Dark Sky Parks around the World
Warrumbungle National Park
Situated in the central west slopes of New South Wales is Australia’s only dark sky park, Warrumbungle. The park has served as a dark sky park since July 2016. Its crystal-clear night skies and high altitude make it a natural, educational, and astronomical heritage site in the southern half of the earth. Tourists can use Australia’s largest optical telescope within the park boundaries to view the auroras(极光)，the Milky Way, and faint shooting stars.
Sark
Sark is a Channel Island near the coast of Normandy under the protection of the UK. It was the World’s First Dark Sky Island set up in January 2011. Its historical and cultural blend attracts over 40,000 tourists annually. With no motor vehicles and public lighting on the island, there is an exceptional view of the dark skies. A rich Milky Way is visible in the dark night skies from the shores of the island.
Pic du Midi de Bigorre
Pic du Midi de Bigorre in France was designated as a dark sky park in December 2013 making it the second largest dark sky park in the world. The park covers 3.112 square kilometers spread across the Pyrenees National Park and UNESCO’s World Heritage site, Pyrenees-Mont Perdu. The park attracts over one hundred star watchers every year. The Observatory Midi-Pyrenees, which was built in 1870, is one of the world’s highest museums at a height of 2,877 meters above sea level.
Ramon Crater/Makhtesh Ramon
Ramon Crater is a unique 1,100-square-kilometer nature reserve located in the Negev Desert in Israel. In 2017, the Ramon Crater became the first designated dark sky park in the Middle East. Its location, rough climate, and forbidding landscape that are characteristic of the Negev have largely defeated historical attempts for human settlement, making it a great place to view the night skies. Stargazers usually camp in the desert to have an uninterrupted view of the stars, planets, and the Milky Way.
1.Which park serves as a heritage site for astronomy?
A. Sark.
B. Pic du Midi de Bigorre.
C. Warrumbungle National Park.
D. Ramon Crater/Makhtesh Ramon.
2.What do we know about Sark from the passage?
A. Not a single car runs there.
B. It was an island belonging to Normandy.
C. The Milky Way can only be seen there.
D. Visitors like to stay on the island in groups.
3.What makes it difficult for humans to live in Ramon Crater?
A. High altitude. B. The large area.
C. Geographical conditions. D. Cultural features.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
HANGZHOU-Chinese internet giant Alibaba on Tuesday opened a hotel loaded with artificial intelligence (Al) and robots, automating a series of procedures like check-in, lights control and room service.
FlyZoo Hotel, opened in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, where Alibaba is headquartered, is known as the company's first "future hotel". Customers can check into the hotel by simply scanning their faces. The facial recognition system installed in the hotel also enables customers to use their faces as key cards to open doors and access other hotel service. Users can also control the lights, televisions and curtains in the room via Alibaba's voice-activated digital assistant, while robots are deployed to serve dishes, cocktails and coffee. Hotel bookings and check-out can also be done with a few clicks on mobile through an app. "The Al-based solution can help customers save time and relieve hotel employees from repetitive work," said Wang Qun, CEO of FlyZoo Hotel. The hotel is the latest example of Chinese tech companies' attempt into traditional industries such as the hotel industry.
E-commerce giant JD. com announced in October its strategy to put smart home and electronic devices sold on its platform into hotels, in an effort to improve online sales.
In July, Baidu teamed up with Intercontinental Hotels Group in Beijing to allow guests to use its voice-controlled assistant to adjust room temperature and order room service at ease.
Before that, social media giant Tencent introduced QQfamily, a similar tech solution for hotel operators, in the southern city of Zhuhai last year.
" We want to install a 'smart brain' for hotels, " said Wang. "In the future, we will continue to make hotels smarter and more automated, as well as create more personalized experiences for consumers."
1.How can customers check into FlyZoo Hotel?
A. By scanning their faces.
B. By clicking their mobile phones.
C. By showing hotel staff their ID cards.
D. By using voice-activated digital assistant.
2.Which of the following hasn't been realized?
A. All hotel service is provided by robots.
B. Room service can be controlled by artificial intelligence.
C. Room temperature can be adjusted by artificial intelligence.
D. Televisions can be turned off by voice-activated digital assistant.
3.What will probably happen to hotels in the future?
A. Customers will get less personalized experiences.
B. Human work will completely disappear in hotels.
C. Intelligent hotels won't meet any difficulties in the development.
D. Just staying in your room, you can easily get many kinds of services by Al.
4.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. Internet giants open AI "future hotel".
B. Artificial intelligence is used in hotels.
C. Internet giants switch to hotel industry.
D. Traditional hotels will disappear soon.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Have you ever caught yourself saying, "I hate small talk!" the minute you walk into a party? If so, you might be an introvert (内向的人). Introverts hate to chat about "small" subjects with people. They are fine when you talk one on one but seem to get lost in the crowd when there's a group around.
If you're talking to an introvert, you might find that your first few conversations go one of two ways. Either they'll seem to get bored and not say much or they'll seem to skate over small talk in favor of more in-depth topics. What you need to know is that the introvert is not being rude. It’s just that they don't like small talk. Here's why.
Small talk serves as a gateway toward deeper conversation. Some introverts don’t realize that small talk will actually help them get to the bigger topics. You don't need to stay on small talk forever. However, sometimes introverts feel that even the short amount of time it takes to get into the real conversation is a waste of time. Small talk is very fast. Someone says something and this should be followed up with a quick response. But introverts like to chew on their words before saying them aloud. Before they answer, they’ll mull over different thoughts.
Small talk by its very nature invites more people to join in. The more people who join the conversation, the more the introvert will tend to step back. As a result, they’ll be quiet. Small talk is about throwing out subjects in the hope that one or more of them can be turned into a common point of interest.
The listening involved with small talk is not in-depth. The purpose is about listening "lightly" so you can figure out the right topics to spend some time on. Introverts tend to be great listeners, but they use active listening rather than light listening. This makes them wonderful friends, but can also make it difficult for new people to understand why they’re so quiet.
1.How do introverts respond to a chat?
A. They try to avoid it.
B. They get excited about it.
C. They give it their full attention.
D. They focus on unimportant topics.
2.What do we know about small talk?
A. It goes slowly.
B. It costs people a lot of time.
C. It contributes to deeper topics.
D. It makes no sense.
3.What does the underlined phrase "mull over" in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A. Give up. B. Think over.
C. Write down. D. Forget about.
4.How can we become a good talker in small conversations?
A. Figure out the deep meaning of questions.
B. Think twice before answering questions.
C. Try to find shared topics.
D. Be a quiet listener.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
An online supermarket company—Ocado in the UK, has recently displayed a robotic hand that can pick fruits and vegetables!
When an embryo is in the womb (子宫), the very first sense it develops is touch. The sense of touch is also the one that lasts the longest—as we get older and our vision and hearing begins to weaken, touch still remains. Humans use their touch to protect themselves, to create emotional relationships with other people and to experience pleasure. Can you imagine life without it?
The sense of touch comes from a net work of nerve endings (神经末梢) and special touch receptors on the surface of the skin. While there are different kinds of touch receptors, they help us judge pressure, texture and vibrations (震动). They are located in our fingertips, palms, soles of our feet, face, lips and tongue.
When we touch something, the mechano-receptors feel the touch and through a network of nerves send signals to the brain. This informs the brain about the location of the touch, the amount of force used, and the speed at which it was used.
Several different techniques have been tried in the past few years to create such a robotic hand—using three fingers. But this latest design by Soma copies the human hand. The gripper (钳子) is made up of flexible materials which grasp the thing based on its size and shape. Then air pressure is used to control the movement of the robotic fingers to pick objects safely and without causing damage.
The next step would be for the robot to judge how ripe the fruits and vegetables are, and apply pressure accordingly. Members of the research team are currently working on adding computerized vision to the robots, so that they can see what they are grasping.
Does all this mean robots can replace people? According to Ocado, it helps improve productivity by removing some of the repetitive tasks done by humans.
1.What is focused on in the second paragraph?
A. The origin of touch.
B. The importance of touch.
C. The development of touch.
D. The process of transporting touch.
2.What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A. The brain. B. The touch.
C. The nerve. D. The signal.
3.What is the typical feature of the latest robots?
A. They can see what they're taking hold of.
B. They can take the place of people in work places.
C. They can tell whether the fruits and vegetables are ripe.
D. They can hold things firmly according to their outer features.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. A Sense of Touch for Robots
B. A Robotic Hand for Classifying Fruits
C. A Robotic Hand with a Gentle Touch
D. A Robot Made of Flexible Materials
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
Cold weather during winter months may keep many people from leaving home and running in the open air. However, a new study shows that the drop in temperature is a good reason to run. 1.
Many people say running in winter can be difficult. Two reasons are the low temperatures and bitter winds.2.That could be because lower temperatures reduce stress on the body. When you run in cold weather, your heart rate and the body's dehydration (脱水) levels are lower than in warmer conditions. 3.
This information comes from John Brewer, who is a professor of applied sport science at St. Mary’s. For this study, he and other researchers put a group of people into a room they called an "environmental chamber". The researchers then recreated summer and winter weather conditions in the room.4.Brewer says he and his team recorded biological measurements of the runners.
He says that the most important thing for people who run in cold conditions is to wear the right clothing. Wear gloves on your hands.5.And especially wear more than one layer of clothing to keep sweat away from your skin.
A.Yet many runners might find it easier than running in hot weather.
B. We have good reasons to run in winter.
C. Wear shoes that will keep you from falling.
D. Many feel nervous when running in the cold weather.
E. The body needs less water on a cold day than in warm weather.
F. In fact, running in cold weather helps improve one’s performance.
G. The test subjects were asked to run 10,000 meters under both conditions.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
An old grandpa as ordinary as Father Brown will never attract people's attention and interest in everyday life. Who can imagine that under his_____appearance lies great wisdom and talent for solving ______？
Father Brown is a Catholic priest from England. He is______and fat, has a round and dull face, and eyes as empty as the North Sea. He always wears______clothes and carries a large umbrella._____this man understands people well. When he______a case, he uses his insight into human nature to put himself in the ______shoes and then find the real criminal. "I had______them all myself... I had planned out each of the crimes very______... And when I felt exactly like him myself, of course I knew who he was!”
____Holmes, Father Brown focuses more on____and psychological truths rather than scientific details. Once he is thinking about______the murderer would hide the body, he thinks like this: if a______ person wants to hide a leaf, where should they hide it? In the______! If there isn’t, he would ______one. That's how he solved a case in which a general sends 800 soldiers to fight in a war just to ______ the murder of one soldier.
Although Father Brown has a sharp sense for crimes, he also has a_____heart for criminals. Many times he doesn’t send criminals to court, but gets them to______their faults and to begin a new life. As a ______, Father Brown shows great love and ______. Maybe he is not there to judge, but to save souls.
1.A. handsome B. ugly C. plain D. outstanding
2.A. crimes B. problems C. puzzles D. riddles
3.A. strong B. tall C. short D. healthy
4.A. well-ironed B. shapeless C. trendy D. stylish
5.A. So B. And C. But D. Or
6.A. gets through B. looks into C. searches for D. listens to
7.A. judge’s B. God’s C. victim’s D. murderer’s
8.A. hidden B. saved C. helped D. killed
9.A. carefully B. nervously C. hurriedly D. casually
10.A. As B. Unlike C. Like D. Despite
11.A. spiritual B. accurate C. external D. fantasy
12.A. how B. why C. when D. where
13.A. cruel B. loyal C. smart D. calm
14.A. desert B. forest C. ocean D. mountain
15.A. find B. imagine C. make D. draw
16.A. check into B. cover up C. search into D. fight for
17.A. soft B. warm C. brave D. normal
18.A. admit B. realize C. find D. correct
19.A. judge B. policeman C. murderer D. priest
20.A. courage B. forgiveness C. perseverance D. enthusiasm
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Francie Nolan is an 11-year-old girl1.(live) in the slums（贫民窟）of Brooklyn, New York. Her family2.(be) so pool that she and her brother have to collect junk to exchange for money. But Nolan is humble and works hard3.(change) her life. She helps her mother do housework and spends every afternoon4.(read) at the library. However, because of5. (poor), Nolan has to leave high school and find a job, 6.life is full of ups and downs.
This is7.story of the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by US author Betty Smith. First8.(publish) in 1943, the novel covers five different periods in Nolan's life. Millions of readers9.(inspire) by Nolan’s bittersweet story ever since. It was named10.one of the best books of the 20th century by the New York Public Library.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
下面是一段短文，请你对其进行修改。文中共有10处错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在此符号下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
As was reported that there was an accident at a corner of the Roman Street in this morning. A car ran into a truck and fortunately, nobody got injured. Who will be responsible for an accident is still under investigation. What the police should do now is that they must find out what led the accident. They said it was difficult of them to judge because how the accident happened was not clear. Perhaps the reason was that the driver was too tiring to stop the car in time. The driver didn't admit the fact that he is driving too fast at the turning. The police doubted that what he said was true and decided to make a farther investigation.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假设你是遂宁某中学高三学生李华，你的美国朋友Jim想了解你校学生课外阅读情况。请你回一封邮件，内容包括：
1．你校学生课外阅读现状；
2．原因分析
3．你的看法。
注意：1．词数120；
2．开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
提示词：课外阅读 extracurricular reading
Dear Jim，
In your last letter, you told me that you wanted to learn something about the extracurricular reading in our school.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours，
Li Hua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析