1 . The Joy Luck Club explores the connection, or lack of, between immigrant Chinese mothers and their Chinese American daughters. The book is divided into four sections in which the tales of mothers and daughters connect.
The book begins with Jing-mei taking her mother's place playing mahjong at a weekly gathering. They call the group the Joy Luck Club. Jing-mei's mother had a similar club in China before Jing-mei was born. Her mother restarted the tradition in San Francisco when Jing-mei was just a little girl. The other members of the group, Lindo, Ying-ying and An-mei, were her mother's oldest friends. The women tell Jing-mei that before her mother, Suyuan, died, she had finally succeeded in locating Jing-mei's lost half-sisters in China. Suyuan had abandoned the girls when she fled during World War Ⅱ. The women offer to help Jing-mei travel to China, meet her sisters and tell them about their mother. Jing-mei is overcome with emotion and wonders if she is up to the task. Then each woman tells an emotional story from her own childhood. The women then wonder if their daughters can really understand them.
In the second section, the four daughters Waverly, Jing-mei, Lena and Rose share painful childhood stories about their relationships with their mothers. The stories contain misunderstandings of their mother's actions.
In the third section, the daughters share about their marriage and career troubles. They believe that their mothers' old-fashioned ideas do not apply to their American lives. But their quest for solutions to their troubles leads them back to their relationships with the older generation.
In the last section, the mothers tell current stories about their daughters and their attempts to help them solve their problems. In doing so, they learn more about themselves. Jing-mei travels to China, meets her half-sisters and help them to learn about a mother they cannot remember. In doing so, she fulfills her mother's wish to be reunited with her lost daughters. This helps Jing-mei understand and appreciate her mother better. Jing-mei's journey also helps the other members of the Joy Luck Club. They see the importance of the past and the present as they work to truly connect with their daughters.
1. Who told Jing-mei the story of her mother?| A．Her friends at work. | B．Her mother in person. |
| C．The mothers in the club. | D．The half-sisters in China. |
| A．To expand her career. | B．To mend her marriage. |
| C．To reunite with her half-sisters. | D．To have a vacation with her family. |
| A．They only care for playing mahjong. |
| B．They ended up bonding with their daughters. |
| C．They cruelly abandoned their children in the war. |
| D．They failed to help solve their daughters' troubles. |
| A．Heart-broken. | B．Rewarding. |
| C．Meaningless. | D．Classic. |
2 . A new product from Microsoft Corporation can do just that for people who have trouble seeing. They may be blind or visually challenged. The product, an app, is called Seeing AI. "AI" is short for artificial intelligence, a term for computers with an ability to think and learn like human beings.
Seeing AI is currently available for free for Apple's iPhone and iPad in Canada, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA. It has four Channels: Short Text, Document, Product, and Person. After you download it, the app will show video directions for each channel. And the app uses both a camera and artificial intelligence to identify places, objects and people (even the emotions of people).
People can use Seeing AI to learn words in English. With the app open, you can point your iPhone or iPad at any object and it will say what the object is. People can also use the app when going to a store or supermarket. It can read product bar codes(条形码) so users will know whether a can is filled with fruit or dog food. In addition, at restaurants, diners can use it to hear a list of drinks and other menu offerings. It can recognize both food choices and prices. And in the near future, it will be able to identify banknotes so people know whether they are holding a bill that is worth $100 or $1.
However, as a new app, seeing AI will not be correct 100% of the time. For example, just because someone is smiling does not necessarily mean they are happy. The app recognizes text, but not handwriting yet. That feature may be available in the future. Also, Seeing AI needs to be connected to the Internet to work.
1. What does the author say about Seeing AI?| A．It is on sale all over the world. |
| B．It can run on all smart phones. |
| C．It is tailored for the visually disabled. |
| D．It asks for a small charge for the service. |
| A．Make quick decisions. |
| B．Tell the types of food. |
| C．Identify paper money. |
| D．Recommend best alternatives. |
| A．The usage of Seeing AI. |
| B．The future of Seeing AI. |
| C．The limitation of Seeing AI. |
| D．The significance of Seeing AI. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. |
| C．A novel. | D．A magazine. |
3 . You may have noticed particular bright night skies recently as we experienced a full moon. NASA reported the event, called the Wolf Moon, began Thursday afternoon and ended Saturday morning. But did you notice any changes in your personal sleep patterns in the days leading up to the full moon?
As the latest full moon was beginning, a new study was released suggesting that a full moon can affect human sleep cycles. Researchers confirmed that the nights leading up to a full moon have more natural light available after the sun goes down.
The new research found that in the days before a full moon, people go to sleep later in the evening and sleep for shorter periods of time.
The moon takes 27. 3 days to go around the Earth, but it takes 29.5 days to complete a full cycle from New Moon to New Moon. The new study measured the sleep patterns of test subjects as the moon progressed through at least one whole 29.5—day cycle. Some subjects were tested through two moon cycles.
On average, people involved in the study slept about 52 minutes less on nights before a full moon. They also went to bed about 30 minutes later. The research showed that people had the latest bedtime and the shortest amount of sleep during the nights that were three to five days before a full moon.
The study involved 98 individuals living in three different indigenous communities in Argentina. Each local community had different access to electricity. One countryside community had no electricity access, while a second had only limited access. A third community was in a more populated area and had full access to electricity.
The scientists say further research is needed to help explain other possible causes for the changes in sleep patterns in the test subjects. Such causes could involve biological differences in individuals or social patterns within communities.
1. How does the author lead in the topic of the text?| A．By comparison. |
| B．By listing data. |
| C．By imagination. |
| D．By asking a question. |
| A．Full moon can impact sleep. |
| B．Bright skies are good for sleep. |
| C．Eyesight is influenced by moonlight. |
| D．Power supplies change sleep patterns. |
| A．Five days after a full moon. |
| B．On the night of the full moon. |
| C．Four days before a full moon. |
| D．During the nights without electricity. |
| A．Illegal. | B．Native. | C．Virtual. | D．Foreign. |
