1 . Improve Cloud Security
Sensitive customer data has constantly been found exposed on cloud servers without password protection. To ease the problem, database software makers have been trying to make security easier for cloud database managers. At the Enigma Conference in San Francisco, Kenn White, a security manager at database software maker MongoDB, will describe a new technique, called field level encryption, to make data safer on the cloud.
Field level encryption works by scrambling data before it’s sent to a cloud database and rearranging it in order when the data is needed for use. The promise of the product is to protect the contents of a cloud database, even if bad guys access it.
MongoDB’s new feature comes as more and more companies move user data to cloud servers, rather than run their own costly data centers. It was predicted that cloud computing would be a $214 billion industry by the end of 2019. That would be up more than 17% from 2018, when it was $182 billion.
Companies have rushed to the cloud without understanding all of the possible security consequences. Many companies have left countless databases exposed, revealing personal data. A database containing details about who lives in 80 million US households was left unprotected in 2019, just like the data on Facebook users.
Database managers want to store their data in an unreadable form, but they also want to be able to find specific pieces of information in the database with a simple search term. For example, someone might want to look up health care patients by their Social Security numbers, even if those numbers are stored as random characters. To make this possible, field level encryption lets database managers encrypt a search term on their machine and send it to the database as a query. The database matches the encrypted version of the search term with the record it’s storing and then sends it back to you.
This approach only works with specific kinds of data. For example, field level encryption isn’t useful for long text entries, like notes in a patient’s medical chart, because you can’t search for individual words.
Still, for data like account numbers, passwords and government ID numbers, field level encryption protects data and maintains a usable database.
Most importantly, White said, it’s simple to set up. Database managers turn it on with a one-time configuration change when they set up the database. “That’s really powerful,” he said in an interview.
1. The underlined word “scrambling” in paragraph 2 probably means________.| A．mixing | B．collecting | C．hiding | D．storing |
| A．Secure the safety of Internet pages. | B．Protect files with a unique style of storage. |
| C．Stop bad guys from accessing the database. | D．Enable companies to store files on the cloud. |
| A．Companies should move user data to cloud servers. |
| B．Cloud computing achieved a 17% increase in 2019. |
| C．Companies may be unaware of the risks of the cloud. |
| D．No companies were willing to run their own data centers. |
| A．present some facts | B．offer security advice |
| C．introduce a technique | D．recommend a product |
2 . In many languages, the word for “mother/mom” takes an m-sound. Is there any reason for such near-universality?
Linguists(语言学家) generally argue for “the arbitrariness of the sign”: no connection exists between the word dog and the furry quadruped. A rare exception is onomatopoeia, where words representing the bark of a dog (bow-wow) and the buzz made by a bee are more or less similar to the sound. Yet most things are not subject to naming this way.
What about mama? It does not sound like a mother, but the fact is that some sounds are more widespread than others around the world. There are many dozens of observed consonants which are rare and hard for non-natives to learn.
In contrast, a few—such as b, m, p, t, d and k—show up far more frequently, in nearly every spoken language in the world. That is almost certainly because they are easy to make. A baby vocalising will, at first, make a vowel-like sound, usually something like “ah”, which requires little in the way of control over the mouth. If they briefly close their mouth and continue vocalising, air will come out of their nose, thus making the m-sound that is used in “mother” around the world.
Though the “mamas” bear the most obvious similarity, the “papas” have striking commonalities, too. Babies can easily stop their breath when they close their lips (rather than going on breathing through the nose). This produces a b-or a p-sound. It is surely for this reason that so many names for “father” use these consonants: papa in English, abb in Arabic and baba in Mandarin. T-and d-sounds are similarly basic, involving a simple tap of the tongue against the teeth: hence daddy, tatay (Tagalog) or tayta (Quechua).
Father and mother are, therefore, an oddity. F-is not especially easy to utter(发音); th-sounds are even harder. English, Greek and Spanish are unusual in having them. Even Anglophone children may struggle with th-sounds when they are five, or older still in many cases.
Anyway, it is hard to find linguistic universals amid the world’s dazzling variety.
1. What does the underlined word “quadruped” in Paragraph 2 most probably refer to?| A．Pronunciation | B．Sound | C．Bee | D．Animal |
| A．the sounds of the two words sound alike |
| B．air will come out of baby’s mouth directly |
| C．the sounds can be easily and naturally uttered |
| D．babies can continue their breath when closing their lips |
| A．Forthcoming. | B．Programme. | C．Magnificent. | D．Magazine. |
| A．Inspiration from babies’ smile and talks. |
| B．Linguists’ efforts to the research of sounds. |
| C．Connection between the word mum and dad. |
| D．Reasons for similar sounds in unrelated languages. |
In recent years, we
4 . No trees are seemingly cut down every time you search something or read a social media post on your phone or laptop. But websites alone do create emissions (排放)—internet usage is responsible for almost four percent of global emissions. That might not seem like a lot, but it is equivalent to about the same emissions caused by global air travel. That percentage is predicted to almost double by 2025 according to a post by Brussels-based energy magazine Energuide. And internet usage is on the rise—as the pandemic pushed many jobs and education online, internet usage went up as high as 40 percent.
The emissions caused by websites come from the hosting company that ensures that websites are up and running when users search for them on their server. By working with an environmentally sound server like Green Geeks, A2 Hosting, and Host Papa that focuses on renewable energy or lowering their energy usage, websites become more sustainable, Wired UK reported. Something as simple as using fewer images on a web page also helps lower emissions. Another way to reduce emissions is to have simply designed websites with little to no moving images like gifts.
Another aspect of creating more sustainable websites means raising awareness, or letting servers or customers in need of new web design know that it’s even an option for them. Some major search engines like Google have promised to reduce their tech centers’ water usage and to rely on more sustainable energy to run their search engines and other online products like Gmail and Google Docs.
Baruch Labunski, CEO of Toronto-based SEO company Rank Secure, explains that when many clients work with the company to have their websites designed, they don’t often think about sustainability. Companies like Rank Secure make a point to have sustainability as part of their process when working with businesses who want help with web design by relying on more sustainable data centers.
Of course, lowering the greenhouse gas footprint of your website is just the start of building up a sustainable company. Just relying on some renewable energy to have an eco-friendly website doesn’t make a company automatically eco-friendly.
“We need to think about the overall impact of our businesses.” says Labunksi. “If your business manufactures or even uses singleuse plastics, then your website’s carbon footprint shouldn’t be your primary concern.”
1. To create more sustainable websites, the hosting company should_________.| A．meet the data needs |
| B．design new websites with more gifs |
| C．work with an eco-friendly server |
| D．improve the education online |
| A．The clients should raise awareness and consider sustainability. |
| B．Rank Secure has no sustainable awareness when working with business. |
| C．Creating more sustainable websites can provide the only option for clients. |
| D．All major search engines promised to reduce their tech center water usage. |
| A．evaluate the methods to reduce emissions |
| B．inform readers the harm of overusing websites |
| C．encourage search engines to lower the energy usage |
| D．call for building up sustainable companies of emission reduction |
Times Higher Education (THE) has released its World University Rankings 2021, with Tsinghua University in Beijing
China’s space medicine experts have started planning to set up a “space hospital”
7 . At some point, everyone wants to improve or change things in their lives.
Decide what you want to change. Take down notes on the areas of your life that aren’t working well for you. Some experts believe it is better to focus on one goal at a time to stay focused.
Have faith in yourself and in the process.
Imagine the outcome. Some experts believe that taking a few minutes every day to visualize specific goals may have a significant impact on the degree of success you experience. In some cases research has revealed that mental practices are almost as effective as true physical practice.
| A．Review your goals weekly. |
| B．Make sure your goals are attainable. |
| C．However, you may feel like tackling several goals at once. |
| D．Under the goal area, make a list of things you want to change. |
| E．The first step to goal setting is to have total belief that you can succeed. |
| F．Before you go to sleep at night, try closing your eyes and imagining your success. |
| G．A personal development plan can help you reach the goals you have been dreaming about. |
Mussels in Port Phillip Bay are taking in microplastics used in cosmetics(化妆品). The microplastics travel from bathroom sinks to the ocean, where they are easily confused with seaweeds. Because the mussels cannot tell the difference, they take in the plastic along with their normal diet of seaweeds.
According to researcher Dr Charlene Trestrail, the plastic doesn’t affect mussels directly, but it does reduce their ability to digest the real food. It means they miss out on energy and nutrients, which affects their ability to grow and reproduce.
“Besides being a tasty treat for humans, mussels play an important role in keeping marine ecosystems healthy,” Dr Trestrail said. “And because of the reduced ability to grow and reproduce, we could see a drop in mussel populations, with knock-on effects for other marine wildlife.”
While environmental campaigners have worked hard to reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans from easily visible items such as shopping bags and packaging, most people are not aware of the impact of microbeads and other hidden plastics in products including toothpaste or bath scrubs.
“We know lots about how plastics affect animals externally—we’ve all seen photos of birds and turtles twisted in plastic—but this is the first study to investigate how tiny plastics affect animals’ stomachs,” Dr Trestrail said.
There has been a push in recent years to reduce microplastic pollution. But while the Government has supported phasing out(淘汰) microbeads, some cosmetics industries stopped short of banning their use.
We need to take pollution from microplastics seriously. Because they’re so small, once they’re in the ecosystem they are impossible to remove. The only solution is not to use them in the first place.
mussel
1. Why do mussels eat microplastics?
2. What will eventually happen to mussels if they eat microplastics mistakenly?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
The first thing to solve microplastic pollution is not to use microplastics and some cosmetics industries agreed to stop using microbeads.
4. Please briefly present your own solutions to the plastic pollution problem in your daily life. (In about 40 words)
9 . One morning in 2003, a 19-year-old Amy Purdy left for her job as a nursery teacher, feeling healthy and ready for her day. Halfway through her morning, she started to feel achy and unwell. Once home, she had a fever and fell into a deep sleep that was impossible for her to shake.
After a short, tense ride to the nearest hospital, Purdy was given less than a two percent chance of surviving. Over the course of the 2.5month treatment that followed, she lost kidney (肾) function and hearing in her left ear—then her spleen and, eventually, both of her legs. What doctors thought was the flu ended up being a very deadly meningitis (脑膜炎) infection. Purdy’s life was changed forever.
It was when she was in bed for months that she started to think about that big life question: what was her story going to be? She began dreaming about snowboarding and visualized herself carving down a mountain of powder, feeling the wind on her face.
This made her return to the sport as a double-amputee (截肢者). Being back on the board was rough at first—several times, her board and her prosthetic (假体的) legs flew down the mountain without her. But Purdy had a strong will and set out to build her own prosthetics that would be purpose built for snowboarding. Purdy’s first home made snowboarding feet is on display in the Smithsonian now.
In 2005, after her 21st birthday—and the gift of a new kidney from her father—Purdy decided to start Adaptive Action Sports. Purdy and her family organized a team of snowboarders and began pushing for their sport to be part of the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia. After being turned down several times, they were finally granted access to the Paralympic Games, appearing as parasnowboarding for the first time in history. Since then, her snowboarding team has brought home six medals and raised the visibility of the sport.
Since her illness took her legs 18 years ago, Purdy has managed to squeeze as much achievement and joy out of her life as possible. “Maybe instead of looking at all our challenges and barriers as something negative or bad,” she proposes, “maybe we can look at them as little gifts that fire our imaginations.”
1. Amy Purdy eventually lost her legs because of________ .| A．a sudden accident |
| B．the serious infection |
| C．the sports training |
| D．the kidney failure |
| A．Purdy’s father donated a kidney to her |
| B．Purdy’s former job was a snowboard athlete |
| C．Purdy made her snowboarding feet with her friends’ help |
| D．Purdy’s team snowboarding succeeded when they applied for the first time |
| A．Smart and mature. |
| B．Selfless and patient. |
| C．Determined and optimistic. |
| D．Creative and modest. |
| A. took advantage of B. came up with C. apply for D. calm down E. a variety of |
2. Suddenly, the student
3. Don't cry! You'd better try to
4. He
5. The young man wanted to
