1 . In WALL-E, a science fiction movie, a little robot is responsible for cleaning a world covered in garbage; a world where there is no longer room for anything else, not even humans! The film encourages common people, worldwide leaders and businessmen to ask the obvious question: What can be done to prevent something like this happening? For some, microfactories could become the most promising answer.
Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist and engineer in Sydney, Australia, has discovered a solution to the challenging waste problem. Her one-stop approach could go beyond the existing recycling processes. Her waste microfactories mainly target electronic waste and plastic, and are essentially little trash processors. These can transform waste into new materials with the help of thermal(热的) technology.
“Using our green manufacturing technologies, these microfactories can transform waste, enabling local businesses and communities to not only solve local waste problems, but to develop a commercial opportunity from the valuable materials that are created,” she explains.
Humans generate 2.01 billion tons of solid waste annually. And as the fastest growing waste stream, approximately 53.6 million tons of e-waste were generated globally by 2019. Despite current efforts, only 17.4 percent of this is known to have been collected and properly recycled. Meanwhile, worldwide e-waste generation is expected to continue to grow, reaching almost 80 million tons by 2030.
Although the most effective solution to the waste challenges would not generate as much trash, Sahajwalla microfactories provide hope for all the waste that already exists. Her solution not only decreases the amount of waste, but it also improves its management and enables new manufacturing opportunities around the new materials created.
WALL-E shows us the best and the worst of what human beings have to offer. It shows where the world is headed unless the human species slows down and stops developing at the current pace. But it also provides hope, showing that we also have a great power to change and improve.
1. What’s the aim to write the first paragraph?| A．To tell us what WALL-E is about. | B．To show the wide future of robots. |
| C．To introduce the use of microfactories. | D．To praise Veena Sahajwalla’s contribution |
| A．She is a top scientist in Australia. | B．She has been devoted to garbage factories. |
| C．Her waste microfactories are practical. | D．Her trash processors are being widely promoted. |
| A．By making contrasts. | B．By listing relevant figures. |
| C．By summarizing the above. | D．By analyzing cause and effect. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Unclear. | D．Indifferent |
2 . Have you ever left a cinema shaking your head after seeing a film with an ending that you could see coming from ten kilometres away? Most of us have. A film can have many stars and beautiful locations, but if the screenplay is poor, it’s unlikely that it will be a hit with audiences.
Being a screenwriter can be a profitable career and there is no shortage of candidates for the job. However, although the major studios receive thousands of scripts every year, only a few make it to the silver screen. The studios have very set ideas about what makes a good screenplay and if a script doesn’t match them, it hasn’t got a chance.
The art of screenwriting is greatly influenced by Poetics, the book on the theory of literature written by Aristotle in about 350 B.C. Aristotle proposed that a storyline should consist of three parts: a beginning in which we meet the characters and the place where the action occurs, a middle in which a problem that has to be overcome is introduced and finally an end, where the problem, at least in Hollywood films, is solved. It may surprise you to discover that the ancient Greek philosopher’s ideas should have so much influence on such a modern art form. It will surprise you even more to learn that his ideas are more popular than ever.
In the seventies, Hollywood scriptwriter, Syd Field, discovered that films that followed Aristotle’s plan did much better at the box office than those that didn’t. Field studied the most successful films and came up with a more rigorous version of Aristotle’s theory. The beginning of the film should last no longer than half an hour, at the end of which a turning point must occur. Field even suggested that the perfect moment for this turning point is the twenty-seventh minute! Then, for the following sixty minutes the main character is involved in facing the challenge that has been set. At the midpoint of this period, the writer may introduce another turning point which must be a reversal in the character’s fortunes. The final quarter of the film is for the climax of the story, as the character fights to achieve their aims.
Does it sound familiar? It should do, because virtually all Hollywood films follow this scheme. So the next time you accuse a film of being unoriginal, you’ll know who to blame!
1. If a script________, it has a greater chance to be chosen by studios.| A．is written by a well-known screenwriter |
| B．matches the audience’s set idea of a good story |
| C．agrees with studios’ standards of a good screenplay |
| D．is considered to be a good screenplay by the public |
| A．The setting should be revealed in the beginning. |
| B．A problem has to be introduced in the beginning. |
| C．The solution doesn’t necessarily appear in the end. |
| D．More time should be devoted to the end than to the middle. |
| A．modern and relaxed |
| B．thorough and strict |
| C．simple but efficient |
| D．complex but understandable |
| A．Why many Hollywood films look similar to each other. |
| B．How a storyline can be improved based on Aristotle’s theory. |
| C．What kinds of Hollywood films appeals more to the audience. |
| D．Who should be to blame for the decline of the quality of films. |
3 . About 20 years ago, Daniel Hoffman, a classically trained violinist met a young musician playing in the town square in Marrakech, an ancient city in Morocco. They communicated in the little French they both knew, but their main common language was music. On the back of a motorbike of the fellow violinist, Hoffman weaved through the back streets of the city and then learned his first lessons in Andalusian music, the classical music of North Africa.
That experience gave birth to an idea: What would it be like to try to learn how to play different violin styles around the world in just one week? Oh. yes, and at the end of that week, play a concert. He even got a name for the concept “musical extreme sports”.
It took him almost two decades to launch that dream with a friend, who introduced him to the wonders of Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects. Up to now, the dream has taken the form of a new documentary currently airing on American public television stations called “Otherwise, It’s Just Firewood.”
In the documentary, Hoffman travels to County Clare, Ireland, where he takes lessons with James Kelly, a master Irish violin player, for less than a week and then performs together with him in front of an audience, many of whom are star Irish musicians.
The film is what Hoffman hopes will be the first of an eventual series of short documentaries, showing him learning to play the violin in a variety of styles, including the folk music of south India, Sweden, Greece, Romania, and West Virginia.
That would add to his extensive repertoire (全部曲目), which already includes Balkan, Middle Eastern, and Turkish styles. “The big joke is what’s the difference between the fiddle and the violin? It’s the person who plays it,” says Niall Keegan, a traditional flute player. “It’s the music you make on it that makes it Irish or English or French or classical or jazz or whatever else. It’s how we imagine it and how we create through it that make it and give it character.”
“Otherwise, it’s just firewood,” he says, words that became the film’s title.
1. Where does Hoffman’s idea of musical extreme sports come from?| A．His exploration of the local music. |
| B．His cooperation with the young violinist. |
| C．His sightseeing tour on a motorbike seat. |
| D．His constantly changing taste in violin styles. |
| A．help Hoffman to become a master violin player |
| B．are funded by American public television stations |
| C．introduce different styles of musicians around the world |
| D．record Hoffman’s experience in learning various violin styles |
| A．the power of diversified artistic expression |
| B．the pleasure in learning traditional music |
| C．the technique of instrument playing |
| D．the importance of famous artists |
4 . Human brains are social organs — they’re neurobiologically (神经生物) wired for connection. But just as our students’ brains can be unfavorably affected by negative mentality and misfortunes, so can their parents’ brains, affecting relationships with teachers.
What feels hurtful from a parent could be a worn-out brain, one that is trying to survive and so is defending itself and paying close attention to experiences or relationships that may feel terrifying or unsafe.
There are times when we may feel harmed by a parent, and we too can fire off sharp words if we re feeling misunderstood and angry. We may also unintentionally increase a conflict while moving farther away from cooperation and solutions. A poorly regulated educator cannot help a poorly regulated parent.
I myself have been blamed for my son’s upsetting behaviors when he was struggling emotionally. Eleven years ago, when Andrew became a newcomer in high school, the anxiety and anger masking the fear he felt almost destroyed our family. We felt helpless and often hopeless.
In the middle of this scary time, I received an email from Andrew’s Spanish teacher.
Dear Dr. Desautels,
I wanted you to know that Andrew finished his project today and had a smile on his face. I just wanted to share that with you.
Please let me know how I may serve you in the days to come.
Mr: Pickett
This email changed everything for me as a mom and as an educator. It helped our family experience a bit of hope and inspiration. Andrew worked hard for Mr. Pickett that term and ended with an A. He failed most of his other classes, but because of the connection this teacher created with Andrew, he felt heard, seen, and appreciated.
One thing I’ve learned is that I must regulate my own brain state before I interact with parents. Mr. Pickett’s effort to foster a positive relationship with my family and my son has shown me a way to support both students and their parents.
1. Why does a parent say hurtful things?| A．They dislike teachers. | B．They are easily upset. |
| C．They are much too stressed. | D．They are willing to let their anger out. |
| A．He was physically ill. | B．He had emotional suffering. |
| C．He tried to escape his family. | D．He quarreled with his teacher. |
| A．He wanted to change everything. |
| B．He was persuaded by his parents. |
| C．He realized the importance of the subject. |
| D．He got care and appreciation from the teacher. |
| A．Students. | B．Teachers. | C．Parents. | D．Doctors. |
5 . Because of the politics and history of Africa, wild animals there, which are interested in finding food and water not in politics, are in trouble. In the past, there were no borders between African countries, and the animals could travel freely according to the season or the weather. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the continent was divided up into colonies and then into nations. Fences were put up along the borders, so the animals could no longer move about freely.
Some countries decided to protect their animals by creating national parks. Kruger National Park, created in South Africa in 1926, was one of the first. By the end of the twentieth century, it had become an important tourist attraction and a home for many kinds of animals. Among these, there were about 9,000 elephants, too many for the space in the park. It was not possible to let any elephants leave the park, however. They would be killed by hunters, or they might damage property or hurt people. South African park officials began to look for other solutions to the elephant problem.
As early as 1990, the governments of South Africa and Mozambique had begun talking about forming a new park together. In 1997, Zimbabwe agreed to add some of its land to the park. A new park would combine the Kruger National Park with parks in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. There would be no national border fences within the park, so that elephants and other animals from the crowded Kruger Park could move to areas of Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This new “transfrontier” park would cover 13,150 square miles (35,000 square kilometers). The idea of a transfrontier park interested several international agencies, which gave money and technical assistance to Mozambique to help build its part of the park.
In April 2001, the new park was opened, with new borders and a new name: The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. A border gate was opened between Kruger National Park and Mozambique, and seven elephants were allowed through. They were the first of 1,000 elephants that would be transferred to the world’s greatest animal park.
1. The passage begins with________.| A．a common sense | B．a fact |
| C．a mysteries event | D．a theory |
| A．It was not big enough to hold all its elephants. |
| B．A lot of hunters slipped in to hunt animals. |
| C．As the first national park in Africa, it was not well designed. |
| D．Too much tourism did great damage to it. |
| A．It is divided into three parts by fences along borders. |
| B．It is built mainly for elephants rather than other animals. |
| C．It is located across the border of South Africa and Mozambique. |
| D．It is the result of a talk between Mozambique and some international agencies. |
| A．how international aid has functioned in Africa |
| B．how the Kruger National Park will save its elephants |
| C．how three African countries cooperated to make a new park |
| D．how many African animals have suffered because of natural disasters |
6 . An employee whose personality traits closely match the traits that are ideal for his or her job is likely to earn more than an employee whose traits are less congruent (一致的), according to new research.
Findings from previous research have shown that some personality traits are generally beneficial when it comes to a work environment. Being highly conscientious (勤勉认真的), lead researcher Jaap J.A. Denissen notes, is connected with being hard-working and well-organized, qualities that are typically prized in employees. But Denissen questioned the idea that there is an ideal personality type. The researchers thought that the match, or mismatch, between a person's traits and job requirements, might be important when it comes to important outcomes like income.
The researchers developed a new way of directly comparing the fit between a given employee and a given job, using the well-established Big Five personality traits to quantify (量化) the traits that a job requires. The researchers examined personality, yearly income, and jobs of 8,458 persons living in Germany.
The results showed that fit really does matter, at least when it comes to extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experiences. For these three traits, greater congruence between an employee's own personality and a job's requirements was connected with higher income. Importantly, the data also showed that employees who were more agreeable, more conscientious, or more open to experiences than their jobs required actually earned less than people who had congruent levels of those traits.
The researchers note that additional studies will be required to understand how job experiences, job satisfaction, and job performance might influence the association between the individual job personality fit and income. The results of the present study do suggest that achieving the right fit requires a special approach to knowing both personal traits and job-related traits. Paying attention to the approach could have important implications for both employees and employers.
1. What does the previous research show?| A．Conscientious people earn much. |
| B．Certain personality traits are advantageous in jobs. |
| C．Job requirements are decisive in choosing an employee. |
| D．People's income can be predicted simply by the work environment. |
| A．How the new research was done. |
| B．A study on Big Five personality traits. |
| C．Denissen's opinions on previous research. |
| D．Why certain personalities are needed for a job. |
| A．Employees with a strong personality earn more than others. |
| B．Having too little of a given trait will cause less job satisfaction. |
| C．A perfect individual job personality fit contributes to higher income. |
| D．Conscientious employees earn more than those who are open to experiences. |
| A．It still needs further studies. |
| B．It has been applied to job interviews. |
| C．It will help people find the right job easily. |
| D．It has proved the previous study totally wrong. |
7 . Eyes are said to be the window to the soul — but researchers at Google see them as indicators of a person’s health. A study suggests that Google’s computers can predict whether someone is at risk of a heart attack by analyzing a photograph of their retina (视网膜).
The research relied on a convolutional neural network, a type of deep-learning algorithm (算法) that is transforming how biologists analyse images. Google’s approach is part of a wave of new deep-learning applications that are making image processing easier and could even identify overlooked biological phenomena.
The approach took off in the tech sector around 2012, but scientists struggled to apply the networks to biology, in part because of cultural differences between fields. “Take a group of smart biologists and put them in a room of smart computer scientists and they will talk two different languages to each other, and have different mindsets,” says Daphne Koller, chief computing officer at Calico.
However, through years of study, some scientists have seen a shift that has never happened before in how well machine learning can accomplish biological tasks that have to do with imaging. Others are most excited by the idea that analysing images with convolutional neural networks could unknowingly reveal unnoticeable biological phenomena, encouraging biologists to ask questions they might not have considered before.
Such discoveries could help to advance disease research. If deep learning can reveal markers of cancer in an individual cell, it could help to bring about new assumptions about how cancer spreads.
Other machine-learning experts in biology have set their sights on new frontiers, now that convolutional neural networks are taking flight for image processing. “Imaging is important, but so is chemistry and molecular (分子) data,” says Alex Wolf, a computational biologist. Wolf hopes to improve neural networks so that they can analyse gene expression. “I think there will be a very big breakthrough in the next few years,” he says.
1. What do we know about a convolutional neural network?| A．It can predict diseases. | B．It is a learning machine. |
| C．It can transform images. | D．It is an image processor. |
| A．Barriers exist in certain fields. | B．Scientists have different research aims. |
| C．Characters prevent scientific cooperation. | D．Technical limitation is the biggest challenge. |
| A．many biological questions get answered |
| B．it drives biologists to explore the field widely |
| C．image analysis can go on without being noticed |
| D．many deep-learning applications have been improved |
| A．Neural networks are promising. | B．It is convenient to process images. |
| C．It is necessary to work on new frontiers. | D．Analyzing gene expression is imperfect. |
8 . Plants cannot run or hide, so they need other strategies to avoid being eaten. Some curl up their leaves, others produce chemicals to make themselves taste bad if they sense animals drooling on them, chewing them up or laying eggs on them—all signals of an attack. New research now shows some flora can feel a plant-eating animal well before it launches an attack, letting a plant prepare a preemptive（先发制人的）defense that even works against other pest species.
When ecologist John Orrock of the University of Wisconsin-Madison sprayed snail slime—a liquid the animals release as they slide along—onto soil, nearby tomato plants appeared to notice. They increased their levels of an enzyme（酶）, which is known to prevent plant-eating animals. “None of the plants were ever actually attacked,” Orrock says. “We just gave them cues that suggested an attack was coming, and that was enough to cause big changes in their chemistry.”
Initially Orrock found this defense worked against snails; in the latest study, his team measured the slimy warning’s impact on another potential threat. The investigators found that hungry caterpillars（毛虫）, which usually eat tomato leaves greedily, had no appetite for them after the plants were exposed to snail slime and activated their chemical resistance. This nonspecific defense may be a strategy that benefits the plants by further improving their overall possibilities of survival, says Orrock, who reported the results with his colleagues in March in Oecologia.
The finding that a snail’s approach can cause a plant response that affects a different animal made Richard Karban curious, a plant communications expert, who was not involved in the study. “It is significant that the plants are responding before being damaged and that these cues are having such far-ranging effects, ” Karban says. The research was comprehensive, he adds, but he wonders how the tomato plants felt chemicals in snail slime that never actually touched them.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Orrock says. He hopes future research will make out the mechanisms that enable plants to sense these relatively distant cues.
1. John Orrock sprayed a liquid onto soil near tomato plants to ________.| A．make them grow better |
| B．give them a warning |
| C．keep plant-eating animals away |
| D．inform plant-eating animals of danger |
| A．To introduce another animal. |
| B．To confirm the result of the study. |
| C．To appeal to people to protect animals. |
| D．To analyze different resistance chemicals. |
| A．How tomato plants become aware of danger. |
| B．What the chemicals in the snail slime are. |
| C．Whether the research is of practical value. |
| D．What the finding of the research is. |
| A．Watchful Plants. | B．Greedy Animals. |
| C．A Snail’s Approach. | D．A Defense Attack. |
9 . Thinking about the past week, did any of you forget where you put your phone? Did you have a word stuck on the tip of your tongue? You couldn’t remember the name of the movie a friend recommended? What is going on here? Is your memory failing?
It’s not.
The other has something to do with stimulus(刺激物). For example, the tip of the tongue is one of the most common experiences of memory failure.
So when you walk into a room and suddenly don’t know why you’re there, you’re not going crazy or getting Alzheimer’s disease, and your memory isn’t terrible. Go back to the room you were in before you landed in this one and imagine the clues that were there.
| A．One necessary factor is attention. |
| B．It’s doing exactly what it's supposed to do. |
| C．These imperfections are simply the factory settings. |
| D．Our brains tend to remember what is meaningful and forget what isn’t. |
| E．You’re trying to come up with a word, but you cannot find it in your memory. |
| F．It will instantly deliver what you were completely confused about a moment ago. |
| G．Memory is amazing and is essential for the functioning of almost everything we do. |
10 . An exhibition of Song Buyun’s works is now running at the museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition will run through Feb 27.
These days, a long awaited snowfall in Beijing easily creates a fanfare (轰动) online. One needn’t go outside to feel people’s excitement at a blanket of snow, as a glimpse of the photos and videos uploaded on social media will be enough.
Seventy years ago, however, while snow was common in Beijing, cameras were seldom to be seen; few were able to record the scenery of this historical city. One of the few was Song Buyun, the late oil painter and water-colorist who walked the streets and recorded the beauty of Beijing’s centuries-old architecture.
Cultural landmarks frozen in time are displayed in Song’s Beijing landscape series, picturing the peaceful atmosphere of the city’s historical spots over the course of a year, such as Tiantan. He documented people visiting the Palace Museum, swimming in lakes and clearing snow off the streets.
Dying in 1992, Song didn’t have a chance to show this body of work during his lifetime. It was eight years later that these paintings were made public for the first time at an exhibition held in his memory.
“Song’s paintings show the harmony between architecture and its surroundings,” says Fan Di’an, dean of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. “The colors are vivid and arranged tastefully to give a refreshing look to these old buildings. Combining skills of Chinese and Western art, his works preserve the varied landscape of a city, and under his brushwork, Song injected rich emotions, allowing his work to stand the test of time.”
1. What can we know about Song’s works in the exhibition?| A．They were made with the help of cameras. |
| B．They focus on Beijing’s cultural landmarks. |
| C．They show people’s hard life in Beijing decades ago. |
| D．They have drawn wide attention and good comments online. |
| A．In 1951. | B．In 1992. | C．In 2000. | D．In 2020. |
| A．The colors Song used were very special. |
| B．Some architecture and surroundings don’t exist. |
| C．They are the only way to record the historic scenery. |
| D．Song’s skills and emotion make the works valuable. |
| A．Frozen in Time: an Old Beijing in Song Buyun’s Exhibition |
| B．Song Buyun: a Great Colour Master Who Painted Mountains |
| C．A Symphony of Colours: An Exhibition Giving You a Feast of Eyes |
| D．Landmarks in Beijing: the Harmony Architecture and Culture |
