1 . UChicago Pritzker Molecular Engineering Prof. Y. Shirley Meng’s Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC)has created the world’s first anode-free sodium (无阳极钠) solid-state battery. With this research, the LESC has brought the reality of inexpensive, fast- charging, high-capacity batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage closer than ever.
”Although there have been previous sodium, solid-state, and anode-free batteries, no one has been able to successfully combine these three ideas until now,“ said UC San Diego PhD candidate Grayson Deysher, first author of a new paper outlining the team’s work.
The paper demonstrates a new sodium battery architecture with stable cycling for several hundred cycles. By removing the anode and using inexpensive, abundant sodium instead of lithium(锂), this new form of battery will be more affordable and environmentally friendly to produce. Through its innovative solid-state design, the battery also will be safe and powerful. This work is both an advance in the science and a necessary step to fill the battery scaling gap needed to shift the world economy off fossil fuels.
The lithium commonly used for batteries isn’t that common. It makes up about 20 parts per million of the Earth’s crust(地壳), compared to sodium, which makes up 20,000 parts per million. This scarcity, combined with the rising demand for the lithium-ion batteries for laptops, phones and EVs, have sent prices skyrocketing, putting the needed batteries further out of reach.
Sodium, common in ocean water and soda ash mining, is an inherently more environmentally friendly battery material. The LESC research has made it a powerful one as well.
”Sodium solid-state batteries are usually seen as a far-off-in-the-future technology, but we hope that our work can encourage more push into the sodium area by demonstrating that it can indeed work well, even better than the lithium version in some cases,“ Deysher said.
The ultimate goal? Meng expects an energy future with a variety of clean, inexpensive battery options that store renewable energy, scaled to fit society’s needs.
1. What do we know about the new sodium battery?| A．It’s on sale now. | B．It’s advanced. |
| C．It charges slow. | D．It’s expensive. |
| A．It will make batteries more expensive. |
| B．It will shift the form of world economy. |
| C．It will meet the need for EVs. |
| D．It will reduce dependence on fossil fuels. |
| A．shortage | B．storage | C．strategy | D．source |
| A．Find more sources of material for battery. |
| B．Put sodium battery technology to market. |
| C．Offer diverse clean cheap battery choices. |
| D．Scale to fit society’s need for development. |
The waiter carefully placed our food on the table. “Enjoy your meal. Let me know if you need anything,” he said with a polite smile as he walked off to serve the other guests in the restaurant.
Raul lifted his fork to begin eating before I interrupted him, “Wait, can I take a picture for my blog?”
He sighed, “Go ahead.” I took out my cell phone and took the picture. Then, I spent the next thirty seconds deciding on how to make a perfect post.
By the time our ice cream dessert came around, I was getting ready to take my fifth picture of the night. Raul rolled his eyes. I quickly had a shot of the dessert before asking him, “Sorry, am I bothering you by taking pictures?”
“I’m not going to lie. It’s a little annoying, ” he said hesitantly. “But it’s okay. I want you to do what makes you happy.”
I put away the phone, a little bit embarrassed, and decided to just enjoy our dinner. While we conversed over dessert, his statement lingered(逗留)in the back of my mind. It wasn’t until I reached home that I really thought over the issue. Did taking pictures of my life to show someone whom I barely spoke to make me happy? Well, there was definitely that indescribable feeling I felt when my post gained over twenty likes. It felt good; it felt like I won, But, what was the prize?
I looked through the stream of photos that I had posted of Raul and me. Most were of our time spent at fine restaurants or the latest attractions near our city, and the brand name gifts we bought each other on holidays. I clicked on the profiles of other people I knew and noticed a similar trend.
Well, when my post gained over twenty likes, it felt good. But does it really matter?
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I called Raul that night.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“How about doing something meaningful for at least the next year?” I answered.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I was still at school, when dad arrived home with a homeless dog. Her tail wagged all the way. Mom and dad fed her and gave her a bath. I had always wanted a dog. My parents told me when I was old enough and responsible, I could have one. Well I guess they figured the time was right.
I hopped off the bus, not knowing what awaited inside for me. I walked through the door, and to my surprise a white and black puppy with a red bow stuck to her head, greeted me with many many puppy kisses. A very special friendship was born that day.
Now she needed a name. My older brother laughed at her and said her tail was special. It doesn’t wag its tail back and forth, it goes in a circle. He motioned his finger around his ear. “She’s squirrely”, he said. Thus my puppy, Squirrely got her name. She was a smart dog. I taught her to play hide and seek. We would play for hours, spending our days learning and growing together.
Eleven years we were together, best of friends. Illnesses and old age set in on her. My parents knew what had to be done, but they stood back and let me find and make the decision myself.
She was suffering so much and the medicine didn’t seem to help anymore. She could barely walk. I looked into those deep brown eyes and realized it was time to let her go.
I carried her into the vet’s (兽医的) office, placed her on the table. Squirrely leaned her head forward, gave a lick to my hand. As if to say she understood, and stay strong. Her tail was wagging in that circle as it always did.
The vet gave her a sedative (镇静剂) first, for the final shot was given on her front paw, and that was painful. She went to sleep, but her tail still wagged.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then the vet asked before giving the final shot, “Are you sure?” _
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I didn’t go back to her grave for many years, but recently I went.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Benched?
Anxious, Devin sat in the back seat of the car. “I have so much energy!” he said. “Do I really have to sit and watch?”
“It’s just for one more game.” Devin’s father said as he drove into the parking lot by the outdoor basketball court. “It’s better to stay on the safe side.”
Devin sighed. “It’s been a week since I got injured,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt at all.”
But it did hurt when he was in last week’s game. He twisted to avoid a defender and ended up spraining his ankle. “The doctor said 10 days,” his father reminded him. “No jumping. You can ease back into basketball next week.”
Devin ran his fingers over the logo on his basketball uniform. He was ready for the game, but he knew he’d be spending it on the bench. The summer season was short — just eight games —and he’d already missed one.
“I just want to help my team win,” he said as he got out of the car. “I can’t do that if I’m not on the court.”
Devin loved hearing the thump (沉闷的撞击声), thump, thump of basketballs and the feeling of excitement before every game. Hip-hop music from the loudspeaker made him feel like dancing. The energy in the air would make it even harder for him not to participate.
Before the game, Coach reminded the players to make smart passes and play tough defense. Without Devin’s leadership and skill, his team would need a huge effort.
By halftime, Coach praised the players for their hard work. With Devin unable to play, the team had only one extra player, so no one was getting much rest.
The game was fierce. The score stood at 47 to 49 with three minutes left in the game. Devin sat down and rubbed his hands together. “I’m a loser here on the bench. I can do nothing to help.” he thought.
Coach called a timeout(比赛暂停) and gathered the players to give some advice.
注意：1. 续写词数为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答.
Suddenly, Coach turned to Devin. “Do you have anything to add?”
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The game was over and his team had a two-point victory!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . Pindar Van Arman is a painter, but he’s also a software designer. He has built some machines and worked on a DARPA challenge team in California to build a self-driving car. His latest project? A robot painter, BitPaintr.
BitPaintr is Van Arman’s fifth robot in 10 years. Earlier versions included devices that produced simpler paintings with algorithms (算法). But the idea for BitPaintr is simple: A user just uploads a picture, and it can paint totally on its own and develop its own style.
Although his friends joke that he has invented a really expensive, slow, bad painter, Van Arman says teaching a machine how to be creative has helped him get to the bottom of what creativity is — and appreciate it.
“When you’re trying to teach a machine to do something that’s easy for humans, it really makes you sit back and see what humans are doing,” he says.
So what is creativity, then, if a robot with a paintbrush can be — or appear to be — just as creative as a human with a paintbrush?
Mark Riedl, a professor at the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing, says it depends on how you define creativity. “There is creativity and Creativity,” Riedl says. “Being ‘creative’ usually has something to do with the little things that we do hundreds of times in our daily lives. They could be creative, but usually aren’t. To be ‘Creative’ is to have an imagination that will have a huge impact on a social level — the Picassos and the Mozarts of the world; the people who have produced something that’s taken on this additional level of meaning.”
Riedl admits what robots create is far from human-level quality art, but he sees robots entering the creative process as a positive thing.
“We want the computers to keep up with us,” he says. “And thanks to researchers like Van Arman, it seems like they will, although they will not replace us, but to help us to be more creative.”
1. Which is a new quality of BitPaintr?| A．Simplicity. | B．Creativity. | C．Speed. | D．Profitability. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Doubtful. | C．Unclear. | D．Hopeful. |
| A．They will defeat the greatest artists soon. |
| B．They can produce “Creative” things by themselves. |
| C．They will learn more from the Picassos and the Mozarts. |
| D．They can help us to do daily things in more “creative” ways. |
| A．Can BitPaintr-like Robots Replace Artists in the Future? |
| B．Why Do People Have Sharply Different Views on AI Robots? |
| C．What Is the Difference Between the Two Kinds of Creativity? |
| D．Can BitPaintr Be Considered a “Creative” Painting Software? |
6 . While socializing comes naturally for some, it can be a struggle for others. Shyness is a normal, common personality trait (特征).
Get Excited About A New Adventure
You may have been shy most of your life.
Pay Attention To Your Words
Practice Mindfulness (正念)
Mindfulness involves drawing your attention to the present and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.
Take Small Steps
Getting started can be the hardest part of learning how to be more social for those who are shy.
| A．If so, that’s a part of you that you’re used to |
| B．Sometimes the best path toward addressing a fear is exposure |
| C．Mindfulness can help reduce symptoms of social anxiety disorder |
| D．Taking time to tend to your appearance can make a big difference |
| E．How we communicate and characterize ourselves can be powerful |
| F．However, shyness can make it hard for people to connect with others and achieve their goals |
| G．But engaging with people doesn’t have to be practiced as an important work presentation |
7 . What comes to mind when you think about chocolate? A candy bar at Halloween? Ice cream on a hot day?
For Ibrahim, a 12-year-old boy from the West African country of Ghana, chocolate is not about sweet treats; it is about bitter work.
To change the harmful practices like this, some farms use an approach called Fairtrade.
Consumers like you can play a role as well. You can buy Fairtrade chocolate if possible, pressure candy companies to change their labour practices, or ask local stores to sell Fairtrade products.
Chocolate has a hidden story that affects children like Ibrahim—children who want a happy future just like you do.
| A．You have the power to change the story. |
| B．The labels on chocolate do not tell his story. |
| C．Fairtrade is a way of doing business that prohibits child labour. |
| D．You can also take action through the Fairtrade Schools network. |
| E．On many farms, children like Ibrahim perform difficult farming tasks. |
| F．Cocoa trees grow in the tropical climates of Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. |
| G．With more income, farmers can pay adult workers and can send their children to school. |
In 1940, I worked in the checkroom of the railway station. I saw everybody that came up the stairs.
Harry was a young man who came to the station and waited at the head of the stairs for the passengers from the 9:05 train.
I remembered seeing Harry that first evening. He wasn’t much more than a thin, anxious kid then. He was all dressed up and I knew he was meeting his sister, who he hadn’t seen for many years.
Well, the passengers came up and I had to get busy. I didn’t look toward the stairs again until nearly time for the 9:18 and I was very surprised to see that the Harry was still there. His sister didn’t come on the 9:18 either, nor on the 9:40, and when the passengers from the 10:02 had all arrived and left, Harry was looking pretty upset. Pretty soon he came close to my window so I called out and asked him what his sister looked like.
“She’s small and dark. She is nineteen years old and very neat in the way she walk,” he said. “She has a face that has lots of spirit. I mean she can get mad but she never stays mad for long, and her eyebrows come to a little point in the middle. She’s got a brown fur, but maybe she isn’t wearing it.”
“I couldn’t remember seeing anybody like that,” I told him.
He showed me the telegram he’d received: ARRIVE THURSDAY. MEET ME AT THE STATION. MAY. It was from Omaha, Nebraska. “Well,” I finally said, “why don’t you phone to your home? She’s probably called there if she got in ahead of you.”
He gave me a sick look. “I’ve only been in the town for two days. We were going to meet and then drive down to the south of the city where I’ve got a job. She doesn’t have my address.”
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
When I came on duty the next day, Harry was still there and I asked more about his sister.
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One day, after about two weeks, I thought I could say something encouraging to him.
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内容包括：
1. 自信的重要性：
2, 从缺乏信心到有自信的转变过程。
注意：1. 词数120左右，短文的开头和结尾已为你写好（不计入总词数）；
2. 可根据内容适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Boys and girls,
Life is but a hard and bitter journey.
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Thank you.
I sat down to watch a recorded TV play after my husband left for his night-shift job. Not ten minutes into my favorite TV play, I was alerted to the unmistakable beep (哔哔声) of the smoke alarm indicating a low battery. Sighing, I paused my program and got up from the sofa.
I got a stepladder, climbed up it and quickly replaced the battery. The second I sat down and started watching my play, the beep started again. Evidently, the replacement battery was dead, too, so I went through all the motions again. I’d barely picked up the remote and pressed Play a third time when the alarm went off yet again. I gave out some unladylike comments. This time, I was one rung down when the same thing happened.
By then, I was out of all the batteries. I had to search the entire house for some electronic equipment that housed the same kind. I finally found one in an old clock. I crossed my fingers, hoping the battery still had some juice, and popped it in.
No luck! That round, plastic thing that was designed to save lives was about to make me have a nervous breakdown! Frustrated, I pulled the entire thing out of its “nest” and actually yelled at it to shut up before I tore it up into pieces. Holding it, I climbed back down and almost killed myself by practically falling over the dog and two cats who always watched every move I made and every breath I took. Driving my pet s away, I threw the alarm on the table and reminded myself to sleep fully clothed in case I smelled smoke. Carbon-monoxide (一氧化碳) detection would be taken care of by our back up alarm downstairs.
I glared at the troublesome item once more before walking off to seat myself on the sofa again. My program was already forty-five minutes into the play because I’d forgotten to pause it. Within seconds, that sound hit my ears again!
注意：
1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I realized that my frustration was not the solution to the problem.
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The technician arrived shortly.
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