1 . Most teenagers are still trying to find their passion and purposes in life. However, not Gitanjali Rao. The 15-year-old girl has been coming up with innovative solutions to worldwide problems since she was ten. It is, therefore, not surprising that the teenager has won the honor of “America's Top Young Scientist”.
In the third grade, Rao was inspired to build a device after witnessing the shocking story unfold in Flint, Michigan, where cost-cutting measures led to the use of a polluted river as the city's primary water supply and incredibly high levels of lead made their way into people's drinking water.
After two months' research, Rao designed a small and portable device that used sensors to instantly detect lead in water. Called Tethys, after the Greek Goddess(女神) of freshwater, it attaches to a cellphone and informs the residents via an app if their drinking water contains lead. The design earned her the 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017. She is currently working with scientists and medical professionals to test Tethys' potential and hopes the device will be ready for commercial use by 2022.
Later, Rao took on another social issue-drug addiction. Her app, called Epione, which won the Health Pillar Prize at the TCS Ignite Innovation Student Challenge in May 2019, is designed to catch drug addiction in young adults before it's too late.
More recently, the teenager has developed an app named Kindly, which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible signs of cyberbullying(网上欺凌). When users type in a word or phrase, Kindly is able to pick it up if it's bullying, and then it gives the option to edit it or send it the way it is. It gives them the chance to rethink what they are saying so that they know what to do next time.
All kinds of awesome, Gitanjali Rao has been selected from 5,000 equally impressive nominees(被提名人) for TIME Magazine's first-ever “Kid of the Year”.
1. What gave Rao the idea of inventing the device Tethys?| A．The incident of lead pollution. |
| B．The issue with drug addiction. |
| C．The shortage of water supplies. |
| D．The high cost of purifying water. |
| A．It'll remove metal from water. |
| B．It'll make it to market soon. |
| C．It'll win her a higher prize. |
| D．It'll be fitted to cellphones. |
| A．Receive pre-warning signals of threat. |
| B．Input words into a computer automatically. |
| C．Choose from secure social networking sites. |
| D．Weigh their words before posting them online. |
| A．Ambitious and humble. | B．Optimistic and adventurous. |
| C．Talkative and outstanding. | D．Creative and productive. |
2 . The only thing better than receiving a book is getting one delivered by a horse. Caitlin Gooch，the founder of Saddle Up and Read(SUAR)，literally saddles(跨上马鞍)up onto one of her family's horses and visits primary schools, libraries and youth groups to encourage students to read. The nonprofit in Wendell，North Carolina，also organizes book drives and school-wide reading competitions.
Along-with her five brothers and sisters, Gooch grew up on a family farm owned by her father. Although he worked as a used car salesman，he built a race track on their 87-acrefarm, where he hosted races. Gooch said she grew up around 80 horses and felt blessed to have grown up with them.
In 2017, Gooch，who had been working at daycare centers and youth groups，noticed that some of the younger children struggled to read. She decided to work with a local library. Any student who checked out more than three books would be entered into a prize draw. Five names would be selected out of the draw and each received a trip to visit the horses on the Gooch family farm.
It was a hit. Gooch expanded her services by creating her nonprofit，SUAR. When Gooch shared her organization's story on Twitter, it reached over 70,000 likes in a week. She even got a shout out from Oprah Winfrey，a famous talk show hostess. She's raised over $ 20,000 from supporters across the world. “Now that it's sort of, all eyes on me，there's definitely an opportunity to do something more,” Gooch said.
Gooch isn't just encouraging children to read more. She's also showing them that horseback riders can look like her. Online，she's often referred to as the “Black Cowgirl”. “It feels amazing to be that kind of representation,” Gooch said.
1. Why does Gooch deliver books on horseback?| A．To deliver books quickly. |
| B．To promote family business. |
| C．To get students into reading. |
| D．To advertise her organization. |
| A．Hold reading competitions. |
| B．Work with the youth groups. |
| C．Donate books to a local library. |
| D．Organize visits to the family farm. |
| A．It is well received. |
| B．It has made a big profit. |
| C．It needs further expansion. |
| D．It was criticized by Oprah. |
| A．Honest. | B．Inspiring. | C．Brave. | D．Patient |
3 . Singapore researchers say they have developed a form of electronic skin that can create a sense of touch. They hope their invention will give people with prosthetic hands(假肢)the ability to identify different objects.
The skin device measures 1 square centimeter. The system contains 100 small sensors that attempt to recreate things like texture(质地)，temperature and even pain. The researchers call the device Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin(ACES)，which can process information faster than the human’s nervous system. Machine learning methods trained the device to recognize 20 to 30 different textures. It can even correctly read Braille letters(布莱叶盲文)most of the time.
The system does not require the users’movement to work. They just need to slide to feel texture. But in this case the skin，with just a single touch，is able to detect textures of different roughness.
A demonstration showed that the device could identify the difference between a soft ball and a solid plastic one. “When you lose your sense of touch，you essentially become numb and prosthetic users face that problem，”said Benjamin Tee，leader of the research team. “So by recreating an artificial version of the skin for their prosthetic devices，they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft. ”
Tee said his idea for the device came from the movie Star Wars，when character Luke Skywalker loses his right hand and it is replaced with a robotic one. In the film，the new hand is able to experience touch sensations just like the real one.
The artificial skin technology is still going through experiments and development. But Tee said there had already been a lot of interest in the system，especially from the medical community. Tee said similar inventions that his team has developed include see-through skin that can repair itself when torn and a material for wearable electronic devices that gives off light.
1. What can we learn about the artificial skin in Paragraph 2?| A．It is sensitive to high temperature. | B．It reacts faster than our nervous system. |
| C．It can recognize different objects. | D．It helps the users memorize Braille letters. |
| A．The artificial skin feels like a real thing. |
| B．People with the artificial skin feel warm. |
| C．People don’t want to lose the sense of touch. |
| D．He is sympathetic towards the prosthetic users. |
| A．The desire to help those in need. | B．The life of the disabled. |
| C．A dream of earning more money. | D．A scene from a famous movie. |
| A．Profitable. | B．Stable. | C．Promising. | D．Challenging. |
4 . A 63-year-old Chinese carpenter’s traditional skills have become an unexpected Internet hit as he creates woodwork with a single piece of wood, without glue, screws or nails. Wang De wen, known as “Grandpa Amu” on YouTube, has been praised as the modern day Lu Ban, a well-known Chinese structural engineer during the Zhou Dynasty, thanks to his rich carpentry(木工手艺) knowledge.
Grandpa Amu’s most popular video, which shows him making a delicate wooden arch bridge, has gone viral on YouTube, gaining more than 40 million views. “If you do something, you have to love it, and you have to be interested in it; however, being interested doesn’t mean there’s only happiness and no pain.” Grandpa Amu shared when talking about his excellent carpentry skills.
His most popular works include a folding stool, a model of the China pavilion from the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and an apple-shaped interlocking puzzle, known as a Lu Ban lock. Grandpa Amu follows an ancient Chinese mortise and tenon(榫卯) technique, which means no nails or glue are involved in the entire process of building the arch bridge.
The master carpenter has also made several wooden toys for his grandson using the same technique. His young grandson’s favorites include a walking Peppa Pig and a bubble blowing machine. Attracting over 1.17 million fans on YouTube, Grandpa Amu’s videos so far have gained more than 200 million views.
His wonderful woodworking skills, using the same mortise and tenon joints found in the Forbidden City, were developed from the age of thirteen as a way of supporting his family in East China’s Shandong Province. “The grandson is so happy, as there have been so many fine and unique toys made by grandpa from an early age,” commented one netizen; while another said “It’s amazing. I hope these traditional crafts can be passed on!”
1. Why is Grandpa Amu regarded as the modern day Lu Ban?| A．For his simple words. | B．For his popular videos. |
| C．For his carpentry skills. | D．For his excellent arch bridge. |
| A．Theory is from pracitce. | B．Success depends on love. |
| C．Excellent skills lie in hard work. | D．Happiness comes from interest. |
| A．No nails or glue. | B．Delicate design. |
| C．The apple shape. | D．The wooden material. |
| A．Being popular means more fans. | B．Perfect skills earn more money. |
| C．Supporting family needs more skills. | D．Traditional crafts deserve passing on. |
5 . Several years ago, when someone used camera covers to protect against possible monitoring, it was not popular to talk about it. Today, people use various types of tapes to cover the web cameras and microphones.
There are many types of spyware that can dive into our devices and secretly spy on them, recording everything they do. Such programs may infect not only computers but also smartphones. Your data may be used by hackers who will try to request money for not exposing your private information or by companies like NSO Group who created the Pegasus spyware to “provide authorized governments with technology that helps struggle against terror and crime”.
In my opinion, the described protection technique is highly overestimated. Users tape cameras and microphones due to the lack of understanding of how their devices work and how malware(恶意软件)works. Hackers and even secret services do not have enough resources to monitor all victims using cameras or microphones. If they need to yet any information, they get it by sending a targeted malware to your device, which will not be stopped by the tapes. Such a virus will find what to steal -from personal photos and videos to passwords from social networks, browser history, bank accounts and much more.
It is unwise to believe that attackers will not be able to find a way to spy on you, even if the device, discharged to zero, can still deliver data about your location, using the smartphones of the surrounding people as signal repeaters. Let us face it. we live in an era when it is extremely difficult to hide something and a piece of tape is clearly not the most useful tool in the struggle for your privacy.
Again, to be able to spy on you, attackers need to plant malware in your device. To prevent malware from entering your device, do not click suspected links and email attachments. Use strong passwords for email, social media and online banking accounts.
1. What does the underlined word “them” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Cameras. |
| B．Types. |
| C．Programs. |
| D．Devices. |
| A．group of hackers. |
| B．A company developing spyware. |
| C．A group of terrorists and criminals. |
| D．A company fighting against crime. |
| A．People know little about their devices. |
| B．Hackers have no access to others. |
| C．It hardly prevents malware from getting privacy. |
| D．It can't cover the cameras completely. |
| A．Protecting privacy on devices. |
| B．Rising trend of using tapes. |
| C．Monitoring devices via cameras. |
| D．Avoiding clicking distrustful links. |
6 . Reading books can exercise your brain. Kids who started reading at an earlier age go on to perform better on certain intelligence tests, such as analyses of their vocabulary size. As one gets older, it might help slow down or even cease cognitive decline.
Academic research has mostly focused on the ability to remember. A study took place in a laboratory setting： Students all read the same text, but some looked at the words on paper and others viewed an on-screen PDF. It turned out that no meaningful difference between the two media existed. As for audiobooks, they affected the brain gray matter somewhat differently.
Ultimately, if you hope to get a reading habit going, you shouldn't dismiss paper digital, or audio—
| A．Audiobooks still affect your thoughts and feelings. |
| B．Go with what makes the most sense for your needs. |
| C．Words on a page can improve the emotional intelligence. |
| D．This brings about a great debate: pages vs screens vs audio. |
| E．Keep a book, e-reader, or audiobook app on you as you go about the day. |
| F．Despite this, the overall book-reading time for Americans is on the decline. |
| G．However, they stimulated the brain just as deeply as black-and-white pages. |
7 . A new study, published this week in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, reveals that non-human animals' tears are not so different from our own. The chemical similarities are so great, in fact, that the composition of other species' tears—and how they're adapted to their environments-may provide insights into better treatments for human eye disease.
Previously, scientists had studied closely only the tears of a handful of mammals, including humans, dogs, horses, camels, and monkeys. In the new study, Brazilian veterinarians analyzed the tears of reptiles and birds for the first time , focusing on seven species.
Tears, which are released from tear tubes, form a film over the eye that's composed of three ingredients: mucus, waler, and oil. The mucus coats the eyes surface and helps to attach the film to the eye, the water is a natural salty solution containing crucial proteins and minerals, and the oil prevents the eye from drying out.
Humans are the only known species to produce emotional tears; the expression "crocodile tears," which refers to a person's phony display of emotion, comes from the mysterious tendency of crocodiles to release tears as they eat.
But tears play key roles beyond weeping, notes Lionel Sebbag at Iowa State University, who was not involved in the new research. They help with vision by lubricating and clearing the eye. They also protect the eye against infection and provide nutrition to the cornea, the eye's clear outer layer, which lacks blood tubes, he says.
Learning how reptiles and birds' use tears may also inspire new medications for conditions such as dry eye, which occurs when tear tubes don't produce enough oil. The disease, common in cats, dogs, and people, can sometimes lead to blindness.
1. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?| A．The source of tears. | B．The composition of tears. |
| C．The classification of tears, | D．The definition of tears. |
| A．Tricky. | B．Regretful. | C．Cold. | D．False. |
| A．Weeping contributes to eye disease. | B．The cornea has rich blood tubes. |
| C．Tears oil and clear the eyes. | D．More tears mean better vision. |
| A．Tears, a barrier to eyes | B．A better treatment for eye disease |
| C．Non-human tears promise new cures | D．Other species’ tears are similar to humans' |
8 . “There's no place like home.” This English saying has much truth in it: the best place to be is surrounded by our treasured possessions and our loved ones and with a roof over our head. And for many young adults, it's the only affordable place to stay; somewhere where they can receive first-class service from mum and dad. But this comes at a price!
In some countries, it's quite traditional for people in their late teens and early 20s to live at home with their parents, but in other places, flying the nest to start their own independent life is very desirable. But there's been a growing trend, in the UK at least, for young people to return home to live—or not to leave home at all.
A survey by a price comparison website found that 18% of adult children in the UK said they were moving back home because of debt, compared with 8% last year. More young people had lost their jobs, and others couldn't afford their rent compared with the previous year. So, it's easy to see why they're increasingly becoming home birds.
Emma Craig from Money supermarket says “parents are trying to look after their children more. If your child comes home and you see them struggling to pay their bills, you feel more awkward asking them for rent or to contribute. It tugs (猛拉) on your heartstrings more.”
With parents buying new furniture and upgrading their Wi-Fi for the benefit of their children, it's easy for the returning children to put their feet up and make themselves at home. That's before they learn a home truth—that one day it might be their own kids who'll be checking into the hotel of mum and dad!
1. Which proverb might show the young British's living conditions?| A．A lazy youth, an awful age. | B．East or west, home is best. |
| C．Two heads are better than one. | D．Nothing comes wrong to a hungry man. |
| A．The popularity of living independently. | B．Looking after their old parents. |
| C．The economic problem they face. | D．Their parents' offer to help them out. |
| A．Understandable. | B．Worried. | C．Doubtful. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．Flying the net is becoming popular at present. |
| B．Returning to live with parents comes at a price. |
| C．It's easy for parents to receive their returning children. |
| D．Home birds think it quite natural to live with their parents. |
9 . Mom and I were putting the finishing touches on dinner, and my little niece Jessica came in to set the table. Instead of going to the dish cabinet, she went into the pantry where there was a stack of old, mismatched dinner plates on the bottom shelf.
When she had set all six places, she stood back and sighed, "Oh, Grandma, your plates are so beautiful. Ours are all alike!" We had a good laugh at her innocent remark, but as I think back to all those years ago, I believe she was right. Those plates were beautiful.
Mom worked for the local council on aging as a housekeeper. She did many of the little things that allowed elderly people to stay in their own homes. Most of her clients got Meals on Wheels, a service in the 1970s. They received a hot lunch and a cold snack to have later in the evening. This is really not very much food. Every evening Mom would make to-go meals on these mismatched plates covered with aluminum foil, and then deliver them to the people who she knew didn't get enough to eat.
This was about ten years before microwave ovens became common so it was important that the food be on a plate that could be reheated in a regular oven. Instead of a cold sandwich and macaroni salad, Mom's clients dined on Beef Manhattans, pan-fried chicken or meatloaf, along with veggies and a piece of pie or cake. Mom and Dad did this even after Mom left her job, and Mom continued after Dad's death until all her former clients had either passed away or moved out.
When I was cleaning our Mom's house after her death, I kept one as a souvenir. That plate is a sweet reminder of the lessons of generosity and caring for one's neighbor that were modeled for me by my parents.
1. Why did the author think those plates beautiful?| A．They were not all alike. | B．They were little Jessica's pride. |
| C．They were collected from different places. | D．They were symbols of the parents' kindness. |
| A．Be a housewife. | B．Run Meals on Wheels. |
| C．Deliver food to houses. | D．Do housework for the old. |
| A．It was her job. | B．She was good at cooking. |
| C．She wanted to help beyond her duty. | D．Her family didn't have enough to eat. |
| A．Mother’s plates of Sympathy | B．My Precious Souvenir |
| C．Services for the Senior | D．A Kind-hearted Mother |
10 . NASA has shown a design for a 3D-printed habitat that could be home for the first humans visiting the Red Planet. It has a double-shell design, to protect the habitable spaces from the natural expansion and contradiction caused by the extreme temperatures swings on Mars. Inside, its functional areas are spread over four levels, with a spiral staircase allowing humans to move around freely.
On the first level there is a wet lab, and a preparation area for astronauts entering and leaving the building. The second level has a dry lab, as well as a kitchen area. The third level functions as a sleeping area, as well as a sanitation pod and a garden area. The fourth level is an exercise and recreation area.
“Architecture on Earth plays a decisive role in the way we live,” said AI SpaceFactory, the New York-based team behind the design. “On Mars, this role reaches a higher level of importance since architecture is the machine which keeps us alive.”
AI SpaceFactory has been selected as the winner of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, and awarded the top prize of $500,000. The competition challenged participants to create shelters out of recyclables and materials that could be found on deep-space destinations, like the Moon and Mars.
AI SpaceFactory was praised for the way it automated the building process---completing the building with nearly no human assistance in 30 hours. It was also applauded for its biopolymer basalt composite---a biodegradable (可由生物降解的) and recyclable material developed from natural materials found on Mars. After passing a series of NASA’s tests, this material was found to be stronger than its concrete competitors.
“It’s light, and it’s strong, like an airplane,” said Lex Akers from the Caterpillar College of Engineering and Technology at Bradley University, who was one of the competition judges. “That’s going to be very important for these types of habitats.”
1. What are the first and second paragraphs talking about?| A．The features of this 3D-printed habitat. |
| B．The structure of this 3D-printed habitat. |
| C．The functions of this 3D-printed habitat. |
| D．The introduction of this 3D-printed habitat. |
| A．Washroom. | B．Living room. |
| C．Dining room. | D．Bedroom. |
| A．It used recyclables. | B．No human assistance. |
| C．Its material is proper. | D．It passed NASA’s a range of tests. |
| A．It costs a lot. | B．It will come into reality. |
| C．It is of significance. | D．It arouses people’s interest. |
