In this day and age, we need a password for everything — to access our computer, our phone, our bank account, all of our favorite websites and email... the list goes on. Sometimes, it can be troublesome just to remember them all or keep track of them securely.
Luckily, there’s LastPass! As the name implies, LastPass is the last password manager app you will ever need. Through the app, all you need is one password to have secure access to all of your passwords and private information. By using the LastPass Authenticator, you can use biometrics (生物识别技术) to log on with your face or fingerprint. It’s that easy!
Calm
Calm is packed with dozens of features and hundreds of recordings designed to improve your mindfulness, reduce stress and improve sleep. The free version includes select features such as daily meditations (冥想), breathing exercises, a mood tracker, as well as demo sleep stories, relaxation music tracks and guided meditations. Through a paid subscription, the app tailors itself to your needs.
When browsing the web, we often come across interesting articles that we’d love to read through more, but just don’t have the time right there and then. But later when we have free time, we completely forget about the articles we wanted to read!
This is where Pocket can help. The main appeal of Pocket is to add a handy save function to your favorite browser ready to click whenever you want to save something for later.
Mint
With digital payment methods, it is easy to get overwhelmed (不堪重负的) when one keeps financial records due to how fast and convenient it is to make purchases on a variety of platforms.
Thankfully, Mint is here to help! This free app can automatically track and organize all of the purchases you make, whether it is through digital payment, cash, credit or debit cards. You can also link and keep track of your debit and savings accounts, investments and properties, and even your digital subscriptions so you’ll know if there’s been a cost increase.
1. If people want to better manage their budgets, they can turn to ________.A.LastPass | B.Calm |
C.Pocket | D.Mint |
A.LastPass is the newest password manager app in the market. |
B.Calm meets all kind of requirements from every user. |
C.Most users can choose Pocket to save something they want to read later. |
D.Mint doesn’t charge but it only keeps financial records through digital payment. |
A.Energy-saving. | B.Money-consuming. |
C.Mind-blowing. | D.Peace-keeping. |
1. What percent of the middle school and primary school students have surfed the Internet?
A.About 17%. | B.About 70%. | C.About 79%. |
A.3. | B.13. | C.16. |
A.Over a year. | B.Over a month. | C.Over a week. |
A.Watching Internet movies. | B.Shopping online. | C.Listening to the music. |
3 . In recent studies we have been investigating mirror writing by typical 4- to 6-year-old children. The term is used because the characters — numbers and capital letters — are reversed (反向), yet are correct when looked at in a mirror.
Mirror writing entered the scientific literature in 1878. The explanations for the phenomenon were not only insufficient but also often wrong. One of them is — writing with the left hand. Throughout the 20th century, scientific journals have published mirror writing mostly produced by left-handed children. Even today, left-handedness is often the favorite explanation of teachers when children produce mirror writing.
The explanation we find for the phenomenon of mirror writing of characters works on two successive levels, the first cerebral and the second behavioral. The cerebral level shows that the brain removes orientation (left or right) when storing images, a process called symmetrisation or mirror generalization. This mirror-generalization process leads children aged 5 to know, from memory, the shape of the characters, but not their left/right orientation. Given the features of the process — horizontal mirror in the visual modality (视觉模式) — it is important to note that the initial learning of the form of the characters by the children is mainly visual, and that the children only produce horizontal mirror writing.
At the behavioral level, when children write the characters from memory, they must give them an orientation. In countries whose primary languages are written in Latin characters — written from left to right — children most often point them toward the right. This leads them to reverse mainly the left-oriented characters: J, Z, 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9. However, when spatial constraints cause them to write from right to left, the children instead reverse the right-oriented letters.
Since this explanation has nothing to do with the handedness of the children, it can be predicted that right-handed children will reverse characters almost often as left-handed children, and that – left-handed or right-handed – children will primarily reverse left-oriented characters in Western culture. This is because they strictly orient the characters in the direction of writing.
1. What aspect of a character does mirror generalization help children to know?A.Its form. | B.Its pronunciation. |
C.Its meaning. | D.Its orientation. |
A.Paragraph 2. | B.Paragraph 3. |
C.Paragraph 4. | D.Paragraph 5. |
A.M. | B.C. | C.8. | D.9. |
A.Handedness is the main reason for mirror writing. |
B.Right-handed children won’t write reversed characters. |
C.Left-handed children reverse right-oriented characters more often. |
D.Children in the US tend to primarily reverse left-oriented characters. |
4 . A common claim states that a sheet of paper cannot be folded in half more than seven times. But is this true?
In 2002, Britney Gallivan, then a junior in high school in Pomona, California, folded a single piece of paper in half 12 times. She currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most times to fold a sheet of paper in half.
The prompt that led Gallivan to accomplish this was an extra-credit challenge in math class to fold anything in half 12 times. Her teacher asked the students to fold something thicker: a piece of paper.
Gallivan said “it was very frustrating, as I had many unsuccessful attempts at trying to fold different papers in half. I began to question if folding paper in half more than eight times could be impossible.” However, Gallivan recalled. “I knew I needed to understand what was limiting the folding progression.”
The equations (方程式) that Gallivan came up with calculated how many times a sheet of paper could be folded. She found that in order to fold many times, a long thin sheet is needed — the more a sheet is folded, the thicker the resulting stack becomes, and once the stack becomes thicker than it is long, there is nothing left to fold. She ultimately set her record with a sheet of tissue paper she found online that was 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) — more than three-quarters of a mile, or over a kilometer long, Guinness World Records noted.
“Working on the problem took a tremendous amount of time and effort,” Gallivan said. “As frustrating as it was at times, I learned an immense amount from the experience, which has been valuable to me throughout my life in more capacities than one would expect.”
Since Gallivan set her record, others have made claims of folding a sheet of paper more than 12 times. Still, “I anticipate that my current record will be surpassed,” Gallivan said.
1. What prompts Gallivan to accept the challenge?A.Peer pressure. |
B.Mathematics anxiety. |
C.Academic requirement. |
D.Guinness World Records. |
A.The stack is as thick as it’s long. |
B.The paper is neither long nor thin. |
C.The stack is thicker than it’s long. |
D.The paper is longer than it’s thick. |
A.It’s risky. |
B.It’s fruitless. |
C.It’s meaningless. |
D.It’s energy-consuming. |
A.Gallivan’s record is impossible to break. |
B.Folding paper in half is merely a math problem. |
C.Folding things in half may not be limited to 12. |
D.Folding paper 12 times is a required credit in high schools. |
5 . Scientists test their hypothesis (假设) either through experiment or field work and the process is filled with changes.
Carry out experiments
Conduct field work
In field work, a scientist goes into an uncontrolled environment, a specific place in the world, and records exactly what is observed there at the time.
Scientists are like detectives — they try to solve mysteries. Experiments are part of scientist’s detective kit. When you want to prove a theory true or false, create an experiment that will test one thing you can observe. You have an idea that if you set up a controlled situation and purposely change only one thing, this change will cause something else to happen.
A.Create variables |
B.Watch the process |
C.You are studying a unique situation every time |
D.It is much easier to control things in such environments |
E.And the thing you purposely change is called the changing variable |
F.You focus your attention on just a few things, instead of on everything |
G.Experimental observations are made in a controlled environment that you create |
6 . What goes on in our brains when we decide to hit the share button, and what makes something go viral? Since the dawn of the Internet, businesses, media outlets and influencers alike have been trying to answer these questions. Now, researchers have come one step closer to cracking this mysterious model by shining a light on the neuroscience (神经科学) of viral content.
“Our study finds a way to obtain brain signals that would predict how much information gets shared.” said Emily Falk, professor of communication, psychology and marketing and Hang-Yee Chan, a lecturer of communication.
Their new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on October 23, investigated both the U. S. and the Netherlands using a broader range of news categories—including health and climate change.
“When we see greater activation of regions that track self-relevance (Is it important to me) and social-relevance (Is it important to people I know), the news articles are more likely to be shared widely,” Falk and Chan said. By studying these brain responses, the team managed to build a value-based model to accurately predict how widely the articles would be shared online. This link between brain activity and sharing was seen in both the American and Dutch participants, suggesting that this model is accurate across cultures.
“Seeing how people’s brains react inside the scanner gives us insight into why people ultimately share information nowadays,” Chan said. “If we understand these signals, we might be able to use that knowledge to help important news get shared and stop misinformation from going viral.” It is also helpful for content creators to maximize their reach. “Our current study demonstrates how tapping into the brain would help content creators optimize their messages’ influence,” Falk and Chan said. “We are interested in building on these results to develop ways to counter harmful information and false news, in addition to spreading high-quality content.” “A lot of our most pressing problems in society are influenced by the decisions people make, and the decisions we make are influenced by the news. What you share matters, and so understanding why you share it matters, too.”
1. What do researchers intend to do in their study?A.To find a way to get brain signals. |
B.To work out a mysterious model. |
C.To use a broad range of news categories. |
D.To predict how much information get shared. |
A.The basis and process of the study. |
B.The way to predict brain activation. |
C.The pattern of a value-based model. |
D.The reason why certain news is shared. |
A.To solve most urgent problems. |
B.To understand why viral news matter. |
C.To influence the decisions people will make. |
D.To better the efficiency of positive publicity. |
A.How to Share a Viral News |
B.How to Obtain Brain Signals |
C.How Certain Studies Get Shared |
D.How Brain Identifies Viral Content |
7 . Hem an Bekele is not your typical high school student.Rather than spending his free time playing video games or staring at his phone, this 14 year-old from Fairfax, Virginia was calling professors and conducting experiments, all to create a soap that could treat skin cancer, and to make it affordable for everyone who needs it.His work won him the grand prize in this year’s 3M Young Scientist’s Challenge, a competition that encourages kids to think of unique ways to solve everyday problems.
Growing up in Ethiopia, Bekele found in pity that people working outside were likely to end up getting skin cancer.Skin cancer did have cures and was treatable in most cases.However, the average price of skin cancer treatment globally was almost $40,000.Those shocking statistics really inspired him to create a more accessible solution.He started doing experiments and working on different things, and that turned into his bar of soap as a project.
A lot of his research and development started in his family’s kitchen and in his basement.But as he reached the final of the competition, he realized that he did need to do a little bit more outside of just his house.So he reached out to people at University of Virginia and people at Georgetown, and he got a lot of assistance.The number one person would be Deborah Isabelle, who helped him organize and structure his ideas during the finalist competition.Bekele said that he definitely couldn’t have done that all by himself.
Bekele’s award-winning soap is a compound based bar of soap and it’s charged with different cancer fighting chemicals.The color of the soap is a bit of a dark type of white and it has a rough surface, which could be a good exfoliant(去角质剂).It does have a strong medicine smell and feel a bit stickier.The whole point of it is that even once you wash off the soaps, the medicinal parts will stay on your skin.It can activate the body’s immune cells to defend cancer.
Bekele won 25,000 prize money and he was going to use it to continue research.He said, “I still need a lot of resources to be able to conduct this research, so this money will definitely help me achieve it.”
1. Why did Heman Bekele start working on creating the soap?A.Because he thought it was a fun project. |
B.Because he wanted to win a science competition. |
C.Because he found skin cancer treatment unaffordable. |
D.Because he wanted to create a unique soap for everyone. |
A.Well begun is half done. | B.Learn humbly, ask willingly. |
C.Actions speak louder than words. | D.Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. |
A.What features the soap has. | B.How the soap is used. |
C.What chemicals the soap contains. | D.How the soap is produced. |
A.Patient and talented. | B.Friendly and ambitious. |
C.Cautious and generous. | D.Caring and devoted. |
8 . 阅读表达
BEIJING-With trains rumbling down new tracks, the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia has just been unlocked, poised to transform itself into a hub connecting the fast-growing region to markets as far away as in Europe.
Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Laos Railway has been completed and put into operation, and the Lao people have finally realized their railway dream, said Thongloun Sisoulith, Laos’ president.
The importance of transportation cannot be overemphasized. It is the artery of a nation, and of the globalized world. As a popular Chinese saying goes, “Roads lead to riches.”
The World Bank has estimated that the China-Laos Railway could significantly reduce land transport prices by 40 to 50 percent between Vientiane and Kunming, and by 32 percent between Kunming and the Port of Laem Chabang in Thailand. As the railway connects Laos to the vast BRI network, including the China-Europe Railway Express, aggregate (总计的) income in the country could be increased by up to 21 percent over the long term.
Across the world, China’s development and cooperation with other countries have changed the life trajectory (发展轨迹) of numerous people. In Africa, China helped Kenya build the country’s first railway since its independence, which links its two largest cities-Nairobi and Mombasa-and allows people to work in satellite cities and towns and join their families within hours.
Mohammad Nauman, a young Pakistani man, made a career decision seven years ago when China and Pakistan decided to build Pakistan’s first metro system. He became a technician at the metro company. In 2020, the line was opened to traffic.
“It was very amazing for me that this whole connectivity was coming to my country,” Nauman said.
1. Why is the China-Laos railway important to the Lao people?A.It helps realize their dream. |
B.It helps reduce land transport cost. |
C.It helps connect Laos and other countries. |
D.It helps increase Lao yearly income. |
A.Laos | B.Thailand | C.Kenya | D.Eurasia |
A.Pakistani lives have been changed by metro systems built by China. |
B.China helped Pakistanis realize the dream of being connected across the country. |
C.Nauman wanted to thank China for offering him a job as a technician. |
D.Nauman decided on his career with the first metro system to be built in his country. |
“What shall I do when the whole connectivity becomes a reality?” Nauman thought.
9 . More than 30 year and S10 billion later, the James Webb Space Telescope finally left Earth. The observatory was lifted skyward by an Ariane rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Is flight to orbit lasted just under half an hour, with a signal confirming a successful outcome picked p by a ground antenna(天线)at Malindi in Kenya.
Webb, named after one of the architects of the Apollo Moon landings, is the successor to the Hubble telescope. Engineers working with the US, European and Canadian space agencies have built the new observatory to be 100 times more powerful.
Webb’s launch is only the start of what will be a complex series of initial activities over the next six months. The telescope is being put on a path to an observing station some 1.5 million km beyond the Earth. In the course of travelling to this location, webb will have to unpack itself from the folded shape it adopted at launch.
This won’t be easy, said NASA administrator Bill Nelson: “We have to realize there are still countless things that have to work and they have to work perfectly. But we know that in great reward, there is great risk. And that’s what this business is all about. And that’s why we dare to explore.”
At the core of the new facility’s capabilities is its 6.5 m-wide golden mirror. This is almost three times wider than the primary reflector on Hubble. The enlarged optics(光学器件), combined with four super-sensitive instruments, should enable astronomers to look deeper into space—and thus further back in time—than ever before.
A key target of Webb will be the pioneer stars that ended the darkness theorized to have dominated the whole universe shortly after the Big Bang more than 13.5 billion years ago. It was the nuclear reactions in these objects that would have created the first heavy atoms(原子)essential for life. Another goal for Webb will be to explore the atmospheres of distant planets. This will help researchers work out whether these worlds are in any way habitable.
1. What can we learn about the new space telescope?A.An antenna helped it go into orbit. |
B.It was named after a landscape architect. |
C.It is a project of international cooperation. |
D.It has reached its observing station. |
A.Disapproving. | B.Supportive |
C.Fearful. | D.Uncertain. |
A.It is fitted with a more powerful engine. |
B.It is capable of changing shapes. |
C.It has a primary reflector. |
D.It has a much bigger mirror |
A.Suggestions for astronomers. | B.Origins of the universe. |
C.Webb’s limitations | D.Webb’s functions. |
10 . Scientific Method
The scientific method uses a series of steps to establish facts or create knowledge. The overall process is well established , but the specifics of each step may change depending on what is being examined and who is performing it. The scientific method can only answer questions that can be proven or disproven through testing.
Make an observation or ask a question. The first step is to observe something that you would like to learn about or ask a question that you would like answered. These can be specific or general. Some examples would be “I observe that our total available network bandwidth drops at noon every weekday” or “How can we increase our website registration numbers?Taking the time to establish a well-defined question will help you in later steps.
Gather background information.
This involves doing research into what is already known about the topic. This can also involve finding if anyone has already asked the same question.
Create a hypothesis.
A hypothesis is an explanation for the observation or question. If proven later, it can become a fact. Some examples would be “ Our employees watching online videos during lunch is using our internet bandwidth”’ or “ Our website visitors don't see our registration form.Create a prediction and perform a test.Create a testable prediction based on the hypothesis. The test should establish a noticeable change that can be measured or observed using empirical analysis. It is also important to control for other variables during the test. Some examples would be “If we block video-sharing sites.our available bandwidth will not go down significantly during lunch” or “ If we make our registration box bigger, a greater percentage of visitors will register for our website than before the change.”
Analyze the results and draw a conclusion.
Use the metrics established before the test see if the results match the prediction. For example,“ After blocking video-sharing sites, our bandwidth utilization only went down by10% from before; this is not enough of a change to be the primary cause of the network congestion”or “After increasing the size of the registration box, the percent of sign-ups went from 2% of total page views to 5% , showing that making the box larger results in more registrations.
Share the conclusion or decide what question to ask next: Document the results of your experiment.
By sharing the results with others, you also increase the total body of knowledge available.Your experiment may have also led to other questions, or if your hypothesis is disproven you may need to create a new one and test that. For example, “Because user activity is not the cause of excessive bandwidth use, we now suspect that an automated process is running at noon everyday.
1. What is the important role of collecting background information?A.Make full preparation for the research questions. |
B.Understand the knowledge of existing research results. |
C.Provide evidence to refute the research conclusion. |
D.Encourage researchers to reflect deeply on their work. |
A.The research hypothesis has been fully proved. |
B.The research results lead to other related issues. |
C.The scope of test data needs to be expanded again. |
D.The background investigation is not objective enough. |
A.Creating a question will help you in the following step. |
B.Collecting information includes research on an unknown subject. |
C.The test should establish a change that cannot be measured easily. |
D.You may need to create a new hypothesis if the old one is overturned. |