1 . Electrically powered vertical-take-off-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft—flying cars are an idea whose time has not quite yet come, but is fast approaching. Many firms are offering various designs. None of these, however, will be Jetson-like family flying cars. Pivotal, based in Silicon Valley, by contrast has crafted something that people can purchase and pilot themselves. Helix is a single-seat vehicle, so “flying motorbike” might be more accurate. From next year, many people will be able to order one for personal use, though they will not be able to take delivery until June.
Marcus Leng founded Pivotal in 2011, and some back-of-the-envelope calculations he made suggested that electric lift-off of a human-carrying craft, using motors powered by the lithium-ion batteries ought to work. He thus built a model and flew it in the garden of his house in Warkworth, Ontario.
Now, after ameliorating it, the firm thinks it has something marketable. The aircraft has, nevertheless, changed little in its fundamentals over the years. It has two pairs of wings and eight propellers (螺旋桨), making it slightly resemble a squashed “H” when seen in the sky from below. And there is no undercarriage. Instead, its belly is curved in a way similar to a humpback whale’s, so it rocks to stability after landing.
Pilot’s licence or not, buyers will still need some training to fly a Helix. Pivotal insists on this. For the same reason, the craft’s software will stop the pilot doing anything that does not fit its safety rules. And if, despite this, something does go wrong, it is fitted with a parachute（降落伞）.
The Helix’s top speed is a respectable 100 kph, but its range is only 30 km. And refueling it is a bit of a pain. Filling up from the mains takes four and a half hours, though a special high-power system similar to those employed for electric cars can bring that down to 75 minutes. While Helix still doesn’t compare to the flying car from the Jetsons, it could be a step forward.
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．Helix has been used in Warkworth widely. |
| B．Flying cars won’t be allowed for personal use. |
| C．Leng was the first person to design flying cars. |
| D．Helix is only suitable for one person to drive. |
| A．Testing. | B．Driving. | C．Improving. | D．Repairing. |
| A．Helix’s relative devices. | B．Helix’s training process. |
| C．Helix’s safety measures. | D．Helix’s working principle. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Objective. | C．Indifferent. | D．Cautious. |
2 . Catherine Krestyn furnished (布置家具)her home mainly with hard rubbish, such as the chairs, doors and lamps, which have been collected from the street where she lives. And it’s a way of life she’s sharing with her community in the hope of making a difference.
Catherine leads a 6,000-strong online group called Boroondara Hard Rubbish Rehome, where members upload pictures of their hard rubbish piles for eager locals to find. She started the group in 2022 with her childhood friend Jennie Irving, hoping to build a community of thrift (节俭)where they lived. The pair have stopped more than 7,000 kg of hard rubbish going to landfill since they founded the group.
Some items are ready as they are, like chairs and lamps, and others take a bit of effort to clean up, like the old, wooden doors.
Local teacher Ruth Polgar discovered the group while surfing the Internet and has since decorated her classroom with second-hand items, including artwork she has rehomed from a neighbour. “We regularly take unneeded items from the group and use them for our school projects,” she says.
Running the group can be really challenging for Catherine. But she doesn’t resent those who have to let go of their possessions because of stressful circumstances. “If you’re downsizing or if you’re clearing an old house, quite often you’re desperate for access to easy options,” she says. “Hard rubbish piles are often that option.”
All Catherine wants to do is give her community a way to reduce their waste, and to send a message to those in charge that things need to urgently change.
“The government has big targets around sustainable development leading into 2030. We want to start speeding that up even sooner,” she says. “We’re suffering from our own waste really, so anything that we can all do on a practical level helps. We should first make lifestyle choices and be prepared to go second-hand.”
1. Why did Catherine set up Boroondara Hard Rubbish Rehome?| A．To create a community of thrift. | B．To donate her collection to charity. |
| C．To collect hard rubbish for locals. | D．To decorate the houses for the homeless. |
| A．She prefers second-hand items. | B．She buys items on the Internet. |
| C．She supports Catherine’s cause. | D．She teaches art at a local school. |
| A．Feel angry about. | B．Feel pleased with. |
| C．Show sympathy for. | D．Show interest in. |
| A．Setting ourselves a big goal. | B．Giving throwaways a second life. |
| C．Meeting the government’s requirements. | D．Replacing old furniture regularly. |
3 . The philosophy that can help you keep your home organized
How can we clean up our space and keep it that way? That’s a question that Star Hansen thinks a lot about. She’s a professional organizer who teaches classes on home organizing. She believes that keeping your home neat and tidy is a continual process.
Understand your chaos
Hansen says everyone’s chaos tells a personal story. What becomes chaos and where your chaos build up can say a lot about what’s going on with you. If you have unwanted piles of stuff around your house, ask yourself: What’s making it hard to throw them away? For example, a uniform that hasn’t fit for years.
Start small
When it comes to organizing, don’t bite off more than you can chew. If you start with too big a goal, you might get discouraged if the job takes too long. So don’t try to clean your entire garage in one afternoon.
It’s easy to be organized the day after tidying. But what happens when you come home from a trip and are too tired to unpack your luggage? Or when you get the flu and are too sick to clean up? The key to staying organized is to create practices that can be easily maintained. Make a system that works for you even when you’ve got a cold. For example, label storage containers on all four sides so they’re easier to spot.
| A．Make it easy to stay organized |
| B．Abandon the fancy storage boxes |
| C．Instead, start with something less challenging |
| D．Maybe it reveals a longing for your former profession |
| E．That attitude can help you let go of things you don’t need |
| F．You have to take the time to create systems that work for you |
| G．Make sure your most used items are always the easiest to reach |
4 . An amusement park in France has come up with an unusual way of picking up litter. They have trained crows (乌鸦) to pick up small pieces of litter in order to earn a reward (奖励).
Puy du Fou is the second most popular theme park in France. The park puts on historical shows about different periods of time. For example, they have had shows about the time of the Vikings and the time of the Romans.
For some of the shows, Puy du Fou uses trained birds. At times as many as 300 birds fly at the same time. One day Christophe Gaborit, who works with the birds, started wondering if birds could be trained to pick up litter. Several years ago, Mr. Gaborit began working with two rooks. Rooks are a kind of crow. They are known for being clever and for working well with humans.
Mr. Gaborit created a special box to train his crows. The box had two drawers. The crows were trained to put a piece of litter into one drawer. When they did that. Mr. Gaborit would slide a board to show a small treat for the crow in the other drawer.
Once the crows learned that they could get food by putting litter in the box, they became good at flying around and picking up small pieces of litter. They always seemed to want more food. Mr. Gaborit said that sometimes the rooks would try to trick him by bringing back something that was not litter, like a piece of wood.
This year, Mr. Gaborit and Puy du Fou decided that they should train more crows, so that they could help clean the park. Nicolas de Villiers, who ran the park, said that one of their reasons for doing this was to show “that nature itself can teach us to take care of the environment”.
1. Why do the rooks pick up litter?| A．To earn a treat. | B．To gain their master’s love. |
| C．To exchange for money. | D．To protect the environment. |
| A．By teaching them the meaning. | B．By using a special box. |
| C．By showing them historical shows. | D．By punishing wrong behaviors. |
| A．The rooks are very smart. |
| B．Wood is some kind of litter. |
| C．The rooks fly around to look for food. |
| D．Mr. Gaborit is strict with the trained birds. |
| A．A school textbook. | B．A government report. |
| C．A nature magazine. | D．A research paper. |
1. What does the speaker suggest doing at the beach?
| A．Taking a walk. | B．Enjoying a picnic. | C．Playing volleyball. |
| A．A park. | B．The coast. | C．A cinema. |
| A．On the first day. | B．On the third day. | C．On the fourth day. |
| A．A camera. | B．A hat. | C．A map. |
1. What does the woman like most?
| A．Soap operas. | B．Historical dramas. | C．Talent shows. |
| A．An actor. | B．A teacher. | C．A student. |
| A．They are interested in history lessons. |
| B．They each have their own favorite programs. |
| C．They often watch documentaries together. |
7 . A physical checkup often begins with a series of questions: What foods do you eat? Do you smoke? Getting any exercise? New research suggests another telling indicator could be added to that list: What was your college major? The study finds one’s chosen field of college study is a statistically significant predictor of health in midlife.
The researchers find the four majors associated with the best midlife health are architecture/engineering, biology/life sciences, business, and—here’s a surprise—communications/journalism. Perhaps chasing after big stories keeps us journalists in shape.
It has long been established that people with more education tend to be healthier. But does one’s major matter? To find out, the researchers analyzed data from the nationally representative American Community Survey.
Their sample consisted of 3.7 million United States-born adults between the ages of 45 and 64—the time of life when physical functioning problems start to appear. Participants noted whether they had difficulty walking or climbing stairs, dressing or bathing. A “yes” answer in any of those categories resulted in a grade of relatively poor health.
The researchers focused on the 667,362 participants who earned a bachelor’s degree, but went no further in their education. They noted each person’s college major, which they placed into one of 15 categories. They found substantial differences in health across majors. Two majors are particularly disadvantaged in midlife. The chances of poor health are 1.9 times greater among psychology /social work and law/public policy majors compared to business majors. The researchers argue this is likely due to several factors. Psychology majors tend to suffer from high unemployment and low earnings. Law/public policy majors often enter the field of law enforcement(执行).
The researchers say that they have discovered associations, not proof of causality(因果关系). But they make a convincing case that some majors lead people to live healthier lifestyles than others.
Their findings might even inspire a warning country song: Mammas, don’t let your babies grow up to be psychology majors.
1. What can be learned from the first two paragraphs?| A．Smoking can lead to poor health. | B．Diet is more important than exercise. |
| C．Physical checkups keep you healthy. | D．College major chould be added to a checkup. |
| A．By doing face-to-face interviews. | B．By following participants’ daily routines. |
| C．By doing medical examinations. | D．By analyzing the representative data. |
| A．Engineering. | B．Business. | C．Psychology. | D．Agriculture. |
| A．College majors can predict midlife health. |
| B．More majors in college can improve health. |
| C．The annual physical exam is necessary to life. |
| D．People with more education tend to be healthier. |
There are many beliefs about the origin of the Lantern Festival. But one thing for sure is that it had something to do
One legend tells that it was a time
South Koreans have enjoyed their first close-up look of new baby giant pandas at a name-revealing ceremony that is also
What to name the twin sisters was widely discussed among netizens after they were born on July 7 in theme park Everland. The names were
The baby pandas,
Everland said it would monitor the twins’ health
10 . Scientists have been experimenting with playing sounds to plants since at least the 1960s, during which time they have been exposed to everything from Beethoven to Michael Jackson. Over the years, evidence that this sort of thing can have an effect has been growing. One paper, published in 2018, claimed that an Asian shrub known as the telegraph plant grew substantially larger leaves when exposed to 56 days of Buddhist music — but not if it was exposed to Western pop music or silence. Another, published last year, found that marigolds and sage plants exposed to the noise of traffic from a busy motorway suffered growth difficulty.
Plants have been evolving (进化) alongside the insects that eat them for hundreds of millions of years. With that in mind, Heidi Appel, a botanist now at the University of Houston, and Reginald Cocroft, a biologist at the University of Missouri, wondered if plants might be sensitive to the sounds made by the animals with which they most often interact. They recorded the vibrations made by certain species of caterpillars (毛毛虫) as they chewed on leaves. These vibrations are not powerful enough to produce sound waves in the air. But they are able to travel across leaves and branches, and even to neighbouring plants if their leaves touch.
They then exposed tobacco plant — the plant biologist’s version of the laboratory mouse — to the recorded vibrations while no caterpillars were actually present. Later, they put real caterpillars on the plants to see if exposure had led them to prepare for an insect attack. The results were striking. Leaves that had been exposed had significantly higher levels of defensive chemicals, making them much harder for the caterpillars to eat. Leaves that had not been exposed to vibrations showed no such response. Other sorts of vibration — caused by the wind, for instance, or other insects that do not eat leaves — had no effect.
“Now speakers with the right audio files are more often being used to warn crops to act when insects are detected but not yet widespread,” says Dr. Cocroft. “Unlike chemical pesticides, sound waves leave no dangerous chemicals.”
1. What can we learn about plants from the first paragraph?| A．They may enjoy Western music. | B．They can’t stand Buddhist music. |
| C．They can react to different sounds. | D．They can make different sounds. |
| A．Plants can make a cry for help. | B．Plants evolve alongside insects. |
| C．Plants are sensitive to the sounds. | D．Plants have been studied for years. |
| A．They can recongnize harmful vibrations. | B．They look like laboratory mice. |
| C．They can threaten the caterpillars. | D．They can release poisonous chemicals. |
| A．Disadvantages of chemical pesticides. | B．Application of the experimental results. |
| C．Interaction between plants and insects. | D．Warning system of widespread insects. |
