1 . As we all know, insects can be remarkably agile (灵活的) in flight. This is really hard to build into flying robots, but MIT Assistant Professor Kevin Yufeng Chen has developed an insect-sized drone (无人机) that approaches insects’ agility.
Typically, drones require wide open spaces. “If we look at most drones today, they’re usually quite big,” says Chen. “Most of their applications involve flying outdoors. The question is: Can you create an insect-sized drone that can move around in very crowded and complex spaces?”
According to Chen, he overcame many problems when building the drone. The insect-sized drone requires a fundamentally different construction from a larger one. The large drone is usually powered by a motor, but the motor loses efficiency as you shrink it. So, Chen says, “For an insect-sized drone, you need to look for alternatives.” The principal alternative until now has been employing a small, rigid actuator (执行器) built from new materials. Chen designed a more agile tiny drone using soft actuators instead of hard ones.
Each actuator can beat nearly 500 times per second and weighs just 0.6 gram, approximately the mass of a large bee. It gives the drone insect-like agility. “You can hit it when it’s flying, and it can recover,” says Chen. “It can also turn over in the air.” The drone looks a bit like a tiny cassette tape with wings, though Chen is also working on a new one shaped like a dragonfly.
Chen says his drone can be useful in industry and agriculture. It can perform machinery inspections to ensure safety and function. Its potential applications include completing search-and-rescue missions following a disaster. “All those things can be very difficult for existing large-scale drones,” Chen explains.
1. What can we know about the actuator designed by Chen?| A．It weighs about six grams. |
| B．It drives the insect-sized drone. |
| C．It loses efficiency too much. |
| D．It employs conventional materials. |
| A．Easy. | B．Costly. | C．Fruitless. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Its safety standards. | B．Its flying range. |
| C．Its possible applications. | D．Its design principle. |
| A．An Insect-like Small Drone |
| B．The Future of Insect-sized Drones |
| C．How Drones Will Change the Agriculture |
| D．What Challenge Drone Development Faces |
A total of 16 Chinese and Italian volunteers, wearing Hanfu, an ancient clothing
The clothing, transported from the Suzhou Silk Museum, was themed of Han, Tang, Song and Ming
The show attracted lots of young people, most of
The 24-year-old Irene Di Maio,
In addition to the clothing show, visitors can also enjoy a series of Chinese cultural activities, including the performance of guzheng,
Suzhou, considered by the Italian explorer Marco Polo in the 13th century
3 . Tired of standing in line? Wait a bit longer, and you may never have to again.
Amazon has opened 24 of its Amazon Go stores, which use cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) to see what you’ve taken off shelves and charge you as you walk out. Some companies are closely copying Amazon’s approach to using AI-powered cameras fixed in ceilings. But others are trying an entirely different way to skip the checkout: smart shopping carts. These companies have added cameras and sensors (传感器) to the carts, and are using AI to tell what you’ve put in them. Customers pay by entering a credit card, or through an online payment system. When a customer exits the store a green light on the shopping cart shows that their order is complete, and they’re charged.
The companies behind the smart carts, including Caper and Veeve, say it’s much easier to add technology to the shopping cart than to an entire store. Amazon’s Go stores rely on hundreds of cameras in the ceiling. The shelves also include sensors to tell when an item is removed. Ahmed Beshry, co-founder of Caper, believes the technology to run Go is too expensive to use in a large-format grocery store. Neither Caper nor Veeve has said how much their smart shopping carts will cost, making it difficult to compare the different formats. Shariq Siddiqui, CEO of Veeve, said, “We’re always happy when Amazon is doing something. They force retailers (零售店) to get out of their old school thinking.”
Each time a business uses AI and cameras, it raises questions about customers’ privacy and the effect on jobs. Beshry notes that the cameras in his shopping cart point down into the cart, so only a customer’s hand and part of their arm will be captured (拍摄) on camera.
1. What do we know about the smart shopping carts?| A．They are able to recognize goods put in them. |
| B．They are linked to the cameras fixed in the ceilings. |
| C．They flash the green light when the order is canceled. |
| D．They can tell customers where to find what they want. |
| A．It is likely to help retailers to think differently. |
| B．It has attracted many more retailers than before. |
| C．It is far more expensive than their shopping carts. |
| D．It may reduce the cost of running a store greatly. |
| A．That they can only buy goods online. |
| B．That goods in the stores may be more expensive. |
| C．That they have to wait in a line for a longer time. |
| D．That somebody may know their privacy. |
| A．The new technology improves retail sale. |
| B．AI-powered cameras are used in retail stores. |
| C．Artificial intelligence affects the future of job market. |
| D．Smart shopping carts will let you skip the line. |
4 . When John Todd was a child, he loved to explore the woods around his house, observing how nature solved problems. A dirty stream, for example, often became clear after flowing through plants and along rocks where tiny creatures lived. When he got older, John started to wonder if this process could be used to clean up the messes people were making.
After studying agriculture, medicine, and fisheries in college, John went back to observing nature and asking questions. Why can certain plants trap harmful bacteria (细菌)? Which kinds of fish can eat cancer-causing chemicals? With the right combination of animals and plants, he figured, maybe he could clean up waste the way nature did. He decided to build what he would later call an eco-machine.
The task John set for himself was to remove harmful substances from some sludge (污泥). First, he constructed a series of clear fiberglass tanks connected to each other. Then he went around to local ponds and streams and brought back some plants and animals. He placed them in the tanks and waited. Little by little, these different kinds of life got used to one another and formed their own ecosystem. After a few weeks, John added the sludge.
He was amazed at the results. The plants and animals in the eco-machine took the sludge as food and began to eat it! Within weeks, it had all been digested, and all that was left was pure water.
Over the years, John has taken on many big jobs. He developed a greenhouse — like facility that treated sewage (污水) from 1,600 homes in South Burlington. He also designed an eco-machine to clean canal water in Fuzhou, a city in southeast China.
“Ecological design” is the name John gives to what he does. “Life on Earth is kind of a box of spare parts for the inventor,” he says. “You put organisms in new relationships and observe what’s happening. Then you let these new systems develop their own ways to self-repair.”
1. What can we learn about John from the first two paragraphs?| A．He was fond of traveling. | B．He enjoyed being alone. |
| C．He had an inquiring mind. | D．He longed to be a doctor. |
| A．To feed the animals. | B．To build an ecosystem. |
| C．To protect the plants. | D．To test the eco-machine. |
| A．To review John’s research plans. | B．To show an application of John’s idea. |
| C．To compare John’s different jobs. | D．To erase doubts about John’s invention. |
| A．Nature can repair itself. | B．Organisms need water to survive. |
| C．Life on Earth is diverse. | D．Most tiny creatures live in groups. |
The world’s biggest kite, shaped like a dragon and
The highlight of this year’s edition was the “Chinese Giant Dragon”, four meters in
According to Zhang, the giant dragon kite, using traditional Chinese techniques, “
This year’s festival features a record 1,628 kites in
6 . Recycling is a great way of doing your bit for the environment and helping to protect the earth’s precious resources. However, a new study has revealed that our desire to be sustainable maybe doing more harm than good. According to waste company Biffa, this is because of “wish-cycling” — assuming that items such as disposable coffee cup sand pizza boxes will be recycled if put in the recycling bin. In fact, pollution from those items or other non-recyclables can result in recyclable items that have been put in the correct bin going to landfill. David Heaton, a business director at Biffa, said: “Pollution happens when items are disposed of in the wrong bins or haven’t been cleaned before being recycled.”
Experts at Biffa analyzed the amounts of non-target and non-recyclable materials that entered UK material recycling facilities between 2016 and 2020. It was found that, in 2016, the average pollution rate of recycling waste was 13.4 percent, rising over four years to 17 percent by the end of 2020. This shows that, even as people are becoming more eco-conscious, wish-cycling is increasing both in households and businesses.
The Biffa experts say that one of the best ways to prevent pollution of recycling is to clean recyclable waste before putting it in the bin. They suggest cutting off the top of old pizza boxes and only recycling that part to avoid pollution from the grease (油脂). Check the on-packaging recycling label to check it can actually be recycled When it comes to plastics, Biffa recommends checking the resin code, the number in the plastic triangle, to know whether it should go in the recycling bin. In general, resin codes 1, 2, 4 and 5 are recyclable, while 3, 6 and 7 are not. Larger items, like electronics, furniture and batteries, can also be recycled but often can not go in household recycling bins as they need specialist separating. These will need to be taken to recycling centers or sustainable waste management companies.
“It’s vital as a nation that we get better at effective ‘pre-cycling’— sorting waste correctly before collection to reduce pollution rates,” added Mr. Heaton.
1. What’s the truth of “wish-cycling” according to the first paragraph?| A．The desire to lead a sustainable life. |
| B．The good intention to help recycling. |
| C．The habit of throwing items that end up in landfills. |
| D．The practice of recycling items that can not be recycled. |
| A．People are becoming more eco-conscious. |
| B．Wish-cycling is on the rise in recent years. |
| C．Pollution happens less frequently in recycling facilities. |
| D．People are used to cleaning recyclable waste before putting it in the bin. |
| A．Dispose of electronics together with household waste. |
| B．Skip the step of checking the on-packaging recycling label. |
| C．Check the resin code of plastics to see whether it is recyclable or not. |
| D．Cutoff the top of old pizza box and throw the rest to the recycling bin. |
| A．Recycling: a Big Project | B．Wish-cycling: a New Trend |
| C．Wish-cycling: a Growing Concern | D．Pre-cycling: an Effective Method |
7 . Two separate research groups in the UK and Denmark have come up with the same idea for a study that could help save endangered species, and have gotten the same results. It involves sucking environmental DNA from the air that animals leave behind.
“We use a really small pump that pulls the air through, and we hope the DNA gets caught on the filter (过滤器),” said Elizabeth Clare, the lead researcher. “It’s a bit like making coffee. You make coffee by sucking water through a filter and leaving the coffee grounds behind. That’s basically what we’re doing; we’re just sucking the air through and hoping that the DNA gets left behind.”
Clare says the concept has been used for years in different ways. Scientists sample pathogens (病原体) from the air, which has been used to help track COVID-19. Environmental DNA can also be collected from water to help ease invasive species.
A big goal for both research teams with the new study is to be able to locate endangered species and help save them. It is important to note that this type of DNA sampling can only be picked up if a species is in the area, so if there were two of the same animal, scientists would not be able to tell which one the DNA came from.
Both research groups also reported certain DNA samples not showing up when they knew an animal had been in the area. They also can’t tell yet how long an animal’s DNA will stick around after it’s been in one area. Clare says she’d like to plan more researches to get these answers.
But one thing is for sure after conducting the study. Clare says she has a whole new perspective on taking a deep breath. “As you know, I’m walking through a jungle or the park or taking my dog for a walk or my kids out to play, and I take a deep breath; I think I just inhaled information about all the things that have been here before, and as a scientist, that’s exciting to think that the information that I’m trying to gather is literally hanging in front of me,” she said.
1. Why does the author mention coffee-making?| A．To show the function of a filter. |
| B．To illustrate how the idea works. |
| C．To compare two different methods. |
| D．To prove how simply DNA-sucking works. |
| A．Detecting danger in the air. |
| B．Protecting endangered animals. |
| C．Sucking DNA out of the air. |
| D．Collecting environmental samples. |
| A．It distinguishes different DNAs. |
| B．It collects certain DNA within range. |
| C．It locates endangered species exactly. |
| D．It predicts the duration of animals’ stay. |
| A．She breathes the air of hope for future studies. |
| B．She agrees with the benefits of deep breathing. |
| C．She adopts brand-new methods of purifying the air. |
| D．She finds inner peace by doing simple things in life. |
8 . ChatGPT, designed by OpenAI to carry on conversations just like humans, has become a viral excitement. The AI-powered tool went from zero to a million users in just five days! Its ability to provide in-depth answers to user questions has even drawn the attention of distinguished technology companies.
The intelligent robot understands what the user says or types and then responds in a way that makes sense. Its vast body of knowledge has been gathered from the internet and archived books. It is further trained by humans. This makes ChatGPT a useful tool for researching almost any topic.
“We have a lot of information on the internet, but you normally have to Google it, then read it and then do something with it,” says Ricardo, chief science officer and co-founder of AI company Erudit. “Now you’ll have this resource that can process the whole internet and all of the information it contains for you to answer your question.”
ChatGPT cannot think on its own. It depends on the information that it has been trained on. As a result, the AI tool works well for things that have accurate data available. However, when unsure, ChatGPT can get creative and flow out incorrect responses. OpenAI cautions users to check the information no matter how logical it sounds. Also, ChatGPT has only been trained with information till 2021. Hence, it cannot be relied upon for anything that happened after that.
Experts believe ChatGPT has limitless potential to solve real-world problems. It can translate long texts into different languages, create content on almost any topic, and even summarize books.
However, ChatGPT has received mixed reactions from educators. Some believe it could serve as a valuable tool to help build literacy skills in the classroom. It could also be used to teach students difficult science or math concepts. But other educators think ChatGPT will encourage students to cheat. They fear this will prevent them from building critical thinking and problem-solving skills. As a result, many districts are starting to ban its use in schools.
1. What is the unique feature of ChatGPT?| A．It has artificial intelligence. | B．It can answer users’ questions. |
| C．It has the largest number of users. | D．It can engage in meaningful conversations. |
| A．Its capability of information processing. | B．Its accurate information. |
| C．Its availability of up-to-date data. | D．Its vast body of questions. |
| A．ChatGPT is unable to think itself. | B．ChatGPT lacks creativity. |
| C．ChatGPT offers illogical information. | D．ChatGPT is not properly trained. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Disapproving. | C．Objective. | D．Intolerant. |
9 . Computer games have seriously caught the attention of Mass Media. The increasing amount of games with violent scenes socks the society and makes it very aware of them. The fact that violent games cause violence in people is not even doubted by most people. Some say that the reason lies in games being too close to reality. But is it justified only according to the external similarity of these two worlds?
Games originally are entertainment. Contemporary games are very realistic and for this reason they are a source of great experience for the player and develop the imagination. Games are more than entertainment. The research of the New York University led by Green and Bavelier claims that the player preferring active games get an improvement of some types of brain activity, related to processing of visual information. In particular, game players cope with problems of simultaneously (同时地) tracking several moving objects at the average level of 30% better than people who do not play active computer video games. A game is an abstraction. A player gets abstract tasks and acts according to abstract rules. Games are also the possibility to be whoever a person wants to be and to rest from the outside world for some time.
But what if a person gets so much excited with the game scenes that he becomes violent in reality? Then, it proves that the games cause people to become violent. A psychologically healthy person will never confuse or connect these two different worlds. A game is a virtual world with visual images very similar to human. These images represent by themselves nothing but simple playing obstacles. A game may potentially give the opportunity to “destroy the obstacles” that may not be destroyed according to the rules, but it is more about personal choice whether to do it or not. This leads us to the conclusion that violence is not a consequence but the cause. People who originally tend to violence may get annoyed by games and perform violence in the “real world”. In this case violence in games is a simple justification of the violent nature of the player.
1. Which of the following best explains “sock” underlined in Para. 1?| A．Transform. | B．Strike. | C．Interest. | D．Confuse. |
| A．Games can promote some kinds of brain activity. |
| B．Games can give people space to be themselves. |
| C．Games can be a source of great experience. |
| D．Games can help players solve problems. |
| A．Abstract violent tasks. | B．Violent visual images. |
| C．Realistic computer games. | D．Individuals’ violent nature. |
| A．Violence: Not a Consequence of Games | B．Violence: Not a Justification of Players |
| C．Games: The Violent Virtual Reality | D．Games: The Cause of Violence |
10 . What is the purpose of lightning? The new study published at the end of April in Science found that lightning may play a bigger role in global climate change than was previously known by the scientific community.
Many are familiar with the potentially deadly dangers posed by lightning, which is blamed for an average of 43 deaths in the United States each year, based on data from 1989 to 2018. Although the odds of being struck are quite low-1 in 1, 222, 000 in a given year and 1 in 15, 300 in a lifetime many in the weather community have long urged people to take proper precautions to stay safe in storms. However, the researchers recently uncovered a surprising and beneficial impact of lightning.
The study, which included contributions from nine atmospheric researchers across a dozen universities, was based on an airborne research flight conducted by a NASA DC-8 storm-chasing plane in 2012. Researchers initially thought there was a problem with the equipment on the plane, which was being used to measure the hydroxyl radicals (羟基自由基) in the atmosphere until they realized increases they observed corresponded with lightning flashes, ABC News reported.
Hydroxyl radicals, described as a “chemical scavenger (清洗剂) ” by Science Direct, are important chemical compounds found in the atmosphere due to the reactive nature with other organic molecules (分子). Researchers previously understood that lightning could help to clean the atmosphere, but there was no evidence that it could generate compounds like these radicals. “No one has seen that much in the atmosphere from natural processes, ever,” Brune said. As a result, the study estimates that somewhere between 2% and 16% of the oxidizing (氧化), or cleaning that happens naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere, is done by lightning.
Why is this significant? The oxidation process helps to reduce chemicals like carbon monoxide and methane in the atmosphere. These chemicals, known for being greenhouse gases, have been proven to contribute to rising temperatures associated with climate change. Researchers say that more studies will need to be conducted to verify the degree to which lightning contributes to the fight against global climate change.
1. What do the statistics in Para 2 tell us about lightning?| A．It threatens human lives. | B．It can only harm people. |
| C．It is a strange phenomenon. | D．It happens quite frequently. |
| A．The equipment failure on the storm-chasing plane. |
| B．The increase of Hydroxyl radicals during lightning. |
| C．The lightning flashes observed by the research team. |
| D．The airborne research conducted by NASA scientists. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Amazed. | C．Frustrated. | D．Ambiguous. |
| A．Hydroxyl radicals clean the atmosphere. |
| B．Oxidizing is a natural result of lightning. |
| C．Lightning may help address climate change. |
| D．Greenhouse gases contribute to rising temperature. |
