1 . Universe started in the third grade when she and her father watched a blood moon — a total lunar eclipse (月食) — outside their Skokie house. “It is just really cool how the universe can change and how something like that happens,” Dobek said.
Now a seventh grader at East Prairie Elementary School, Dobek recently won the national Discovery Education Lockheed-Martin Beyond Challenge by designing a space station for traveling to Mars.
Dobek competed by handing in a two-minute video where she presents her design.
“My design will not only ensure the safety of the astronauts (宇航员) but also make sure their comfort is out of this world,” she says in her video.
Dobek’s design calls for building the Mars Storage Station to store plentiful supplies. In the video, Dobek explains how her spacecraft (宇宙飞船) — the Adventurer — will land in a space station. Dobek’s design includes physical activity for the astronauts. They can choose their exercise machines and virtual (虚拟的) reality environment. So they will be able to watch downloaded shows and even see places on Earth such as their homes.
Dobek said she began her project by performing her research and then she constructed the design over three weeks to a month, working on it whenever she could, including on weekends.
When Andrea Smeeton, her teacher, saw the video and her design before they were sent, she said she had a feeling that she could win. “I don’t know why but maybe it was the excitement and the detail in the project,” Smeeton said. “I have taught for a long time and many of my students are gifted but this project is just very creative and it gives hope to a space program.”
Dobek and her parents traveled to Washington D.C. in April where they learned Dobek had won. When she texted her teacher the happy results, Smeeton admitted that she cried.
“I want to tell other kids to follow their dreams,” Dobek said. “Whatever they want to do, they should kind of just push for it. They should always try their best.”
1. What change did Dobek show after watching the total lunar eclipse?| A．She determined to be a scientist. |
| B．She took to working with her father. |
| C．She got interested in the universe. |
| D．She gave up her dream of becoming an astronaut. |
| A．It replaces the role of the Adventurer. |
| B．It enables astronauts to connect with their family. |
| C．It ensures the safety of the supplies in the spacecraft. |
| D．It aims to make life in the Mars space station comfortable. |
| A．She felt it was pretty amazing. |
| B．She felt it was a little disappointing. |
| C．She felt it was less fun than she had expected. |
| D．She felt it was as good as other students’ designs. |
| A．Energetic and friendly. |
| B．Productive and selfless. |
| C．Strong-willed and generous. |
| D．Forward-looking and inventive. |
2 . In your life, sometimes you may be asked to speak in front of a large group of people. Although it sounds a little scary, even those with stage fright can speak successfully to the group with adequate preparation.
Practice your speech before the big day.
Remember why you’ve been invited to speak. If you’re battling fear over speaking to a large group of people, keep your mind on the fact that you were selected for this important role. The speech organizers must have seen something valuable in you or your expertise.
Remember that fear of public speaking is very common.
Keep eye contact with the crowd.
| A．A good memory is really helpful. |
| B．Show appreciation to your audience. |
| C．Mention your audience in your speech. |
| D．The more you have it memorized, the better. |
| E．In fact, it’s normal to feel awkward or stressed out before a big speech. |
| F．Separate the crowd into three sections mentally as you get up to speak. |
| G．The knowledge of other people’s respect for you should reduce some of the fear. |
3 . Hidden in the trees, behind the leaves, look closely and you’ll see eyes staring back at you. This is SlothBot, a robot inspired by the famously slow animal-sloth (树獭).
For the next several months, visitors to the Atlanta Botanical Garden will be able to observe the testing of the new high-tech tool in the battle to save some of the world’s most endangered species. Researchers are testing the SlothBot near the Garden’s popular Canopy Walk.
Built to take advantage of the low-energy lifestyle of real sloths, SlothBot demonstrates how being slow can be ideal for certain applications. Powered by solar panels and using innovative power management technology, SlothBot moves along a cable strung between two large trees as it monitors temperature, weather, carbon dioxide levels, and other information in the Garden’s 30-acre midtown Atlanta forest.
“Slowness is a design principle of SlothBot,” says Magnus Egerstedt, professor and chair in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “That is not how robots are typically designed today, but being slow and energy-efficient will allow SlothBot to stay in the environment to observe things we can only see by being present continuously for months, or even years.”
About three feet long, SlothBot’s imaginative 3D-printed shell helps protect its motors, gearing, batteries and sensing equipment from the weather. The robot is programmed to move only when necessary, and will locate sunlight when its batteries need recharging.
“The most exciting goal we’ll demonstrate with SlothBot is the union of robotics and technology with conservation,” says Emily Coffey, vice president for conservation and research at the Garden. “We do conservation research on endangered plants and ecosystems around the world, and SlothBot will help us find new and exciting ways to advance our research and conservation goals.”
“SlothBot could do some of our research remotely and help us understand what’s happening with pollinators(传粉者), interactions between plants and animals, and other phenomena that are difficult to observe otherwise," Coffey adds.
1. What do the researchers expect SlothBot to do?| A．Guard the garden. | B．Attract visitors. |
| C．Protect real sloths. | D．Help endangered species. |
| A．SlothBot. | B．Slowness |
| C．A design principle. | D．A low-energy style. |
| A．It always stays still. | B．It can pollinate the plants. |
| C．Its shell provides protection for itself. | D．Its design will be used to study the ocean. |
| A．A Slow-moving Sloth Begins Life in a Garden |
| B．A New Robot Helps Raise Endangered Animals |
| C．A New Study Aids Conservation Efforts in Atlanta |
| D．A Conservation Robot Slowly Monitors Endangered Species |
4 . Eyes can speak
Much meaning can be conveyed, clearly, with our eyes, so it is often said that eyes can speak.
The same is true in our daily life. If you are stared at for more than necessary, you will look at yourself up and down to see if there is anything wrong with you.
Looking too long at someone may seem to be rude and aggressive.
However, when two people are engaged in a conversation, the speaker will only look into the listener’s eyes from time to time to make sure that the listener does pay attention to what the former is speaking.
Actually, eye contact should be made based on specific relationships and situations.
| A．That’s what normal eye contact is all about. |
| B．But things are different when it comes to staring at the opposite sex |
| C．Therefore, continuous eye contact is limited to lovers only. |
| D．On the contrary, it will give him away. |
| E．After all, nobody likes to be stared at for quite a long time. |
| F．Do you have such kind of experience? |
| G．If nothing goes wrong, you will feel annoyed at being stared at that way. |
5 . Back in the early 2000s, lots of people couldn’t have imagined life without alarm clocks, CD players, calendars, cameras, or lots of other devices. But along came the iPhone and other smartphones, and they took over the functions of dozens of things we used to think were essential.
The smartphone story could even be a model for fighting climate change; not because smartphones use a small part of the energy of all the things they replace - although they do-but because they represent a different approach to design in general. And that approach is to focus on function rather than form. That requires focusing on understanding the underlying problem，and then engineering a wide range of potential solutions. This approach could revolutionize how we think about energy efficiency.
Traditionally, improvements in energy efficiency have mostly focused on individual devices, which can be quite fruitful. But focusing on individual devices is like if Apple had spent effort inventing a better alarm clock, a better CD player, a better calendar, and a better camera. Now with an iPhone, we don’t need the standalone(独立运行的) devices at all, because it can function as all of them.
So when it comes to using energy efficiently, rather than just installing a more efficient heater，some people have focused instead on the desired function: staying warm. They designed and coated their house so well that they could get rid of their heater altogether, letting them heat their house with 99% less energy.
In the same way, rather than just making cars more efficient, what if we focus on the desired function-getting where we want when we want-and create an efficient transportation system where we can drive less or get rid of our personal cars entirely?
The most energy efficient car or heater is no car, or no heater, while still being able to get around and stay warm. In other words, it’s not thinking efficient, it’s thinking different.
1. What makes the iPhone a good example of environmental protection?| A．Perfecting individual devices. | B．Combining possible functions. |
| C．Adopting a simplest design. | D．Reducing the energy consumption. |
| A．Using recyclable materials. | B．Revolutionizing technologies. |
| C．Figuring out various solutions. | D．Concentrating on the essential needs. |
| A．Fruitless. | B．Out-of-date. | C．Adequate. | D．Perfect. |
| A．Think out of the box. | B．Differences make it unique. |
| C．Be economical with energy. | D．Step out of the comfort zone. |
6 . According to a well-known team of researchers, there are three kinds of smiles: genuine, false, and miserable. How can we distinguish them? In experiments where subjects are shown photos of fake and spontaneous smiles, people are pretty good at telling the difference. But in the real world, most people are less able to distinguish between them. They are distracted by other elements of communication such as speech, hand gestures, and other body movements. However, if they were to focus only on the face, they would probably know whether a smile was genuine or not.
This is because two muscles are involved in spontaneous smiling. The first muscle is a ring-like band of muscle around each eye. When it contracts, it causes what we know as “smiling eyes”. The other muscle extends from the top of the cheekbone to the corners of the mouth. It moves the mouth upwards when we smile. This muscle on its own produces what we call the “mouth smile. ”When people genuinely smile, in a spontaneous burst of positive emotions, the corners of the mouth move up and the muscles around the eyes also contract. It is these muscles that show that a smile is sincere.
Smiles can mean very different things in different countries. In the USA, for example, a smile is a friendly, positive gesture of trust. In contrast, in some Asian societies, people smile when they are happy, of course, but also when they feel anger, sadness, confusion, or embarrassment, perhaps to mask their true feelings.
Cultural norms aside, some people tend to smile more than others and that seems to indicate they are cheerful, optimistic types. But that relationship isn’t strictly true. Some people rarely smile and are quite happy. Others often have a smile on their face when they are actually feeling anxious. Human communication is full of uncertainties and we sometimes have a difficult time understanding each other, but a genuine, heartfelt smile that lights up a face can never be misunderstood.
1. What did the experiments show?| A．Most people tend to force a smile when taking pictures. |
| B．People wearing a fake smile can be genuine sometimes. |
| C．People using body language are often smiling genuinely. |
| D．Most people fail to detect fake smiles in reality due to distractions. |
| A．How to control facial muscles. | B．How smiles influence emotions. |
| C．How to distinguish different smiles. | D．How spontaneous smiling happens. |
| A．To show the problems brought by smiling. |
| B．To show some cultural differences of smiling. |
| C．To explain how people hide their true feelings. |
| D．To explain why smiling more can have positive effects. |
| A．Smiling has little to do with character. | B．Smiling can clear up misunderstandings. |
| C．People rarely smiling are hard to get on with. | D．Uncertain smiles cannot lead to close relationships. |
7 . Elon Musk isn’t content with electric cars, shooting people into orbit and populating Mars. He also wants to get inside your brain.
His goal is to develop devices that can provide treatment to neural (神经的) diseases and that may one day be powerful enough to put humanity on an equal footing with possible future super intelligent computers.
Not that it’s anywhere close to that yet.
In a video Friday obviously aimed at seeking new employees, Musk showed off the second version of the Neuralink, a device about the size of a large coin. It’s designed to be put in a person’s head. An earlier version of the device has to be placed behind an ear like a huge hearing aid.
But the young company is far from having a commercial product, which would involve complex human trials and governmental approval. Friday’s video showed three pigs. One, named Gertrude, had a Neuralink device in its brain.
Musk, a founder of both the electric car company Tesla Motors and the space-exploration firm SpaceX, has always been worried about that smarter AI machines will outwit humans. His solution? Link our brains to computers so we can keep up with or even win over them in intelligence!
Musk urged coders (程序员), engineers and especially people who have actually created a product to apply. “You don’t need to have brain experience,” he said, adding that this is something that can be learned on the job.
Connecting a brain up directly to electronics is not new. Doctors have already put similar devices in brains to treat such conditions as Parkinson’s disease. In 2016, researchers reported that a man regained some movement in his own hand with a similar brain implant. But Musk’s proposal goes beyond this. Neuralink wants to build on those existing medical treatments and work on devices that could link our brains to computers one day.
1. What can we learn about the first version of the Neuralink?| A．It is smaller than a hearing aid. |
| B．It can be put in a person’s head. |
| C．It has to be placed behind the ear. |
| D．It is already available at the market. |
| A．copy | B．defeat | C．understand | D．destroy |
| A．Someone who also wants to create the same device. |
| B．Doctors who already know how to treat brain diseases. |
| C．People who have already designed some unique products. |
| D．Engineers who are good at linking brains to computers. |
| A．An advertisement. | B．A test report. |
| C．A science fiction novel. | D．A news report. |
8 . A 293-million-mile journey of the NASA Perseverance rover (探测器)to Mars ended successfully on February 18th, 2021, with a picture-perfect landing inside the Jezero Crater. The car-sized, six-wheeled rover, nicknamed Percy, is the US space agency’s biggest and most advanced explorer to date. Its primary mission is to search for signs of ancient microbial(微生物的)life on Mars.
Landing on Mars is extremely tricky. The Red Planet’s gravitational(引力的) pull causes approaching spacecraft to go faster to high speeds, while its thin atmosphere—just one percent that of Earth’s—does little to help slow it down as it approaches the surface.
The scientists had to reduce Percy’s 12,000 mph speed to a safe landing speed of less than five mph—in just six and a half minutes. The target entry angle also had to be a precise 12 degrees—any steeper, and the spacecraft would burn up; any flatter, and it would get lost in space. It is no wonder that the final approach is often referred to as the “seven minutes of terror”.
Upon attaining a manageable speed, Percy briefly flew over the Martian surface to seek out the perfect landing spot. Its complex map-reading system rapidly scanned the area and matched it with maps in its database to find the best location.
The NASA scientists will spend the next two months testing Percy’s scientific instruments. Once ready, the rover will begin to carry out its mission.
“Perseverance is the smartest robot ever made, but confirming that microbial life once existed carries an unusually large burden of proof,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division.“ While we’ll learn a lot with the great instruments we have aboard the rover, it may very well require the far more well-equipped laboratories and delicate instruments back here on Earth to tell us whether our samples(样本)carry evidence that Mars once harbored life.”
1. What is the extraordinary challenge for the rover to land on Mars?| A．The speed reduction. |
| B．The atmosphere analysis. |
| C．The location search. |
| D．The time management. |
| A．Ways to find the precise entry angle. |
| B．Consequences of wrong entry degree. |
| C．Factors to survive “the seven minutes”. |
| D．Reasons for the necessity of speed reducing. |
| A．The space. | B．The area. |
| C．The system. | D．The surface. |
| A．Instruments aboard the rover are not quite reliable. |
| B．Perseverance is able to collect enough evidence needed. |
| C．Man still has a long way to go to prove there was life on Mars. |
| D．Samples of Mars will be returned soon to the labs on the Earth. |
9 . The AIDA model is the foundation of modern marketing and advertising practice. It outlines the four basic steps used to persuade potentials to make a purchase. The first three steps lie in creating attention (A), decorating interest (I), and building desire (D) for the product, before the fourth step — the “call to action” (A) — tells them exactly how and where to buy. AIDA can channel the customer’s feelings through each stage toward reaching a sale.
Attracting the customer’s attention is the first challenge and this may be achieved by using an attracting phrase or picture. Once someone’s attention has been clutched, it must be turned into real interest. This is best done by providing a brief description of the product’s benefits to the consumer rather than simply listing the product’s main features or problem-solving claims.
Now, it is time to transform that interest into a desire for a product or service. This is where consumers need to believe their lives could be better by possessing the product. It could be a vital step towards turning a potential into a real customer.
“Call-to-action” is where all of the initial hard work pays off and leads to the action from a potential customer. For example, they might pick up the phone to discuss the idea of a trial of the services or, alternatively, they may just buy that product or service that has been promoted to them all along.
And AIDA is used to great effect in the movie industry. Movie studios begin their marketing campaigns months in advance. The campaigns develop by offering attractive flashes of the movie without giving too much away. Desire is inspired by the release of the full preview which is fully designed to show the exciting moments of the movie, from special effects to humorous lines of dialogue on the opening weekend. Advertisements in newspapers and on television focus on the movie’s release, inviting the consumer to go and buy a ticket.
1. What is the purpose of practising AIDA?| A．To create jobs. | B．To increase sales. |
| C．To research markets. | D．To introduce products. |
| A．Seized. | B．Freed. | C．Cheated. | D．Affected. |
| A．Action. | B．Interest. | C．Desire. | D．Attention. |
| A．To design an AIDA model. | B．To display how AIDA works. |
| C．To show how to make a movie. | D．To advertise the movie industry. |
10 . “WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH?” says a voice from an iPhone. It’s Siri, and she’s ready to follow your voice commands to search the Internet, text someone, or play a song. Siri is an example of artificial intelligence(AI), or a computer program that can think. The way Siri thinks is very different from how a person thinks. She doesn’t have a brain. Instead, she relies on code in a computer program to understand speech and answer questions. And some questions are still too difficult for her to answer.
However, AI programs like Siri are getting smarter and smarter every year. In 2011, an AI named Watson defeated two human champions on the quiz show Jeopardy! Computer programs can also drive cars, perform science experiments, and produce their own artwork.
Someday, artificial intelligence will most likely surpass human intelligence. Once this happens, computers will think, plan, and act at a level that human beings can’t understand. In his book Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom writes, “As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species would depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.”
If a superintelligence wanted to rule the world, Bostrom argues, it would easily do so. It could also wipe out all humans. Or just ignore us. Whatever it did, we likely wouldn’t have much control. He’s not the only one worrying. In 2015, a group of great scientists, including Stephen Hawking, wrote an open letter that asks anyone researching AI to proceed carefully. AI has the potential to benefit society greatly, but “our AI systems must do what we want them to do.” they write. What do you think? If people create a super intelligent AI, will we be able to control it?
What will happen to us if a superintelligent AI starts making decisions on its own?
1. What can Siri do now according to the passage?| A．She can think like a human. | B．She can answer all kinds of questions. |
| C．She can follow your voice commands. | D．She can make decisions on her own. |
| A．AI is getting increasingly smart. | B．Computer science is developing fast. |
| C．AI performs best in the quiz show Jeopardy. | D．Computer programs can do a variety of jobs. |
| A．Be similar to. | B．Do better than. | C．Compete against. | D．Be junior to. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Cautious. | D．Objective. |
