1 . If a pancake could dream, it might long for legs so it could jump off your breakfast plate in pursuit of a better, unchewed life. But legs aren’t necessary for something as flat as a pancake to jump around. A group of scientists have designed a pancake-shaped robot that can jump several times per second and higher than seven times its body height. The new robot named Hop, which swiftly jumps without feet, is an important contribution to the soft robotics.

Many ground robots move by rolling or walking. But it’s more efficient for robots to jump over obstacles (障碍物) than to go around them. Although jumping can offer some robots a competitive edge, engineering that ability has been a challenge for robotics researchers. Some soft robots that store energy can perform a single impressive jump very infrequently. Some lightweight soft robots that don’t store energy can jump frequently but can’t jump high or far enough to successfully cross an obstacle.

For inspiration, the researchers looked to gall midge larvae (瘿蚊幼虫) that miraculously throw themselves across distances 30 times as long as their loglike bodies. A gall midge larva bends its body and squeezes the liquid in its body to one end, making it rigid (僵硬的). The accumulation of liquid builds up pressure, and releasing the pressure sends it soaring (飙升). The robot’s body doesn’t resemble (像) that of a gall midge larva, but it jumps like one. Its body is made of two small plastic bags printed with electrodes; the front bag is filled with liquid and the back one is filled with the same volume of air. The robot uses electricity to drive the flow of liquid, which causes the body to bend and generate force with the ground, resulting in a jump. And the air bag imitates the function of an animal’s tail, helping the robot keep a stable position.

While the robot is currently restricted to Earth, it might be right at home exploring another planet. If this is true, the researchers robot might jump over dusty rocks and large holes on the moon or Mars, going where no pancake has gone before.

1. What does the author want to show by mentioning a pancake?

A．A pancake’s dream to have legs is unrealistic.

B．A robot is capable of serving a good pancake.

C．A pancake-shaped robot can jump without legs.

D．Research on pancakes advances our understanding of robots.

2. What difficultly do robotics researchers have in developing Hop according to Paragraph 2?

A．Hop’s avoiding an obstacle.	B．Hop’s moving around by rolling.
C．Hop’s performing one remarkable jump.	D．Hop’s jumping high and far continuously.

3. What inspiration do the researchers draw from gall midge larvae?

A．They are shaped like logs.

B．They have tails to change positions.

C．They bend their bodies and increase force.

D．They are filled with liquid and have rigid bodies.

4. What is the author’s attitude to the future of the new robot?

A．Intolerant.

B．Positive.

C．Indifferent.

D．Ambiguous.

2 . 校园生活丰富多彩，请以“My favourite...”为题写一篇校园活动英文报道。内容包括：
1.对活动的评价；
2.活动的简介；
注意：写作词数应为180左右。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . 听下面一段对话，回答以下小题。
1. Where will the woman stay in Bath?

A．In a pub.

B．In the man’s house.

C．In her friend’s house.

2. How will the woman get to her destination?

A．By car.

B．By bus.

C．By plane.

3. What are the speakers mainly talking about?

A．A tourist attraction.

B．Holiday plans.

C．A rented house.

7 . Chloe Smith is a girl aged 6 from Atlanta, Georgia. One day, while taking a walk with her father near their home, she________something shiny under a pile of rubbish. She picked up the ________ to take home, as she often did on her treasure-hunting walks. Chloe was later ________ to discover she had found a stolen Olympic gold medal.

The medal belongs to former canoeist (划艇运动员) Joe Jacobi, who won gold while ________ for Team USA in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games. The medal, along with other personal belongings, was ________ in May of 2016 when someone broke into Jacobi’s can. Though police managed to ________ some of his stolen items, they hadn’t been able to find his ________ Olympic medal. It may have been lost forever, if not for a 6-year-old girl’s treasure-hunting ________ .

Chloe’s dad had seen Jacobi’s story on the news, and ________ realized it was his stolen property. He found Jacobi’s email and sent him pictures of the treasure. After________ the medal, Jacobi was astonished, just speechless.

Chloe was ________ to give it back after speaking with Jacobi on the phone. ________, Jacobi promised to speak to her class when school begins again this fall. The ________ of this little girl reuniting an Olympian with his beloved possession is ________ . When we talk about character and doing the ________ thing, Chloe represents the Olympic values in every sense of the word.

1.

A．sought

B．buried

C．noticed

D．dropped

2.

A．waste

B．object

C．material

D．antique

3.

A．embarrassed

B．satisfied

C．frightened

D．shocked

4.

A．competing

B．applying

C．coaching

D．preparing

5.

A．broken

B．stolen

C．replaced

D．deserted

6.

A．purchase

B．register

C．preserve

D．recover

7.

A．secured

B．prized

C．advertised

D．priced

8.

A．project

B．decision

C．habit

D．idea

9.

A．quickly

B．gradually

C．really

D．carefully

10.

A．identifying

B．obtaining

C．evaluating

D．investigating

11.

A．sorry

B．eager

C．upset

D．hesitant

12.

A．In addition

B．In fact

C．In return

D．In advance

13.

A．purpose

B．report

C．attempt

D．story

14.

A．heart-warming

B．breath-taking

C．eye-catching

D．life-changing

15.

A．important

B．simple

C．interesting

D．right

9 . Time and how we experience it have always puzzled us. Physicists have created fascinating theories, but their time is measured by a pendulum (钟摆) and is not psychological time, which leaps with little regard to the clock or calendar. As someone who understood the distinction observed, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours it seems like a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove, a minute seems like two hours.”

Psychologists have long noticed that larger units of time, such as months and years, fly on swifter wings as we age. They also note that the more time is structured with schedules and appointments, the more rapidly it seems to pass. For example, a day at the office flies compared with a day at the beach.

Expectation and familiarity also make time seem to flow more rapidly. Almost all of us have had the experience of driving somewhere we’ve never been before. Surrounded by unfamiliar scenery, with no real idea of when we’ll arrive, we experience the trip as if lasting a long time. But the return trip, although exactly as long, seems to take far less time. The novelty of the outward journey has become routine.

When days become as similar as beads (小珠子) on a string, they mix together, and even months become a single day. To counter this, try to find ways to interrupt the structure of your day — to stop time, so to speak.

Learning something new is one of the ways to slow the passage of time. One of the reasons the days of our youth seems so full and long is that these are the days of learning and discovery. For many of us learning ends when we leave school, but this doesn’t have to be.

1. What can we know about time from Paragraph 1?

A．Physical time has little to do with the calendar.

B．Physical time is distinct from psychological time.

C．Time should not be measured by a pendulum.

D．Psychological time is quite more fascinating.

2. Which of the following will make you feel time flies faster?

A．A day spent exploring something unknown.

B．Staying with a person who you dislike.

C．A day packed with appointments to handle.

D．Driving to a new place for the first time.

3. What does “novelty” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Unfamiliarity.

B．Excitement.

C．Imagination.

D．Amusement.

4. What is the purpose of the passage?

A．To show the difference between physical and psychological time.

B．To explain why time flies and how to slow it down psychologically.

C．To describe how most of us experience time psychologically.

D．To give various explanations about fascinating time theories.

10 . The words “caring” and “empathetic” (共情的) aren’t ones normally associated with technology. Yearsley, an Australian enterpriser who is expert in artificial intelligence (AI), is trying to change that.

Yearsley is the founder of Akin, a robotics startup that currently uses a tablet-based system to help users manage the tasks related to home life, whether that’s planning meals or reminding you to pay your cell phone bill. Current home devices made by Google or Amazon or Apple use predictive AI to track patterns, strengthen behaviors and manipulate (操控) buying decisions, some of which, she assumes, are questionable or just unhealthy.

In contrast, the AI that she is developing will be designed to run the human home, encouraging healthful decisions such as taking a nightly walk, refilling the fridge and supporting social interactions like lunches or birthday celebrations with friends. “It’s the hardest AI I have ever built for it’s a complex system,” Yearsley says.

Yearsley began developing the Akin technology in 2017, when she realized the need to better manage the home is hugely ignored. Besides, she realized that women unequally bear the burden of household work. A United Nations’ report estimates that women do2.6 times the amount of unpaid care and domestic work that men do, or close to 30 hours per week in the U. S. alone.

While Yearsley pictures an army of robots someday helping with routine homemade tasks, the first display for Akin will take time and money. Akin has received some early seed money from a handful of investors, and was recently selected as a finalist for tech giant LG Nova’s Mission for the Future program, an annual challenge that seeks to identify businesses having potential to improve life and lead society into the future.

1. What might the Akin’s AI system suggest?

A．Consuming more drinks to enjoy yourself.	B．Staying up late working to make more money.
C．Spending more time staying with your family.	D．Purchasing products that may attract you.

2. What made Yearsley develop the Akin’s AI system?

A．The high cost of current home devices.	B．Akin’s becoming a finalist for a program.
C．Financial support from investors.	D．Heavy burden of housewives.

3. What can be used to describe the Akin’s AI system?

A．Questionable and unhealthy.	B．Unstable and insecure.
C．Thoughtful and innovative.	D．Mature and ideal.

4. What’s the purpose of the text?

A．To introduce a futuristic AI system.	B．To compare two companies’ AI systems.
C．To call on people to care about housewives.	D．To seek support for an AI expert.