Today, we have to use switches for our lights, knobs for our appliances,
2 . I log onto a computer at the doctor’s office to say I have arrived and then wait until a voice calls me into the examination room. There, a robotic nurse
I should say I really do like many aspects of
When I call my dentist’s office and actually get a human being on the line, I am
After all, human cashiers sometimes
Even more than that, real-life cashiers often take an interest in particularly cute children, which can
Machines can be
Call it the spirit, the soul or the heart. It is
| A．tears | B．directs | C．follows | D．separates |
| A．worker | B．nurse | C．doctor | D．cleaner |
| A．signals | B．symptoms | C．words | D．symbols |
| A．at most | B．at last | C．at least | D．at intervals |
| A．economy | B．agriculture | C．literature | D．technology |
| A．cut in | B．pass by | C．take over | D．go away |
| A．annoyed | B．thrilled | C．discouraged | D．disappointed |
| A．smiling | B．laughing | C．shouting | D．weeping |
| A．machine | B．human | C．animal | D．plant |
| A．give | B．remind | C．bargain | D．buy |
| A．brighten | B．darken | C．strengthen | D．widen |
| A．turning | B．happening | C．describing | D．struggling |
| A．urgent | B．efficient | C．frequent | D．consistent |
| A．But | B．Because | C．Otherwise | D．Therefore |
| A．everything | B．nothing | C．anything | D．something |
3 . In May this year, as part of our 150th anniversary, we asked readers aged between 18 and 25 to enter an essay competition. The task was to tell us, in no more than 1,000 words, what scientific advance they would most like to see in their lifetimes, and why it mattered to them.
The response was phenomenal: we received 661 entries. Some entrants hoped that science would make their lifetimes much longer than they can currently expect. Many looked forward to work that will end climate change. Others wanted to see advances in our understanding of human history, crop growth, space exploration, and medical technologies. The ideas were inspiring.
The winner is a compelling essay by Yasmin Ali, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, UK. Ali submitted a piece on Beethoven, her brother’s hearing loss and the science which she hoped would one day cure it. It stood out to the judges as a reminder of why many scientists do research: to make the world better tomorrow than it is today.
All essays were judged by a group of Nature editors. The top ten submissions were then ranked by three members of a separate judging group: Magdalena Skipper, editor-in-chief of Nature; Faith Osier, a researcher; and Jess Wade, a physicist. All submissions were kept anonymous throughout the process.
We also selected two runners-up(非冠军的获奖者).Physicist Robert Schittko at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, proposes that nuclear fusion(核聚变) could offer a solution to the climate crisis, in a piece that effortlessly mixes grand ambition with gentle humour. And chemist Matthew Zajac at the University of Chicago in Illinois wrote a powerful personal account of why he wants to see advances in the field of same-sex reproduction.
The results show that today’s young scientists have a wealth of ideas, talent and conviction that research can transform their world. We look forward to seeing what they do next.
1. What’s the essay competition about?| A．The scientific expectation. |
| B．The fantastic scientific ideas. |
| C．The dreams of future life. |
| D．The celebration of anniversary. |
| A．She showed great talent in music. |
| B．She found the cure for the loss of hearing. |
| C．She appealed for people to care about hearing loss problem. |
| D．She reminded people to remember the meaning of science development. |
| A．Robert Schittko won the second place. |
| B．There were two winners in the essay competition. |
| C．Matthew Zajac presented his view of same-sex reproduction. |
| D．The two runners-up were selected for the same field they chose. |
| A．Doubtful. |
| B．Favorable. |
| C．Impossible. |
| D．Ignorant. |
4 . Created in the 1920s by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect who designed Waterloo Bridges, the red public telephone boxes, which can be seen all over the UK, are regarded as one of the most typical symbols of this country.
However, pubic phones have had their day despite their lovely housings. While coin-operated and card-operated telephones are on the edge of extinction, mobile phones are playing a significant role in people's lives. Though they are more portable, flexible and extensively used, mobile phones have their kryptonite: battery life. Instead of trashing the phone booths, a project was then promoted to recycle and reuse them. To be consistent with the environment-friendly preference, people are allowed o rent and repurpose the red phone boxes. In this way, they are making an unusual comeback.
When you take a walk down Tottenham Court Road in London and find your mobile phone in a low-battery condition, there happens to be a green option for you. The abandoned phone booths are being repurposed as free charging stations powered by solar energy.
Inside the booths, which are newly painted green, there are various adaptors that can be connected to different brands and models of mobile phones. Just walk in, plug your phone in, and charge it up whenever it needs to be supplied with power. Most people would stay inside the boxes while they charge. Fully aware of this when launching the project. Solarbox can now reach a large quantity of audience by displaying ads on solid equipment. Its advertisers include well-known companies like Uber. Yet 30% of advertising space is reserved for local community projects.
Apart from transforming phone booths into solar-powered charging stations, other forms of transformation can be found in and outside the UK. For example, there is medical equipment or mini-libraries adapted from phone booths, while in America, thousands of phone booths have been transformed into wi-fi hot spots.
1. What does the underlined word "kryptonite" in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Feature. | B．Limit. |
| C．Characteristics. | D．Lack. |
| A．It can save all the disappearing phone boxes. |
| B．It enables people to transform their phones for free. |
| C．It is a win-win strategy for both the communities and the companies. |
| D．It was launched mainly because of people's affection for the phone booths. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Opposed. | C．Favorable. | D．Objective. |
| A．The red abandoned phone booths in the UK are turning green. |
| B．The phone booths in the UK are being rebuilt on a large scale. |
| C．The UK phone booths are giving way to the mobile phones. |
| D．The UK phone booths are transformed for different purposes. |
Some scientists think
However, scientists will need to terraform Mars for people to be able to live. Terraforming means changing the environment on a planet so that it is similar to Earth's. One of the main goals of terraforming Mars is to warm it up
Another big concern for scientists is whether humans can move to Mars and still live
6 . What if we had the power to control time, instead of moving from the past to the present to the future? What if we could jump, loop and travel through time in a machine? What if we could go wherever and whenever we pleased?
This ability would allow us to witness historic wonders, change decisions and see people from the past. We could right wrongs and stop wars from starting.
The mysterious puzzle of time has kept people debating its nature for hundreds of years. Science fiction writers have turned it into imaginative stories. Some scientists have even attempted to explain it using math. This math tries to make the dream of time travel come true.
The scientist Albert Einstein said that time and space are one thing. He called it “spacetime.” Einstein said that there are three dimensions in space: height, width and depth. A scientist named Hermann Minkowski added time as a fourth dimension.
Einstein introduced two ideas that have led to theories about the possibility of time travel. The first is relativity. The idea of relativity is that the force of gravity causes space to bend, which causes time to twist. The second idea focuses on special relativity. The idea is that a traveler moving super-fast through flat spacetime will enter the future. Einstein considered time “relative” because it is measured based on where we are on Earth or in space.
Stephen Hawking is a famous scientist. He believes that a time machine will never be built. If it were possible, he thinks we would already know. If a time machine could be built, how come no one from the future has invaded us?
The first science fiction story with this theme is The Clock That Went Backward by Edward P. Mitchell, which was published in 1881. Since then, thousands of books, films and television shows have explored the idea of time travel, in which some tools such as phones, watches, photographs and old books take travelers backward and forward.
Will time travel ever happen? Who knows? Most important is to keep your eyes open and have a sense of wonder.
1. What is the author’s purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To show time and space are connected. |
| B．To show people’s interest in time travel. |
| C．To draw readers’ attention to time travel. |
| D．To make people believe time travel is possible. |
| A．Time travel is possible in the future. |
| B．People can’t move faster than light. |
| C．Time travel is against scientific rules. |
| D．Spacetime is not a real thing in theory. |
| A．The first science fiction story. |
| B．Some tools used in time travel. |
| C．Edward P. Mitchell, the pioneer. |
| D．Different works about time travel. |
| A．cautious. | B．pessimistic |
| C．sceptical | D．optimistic. |
