, Emily, are happy and healthy. The couple only recently told the kids the story of their birth. “Emily burst into tears,” Kate said. “She was really upset, and she kept hugging Jamie. This whole experience makes you cherish them more.”
1. What can we learn about the newborn babies?| A．The girl’s heartbeat was nearly gone. |
| B．They were born 2 minutes before it was expected. |
| C．The boy showed no sign of surviving in the doctor’s words. |
| D．They were in bad condition and the doctor gave up saving them. |
| A．Jamie felt cold so Kate tried to keep him warm with a blanket. |
| B．Kate required to hold Jamie in the belief that she could save him. |
| C．The couple kept the story a secret until the twins knew it accidently. |
| D．The couple tried to save Jamie by contacting him physically and talking to him. |
| A．Kate and David. | B．Kate and Emily. | C．Kate and Jamie. | D．Jamie and Emily. |
| A．Love can work wonders. | B．All life is a game of luck. |
| C．Science fails now and then. | D．Time and tide wait for no man. |
2 . Call it a mobility system or a wheelchair—it can be seen at the Tokyo airport moving on its own.It is helping with social distancing while fighting the spread of the coronavirus. It also helps older passengers and those who otherwise need assistance walking the last few steps to the boarding gate.
The mobility system seats one person and runs on its own without hitting anything. It has a pre-programmed path of about 600 meters at Tokyo's Haneda International Airport. It was shown 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 good for these times of "living with" coronavirus. 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 the 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. It could also help Japan free up laborers. 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.
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 when its passenger gets off Anyone needing help walking long distances can use it at Terminal One at Haneda airport. It is called the "last-mile mobility, says WHILL.
1. What do we know about the mobility system?| A．It can seat more than one person. | B．It runs with the assistance of a controller. |
| C．It helps older passengers to the boarding gate. | D．It has a flexible path of about 600 meters. |
| A．Humans at the wheel. | B．The needs for human beings. |
| C．These times of "living with" coronavirus. | D．Robotics and self-driving technology. |
| A．Sensors and cameras. | B．The speed of the machine. |
| C．The path of the ride. | D．The distance of the ride. |
| A．The system runs completely on its own. |
| B．The system has been put into use in the US. |
| C．WHILL will continue to test the system in airports worldwide. |
| D．The system is controlled by a passenger to return to the start. |
3 . In a world where nearly 6 million fingerprint records of government employees are stolen in one computer hack, and here millions of people are victims of identity theft every year, the next step in cybersecurity may well be mapping your brain.
Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York are working on a biometric system that records how your brain reacts to certain images. With a little more polishing, the scientists’ brainchild could become the way you get into a safe deposit box, your office or past scanners at the airport. It could replace the password for your online banking, your email or your social media accounts.
The started their project by measuring the brain waves of 30 subjects, The subjects were fitted with a cap that had 30 electrodes attached to it, and then shown various images and symbols—celebrity faces, words, pictures of food—on a computer screen in 200- millisecond bursts. The brain's reaction was recorded.
The idea is that every time a person needs to use a “password”, he or she goes through the same procedure, and the results are matched with their first-time reaction. If the “brainprint”' is compromised—like what happened with the fingerprint records—then the system is merely reset by running another set of images and collecting a different set of brain waves. “Even if that was stolen, you could just cancel it and record one to something else”, says professor Laszlo.
Laszlo and her team have shown that their system can be 100 percent accurate. So one of the more difficult parts of making the system practical already has been overcome. Now they're spending much time recording accurate brainprints with as few as three electrodes, which could make recording in the future as easy as wearing a pair of special glasses. They're also working with cheaper material and methods to see if they can bring the cost down.
1. What does the underlined word “brainchild” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The brain function. | B．The fingerprint record. |
| C．The biometric system. | D．The online password. |
| A．To create their brainprints. | B．To check the brain's reaction. |
| C．To match brainprints with pictures. | D．To connect brain waves to electrodes. |
| A．Making it user-friendly. | B．Improving its accuracy. |
| C．Recording more brainprints. | D．Increasing the number of electrodes. |
| A．Brain waves—the necessity of passwords | B．Biometric systerm—the hope of cybersecurity |
| C．Brainprint—the future of passwords | D．Fingerpint—the challenge of cybersecurity |
4 . The sun is going to expand into the orbit of Mercury (水星) according to scientific calculations, which will result in the entire Earth catching fire, destroying all life. In order to survive, the United Earth Government prepares 10,000 giant engines on Earth to drive it away from its original orbit. The whole trip is expected to last 2,500 years.
This imaginative tale is at the heart of the science-fiction movie The Wandering Earth. The original novel was written by Liu Cixin, one of China’s most outstanding science-fiction writers and a prize winner of the Hugo Award in 2015 for his novel The Three-Body Problem.
Perhaps thanks to Liu’s fame, as well as the huge marketing efforts of the movie team, The Wandering Earth posted ticket sales of 670 million yuan when it was shown on the first day. More importantly, The Wandering Earth is the first “made-in-China” science-fiction movie on the big screen, as the director, Guo Fan, is also Chinese.
As a fan of Liu, having read almost all of his science-fiction books, I should mention the movie follows a rather different form from his novel. Actually, it only borrows from the novel the idea of the Earth having to escape the solar system. That’s just the point. It means Chinese movie production teams have grown enough to develop new ideas on the creative basis of science-fiction writers, while the writers are willing to work together with movie productions so that the film results in the best possible performance.
Liu may be a highly regarded science-fiction writer in China, but he is not the only one. There are many writers with rich imaginations, and their works can be adapted into movies, too. Someone has predicted that 2019 will mark the starting year of success for Chinese science-fiction movies. Only time will tell whether that prediction will come true. But if more professional movie teams and creative writers could work together, we can certainly expect more success for the domestic (国内的) science-fiction movie industry.
1. Why does the Earth have to escape from its original orbit in the story?| A．Because the sun is about to hit the Earth. |
| B．Because its original orbit will be occupied by Mercury. |
| C．Because the giant engines’ strong power will drive it away. |
| D．Because it has to avoid being destroyed by the coming disaster. |
| A．It is adapted from a science-fiction novel. |
| B．Its author was once awarded for The Wandering Earth. |
| C．It achieved huge success mainly because of its author’s fame. |
| D．Its director Guo Fan is also a famous science-fiction writer in China. |
| A．The unexpected success of the movie. |
| B．The great success of the original novel. |
| C．The creative adaptation from the novel. |
| D．The imaginative idea from the novel. |
| A．There is a long way to go. |
| B．They will definitely success. |
| C．They have great potential. |
| D．It cannot be predicted. |
5 . Do you know why people yawn (打哈欠)? The most obvious answer is that we yawn because we are tired. But why does being tired make us yawn? How does yawning help us? The truth is that we don’t know the answers to these questions. Scientists have different theories about why we yawn, but nobody has been able to prove them.
The first one is the “oxygen theory”. In the past, one of the more popular theories was that we yawn in order to take more oxygen. When we yawn we breathe more deeply. According to this theory, our brains make us yawn because we need more oxygen. However, these days more and more scientists are against the oxygen theory.
The second one is the “brain cooling” theory. According to this theory, we yawn when our brains get too warm. Yawning makes our brains cooler again. When our brains are cooler, we can think more clearly. Yawning can help keep us alert (警觉). This theory hasn’t been proven yet, but many scientists think that it will be in the future.
Here are a few other interesting facts about yawning. First, yawning is contagious (可传染的). If you see another person yawn, then you will be more likely to yawn, too. Second, we yawn even before we are born. Studies have shown that babies yawn while they’re still in their mother’s stomach. They start to yawn after 24 weeks. Finally, we are more likely to yawn when we’re bored. Why is yawning contagious? Why do we yawn when we’re bored or tired? The truth is that we don’t have any answers to these questions, either.
1. What does “them” refer to at the end of the first paragraph?| A．Yawns. | B．Scientists. |
| C．Theories. | D．Questions. |
| A．It’s the most recent theory. | B．Few scientists believe it now. |
| C．More and more scientists believe it. | D．We know that it’s correct. |
| A．The person gets more tired. | B．The person is in a bad mood. |
| C．The person thinks more clearly. | D．The person becomes less alert. |
| A．We can yawn only after we are born. |
| B．We have known the answer why we yawn. |
| C．When we see another person yawn, we might yawn, too. |
| D．Scientists will never prove the “brain cooling” theory. |
6 . An Israeli law banning too skinny models went into effect with the start of 2013. The law, approved last March in Israel, requires models to prove they have maintained a Body Mass Index (BMI) of at least 18.5 for three months before a fashion show. That means a woman who is 5'8''tall can weigh no less than 119 pounds.
“This law is another step in the war against eating disorders,” said physician Adatto. “Underweight models,” he explained, “can no longer serve as role models for innocent young people who copy their false image of being skinny.”
But some critics in this country say it is misguided, focusing on weight instead of health. They also say the Israeli ban is bound to fail because of the strong power of the fashion industry. “I think it’s an approach that isn’t going to work.” Said eating disorder expert Susan Ice, who worked with an organization which creates a healthy working environment for models.
But Adatto told the reporter that he began to concern the issue after meeting an ambitious model who looked like she needed to be hospitalized. He said. “I realized that only legislation can change the situation. There was no time to waste, so many girls were dieting to death.”
However, the efforts to regulate models’ weight in Spain and Italy have not resulted in significant changes in part because of difficulties in determining reliable methods of measuring weight and health.
Still, folks including Ice say there’s no denying that images from Hollywood and the fashion industry can be difficult for young women to deal with. “Certainly I don't believe the modeling industry has caused the rise in eating disorders, but it makes it harder,” she says. “It’s a difficult recovery environment, worshiping thinness as the beauty ideal.”
1. What does BMI in the first paragraph refer to?| A．A measure of body health based on height and weight. |
| B．A worldwide prize for the healthiest model. |
| C．A new show held by those skinny models. |
| D．A kind of medicine to cure eating disorders. |
| A．to change the working conditions of models |
| B．to lower the chance of skinny models’death |
| C．to provide guidance for women worshiping thinness |
| D．to prevent models from suffering from eating disorders |
| A．it misleads young women to form a bad eating habit. |
| B．it doesn’t provide a proper approach that can work well. |
| C．it doesn’t create a healthy working environment for models. |
| D．the fashion industry is much too influential. |
| A．practical | B．arguable | C．acceptable | D．reasonable |
