Best InventionsSun PowerPeople who buy solar ...

Best Inventions

Sun Power

People who buy solar panels (嵌板）for their home hope to help the environment and save some money. But they end up with large metal boxes on their roof. Tesla, a car company, solved the problem. The solution is the Solar Roof. It is a series of tiles (瓦) made to look like traditional roofing material while using the power of the sun. Tesla developed it with SolarCity, a longtime provider of solar panels. It is now available to the public.

Talking Tech

Echo gives users the ability to talk to their tech. Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana do that too. But in many ways，Amazon’s version，Alexa, which is built into Echo，is more powerful. Alexa has grown since it was put on the market in 2014, and today, you can use it to turn on the lights, order a pizza, and more. Echo costs $ 180. Amazon recently developed a junior version, the $ 50 Echo Dot.

Spin and Roll

Goodyear is reinventing the wheel. It introduced its Eagle 360 spherical tire (球形轮胎) in March, 2016. The tires allow cars to move in many directions, including sideways, and at angles to handle slippery surfaces. The key is magnetic levitation (磁悬浮). Tires are fixed to cars, but Eagle 360s float beneath them. They’re meant for self-driving cars of tomorrow.

Cycle Safety

Jeff Woolf had a serious bike crash. If he hadn’t been wearing his helmet, he would have been badly hurt. He wondered why so many riders didn’t wear helmets. That turns out it was mostly because helmets were big and hard to carry around. Woolf, an engineer, came up with Morpher. The helmet is made from interwoven plastics (交错编织的塑料). It is strong, but it’s also flexible enough to fold almost totally flat. That makes it easy to carry. Morpher is priced at $ 119.

1.What we can know about the Solar Roof?

A. It is designed for cars.　　 B. It is currently on the market.

C. It is costly but energy-saving.　　 D. It consists of large metal boxes.

2.What can users do with their Alexa?

A. Chat with their friends.　　 B. Control their tech through voice.

C. Reduce noise in their home.　　 D. Save money on their purchases.

3.What do we know about the Eagle 360?

A. It is fastened to cars.　　 B. It is a self-driving system.

C. It is environmentally-friendly.　　 D. It is intended for autonomous cars.

4.What is good about Morpher?

A. It prevents bike crashes.　　 B. It is conveniently foldable.

C. It can be bought worldwide.　　 D. It is cheaper than traditional helmets.

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

Tips on buying outdoor solar lights(太阳能灯）

As solar lighting is becoming useful for homes,many different such outdoor lights can now be found in supermarkets.Here are some helpful tips for customers.

Does your area receive enough direct lighting?

1.So you shouldn't even give it a thought if you live in an area that doesn't get much sunlight.These lights need direct sunlight,or they just won't work very well.2.

The expensive one usually means good quality Choosing the cheapest ones will result in many problems.For once,it's best to buy more expensive lights of high quality.3.At least you should know the difference between a $10 light and a $45 light.

Buy lights that require less installation(安装）

Most solar lights are simply driven into the ground.Therefore.you shouldn't deal with the difficulty in installing a system that involves anything more than that.4.You don't need to buy lights that require half an hour each to plant into the ground because that's just a waste of time.

Make sure the lights can store enough energy.

Different solar lights can store different amounts of energy5.Therefore,you should choose lights that are able to store enough energy to last for a few hours or more,at least those that will last from nightfall throughout most of the night and part of the morning.

A.They should take a few minutes each to get into the ground

B.Without sunlight,solar lighting is useless.

C.It means some will stay lit longer than the others

D.Buy many solar lights instead of just one or two.

E.Choose something a bit more expensive for once.

F.That doesn't mean you have to spend all your money.

G.Solar lights are becoming more and more popular.

高二英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析

Who cares if money can’t buy you love? But it can still be your best friend forever．That’s one of the surprising findings in a new research paper, “The Power of Money”，published in me journal Psychological Science．

Like any best friend forever，money demonstrated to researchers its ability to soothe us，reduce our sense of social exclusion and even reduce life’s painful moments．

“I was surprised” says Katherine Vohs，one of the researchers and professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management．“The findings were surprising because no one had connected the meaning of money to pain．The money wasn’t buying the subjects more friends；it was only psychologically helpful.”

In the research ,students were told they would be participating in a test of finger dexterity(敏捷度)．One group was given some paper money to count，while the other group was given blank pieces of paper．Once the counting was complete, all the test subjects were asked to dip their fingers into bowls of water heated to 122 degrees—roughly the temperature of a very hot bath．

Result? Those who had been counting money reported less pain than those who had not．Subjects also were asked about their feelings．Those who handled actual money reported feeling stronger even 10 minutes after they put down the cash．

Combined with previous experiments，the findings confirmed what researchers have long doubted，that money acts as a general panacea(万能药)in the brain，giving us social self-confidence and reducing physical pain without having to spend a dime on aspirin．

But can we get the same effect by using credit cards? “No，credit cards do not have the same effect，” Vohs says．“They are scary for most people，and they in fact represent debt m many ways．”The findings could have an interesting effect in the business world, where recent trends have been to issue non-monetary rewards and bonuses instead of what was thought of as “cold, hard cash”．

1.The underlined word “soothe” in Paragraph 2 is the closest in meaning to“____________” .

A．encourage   B．remind     C．calm  D．trust

2.What’s Katherine Vohs’s attitude towards the result of the study?

A．He found it totally unexpected．

B．He had no doubt about it．

C．He thought it needed further experiments．

D．He thought it was not convincing．

3.What do we know about the students involved in the study?

A．They were divided into two groups according to their ages．

B．One group was given paper money while the other was given coins．

C．They were holding the money while dipping fingers into hot water．

D．Both groups were asked to dip fingers into hot water．

4.We can 1earn from the passage that_________．

A．the effect of money can only last until we put it down

B．money is both psychologically and socially helpful to us

C．the result of the research hasn’t been confirmed（证实） by experts

D．credit cards have the same effect on us as money

5.The last paragraph suggests that___________．

A．the recent trend in the business world is to give cash as rewards

B．employers should give non-monetary rewards to employees

C．cash is a better way to reward employees than credit cards

D．more and more employees prefer non-monetary rewards to cash

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Tips for Teaching Kids Responsibility

Your best friend has a teenager who helps with housework without being asked. Your cousin has a one-year-old child that puts her bottle in the sink when she finishes the milk, but no reminders are needed. 1. Raising helpful, good kids who know how to make a sandwich is not a fantasy! The following tips can give you a better chance of raising a responsible child who then grows into a responsible adult.

2. You can’t suddenly spring responsibility on a teenager and expect he will know how to follow through. He needs time to practice and totally understand what responsibility means.

Let kids help you. Don t complain when it's time to do housework. Smile and invite your son to help. 3. He will take these good feelings and learn to take ownership of his home and feel pride in keeping it up.

4. Make responsibilities age appropriate. You can show how to complete small tasks in daily life and perform them at a child’s skill level. For example, if your kid wants a snack, show him where the apples are and how to wash one off.

Teach your child consequences. Learning to take care of his things also helps a child develop a sense of responsibility for his actions. Get your son to clean up after an art project, and inform him that he won^ be able to play with his crayons the next day if he leaves a messy table. 5. The more you carry out the rules, the more likely he is to clean up without being asked.

A. Have a sense of responsibility.

B. Why do they make a sandwich for kids?

C. Show kids how to perform responsibility.

D. Where do these wonderful children come from?

E. Start to teach responsibility to kids early.

F. When your child is invited to participate, he feels valued.

G. Then take away his supplies if he does not take his responsibility.

高二英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析

He _______ the best person you had been expecting for the job, but who else _______?

A．may not be; could be

B．couldn’t be; might be

C．might not have been; could have been

D．mustn’t be; must have been

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

The Best Holiday

I was unbelievably proud of my nine-year-old daughter. Emily 41  to buy a mountain bike. She’d been saving her pocket money all year, 42  doing small jobs to earn extra money.

By Thanksgiving, she had collected only $49. I said, “You 43  have your pick from my bicycle 44 .” “Thanks, Daddy. But your bikes are so old.” She was right. All my girls’ bikes were 1950’s models, not the kind a kid today would 45  choose.

As Christmas 46  near, Emily and I went bike shopping. As we left one store, she __47  a Salvation Army volunteer standing next to a big pot. “Can we give something, Daddy?” she asked. “Sorry, I’m out of 48 .”

Throughout December, Emily continued to 49  hard. Then one day, she made a __50  announcement. “You know all the money I’ve been saving?” she said hesitantly. “I’m going to give it to the poor people.” So one cold morning before Christmas, Emily handed her total savings of $ 58 to a volunteer who was really very 51  .

52  by Emily’s selflessness, I decided to contribute 53  of my old bicycles to a car dealer who was collecting used bikes for poor children.  54  I selected a shiny model from my collection, however, it seemed as if a second bike took on a glow (发光). Should I   contribute two? No, one would be enough. But I couldn’t 55  the feeling that I should give a second bike. When I later 56  the bikes, the car dealer said, “You’re making two kids very __57 , sir. Here are your tickets. For each bicycle contributed, we’re 58  away one chance to win a girls’ mountain bike.”

Why wasn’t I surprised when that second ticket proved to be the 59 ? I like to think it was God’s way of 60  a little girl for a sacrifice beyond her years－while giving her dad a lesson in the process.

高二英语完型填空简单题查看答案及解析

Walk Through History

It’s no surprise to anyone who’s been to Charleston that it is among the best US cities to visit. “It can feel like you’re in a dream sometimes, like you’ve stepped back 200 years,” says Brian Sim ms, the owner of Charleston Sole Walking Tours. These are Sim ms’s must-sees.

African-American Heritage(遗产)Tour

“People don’t realize how much African culture is here.” says Sim ms. He recommends learning about the African-A merican heritage that shaped the city, region and country to fully understand Charleston.

Gullah Tours offers a two-hour bus tour for $ 18.www.gullahtours.com

Battery and White Point Gardens

A large public park and garden with walking paths and artifacts (人工制品)—all shaded by beautiful trees.

Free admission. Simms provides two- hour guided tours for $10 to $20. www.charlestonsole.com

Middleton Place

Middleton Placeis a historic plantation(种植园) with vivid exhibits and a working table. It provides an all-around view of what was going on with the history of the families that ran the plantation.

$ 28 / adult; $ 15 / student 14 and older; $ 10 / child 6-13; free / under age 6.www.middleton place.org

Fort Summer National Monument

Marking the site where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, this historic place includes several sites around Charleston Harbor and an education center at Gadsden’s Wharf. The best time of yearto visitis spring—when the azaleas(杜鹃花) are flowering—or fall.

Admission is free； boat ride is $ 19.5 / adult, $ 12 / child. www.nps.gov/fosu

1.Where can you book a tour to learn about African A merica culture?

A.On www.nps.gov / fosu. B.On www.gullahtours.com.

C.On www.charlestonsole.com. D.On www. middletonplace.org.

2.What can we do at Middleton Place?

A.Visit an education center.

B.Appreciate the beauty of azaleas.

C.Learn about the history of American familes.

D.Learn about the operation of a historic plantations

3.How much should a young couple pay for a boat ride around Charleston Harbor?

A.$20. B.$36.

C.$39. D.$56.

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

1.Who might buy the house after reading the above advertisement?

A. Some young students.               B. A couple with little money

C. A big rich family                     D. A big poor family

2.What room has several possible uses?

A. The living room.                 B. The bedroom.

C. The dining room.                 D. The kitchen.

3.What is emphasized(强调)in the description of each room?

A. Floor.       B. Entrance.       C. Size.        D. Windows.

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

London taxis, with their friendly drivers who actually know where they are going, are ranked best in the world, according to an annual taxi survey.

The survey by travel website hotels.com found London taxis, despite being the most expensive, beat rivals (对手) across the globe to head the list for the third consecutive (连续的) years, scoring a total of 59 percent in votes on several categories by travelers.

London taxi drivers were voted both friendliest and most knowledgeable. Drivers in the English capital must pass a rigorous examination called The Knowledge to earn their taxi license.

New York's yellow taxis came second in the list, scoring 27 percent which was up 10 percentage points from last year even though Manhattan's cab drivers tied (打成平局) with Parisian taxi drivers as the rudest.

Travelers said New York had the most convenient taxis.

Taxi drivers in Rome were voted the worst drivers in the world with almost one in ten travelers thinking the Italian capital had the world's worst taxi drivers when it came to the quality of driving.

“Traveling by taxi is one of the first experiences that many travellers have upon arrival in a new city. In fact, the research found that cabs are by far the most popular method of traveling from the airport to their hotel,” a spokesman for hotels.com said in a statement.

The global survey scored city based taxis for their levels of cleanliness, value, quality of driving, knowledge of the area, friendliness, safety and convenience.

Rounding out the top five were Tokyo with a total score of 26 percent, Berlin with 17 percent, and Bangkok famed for its tuk­tuks scoring 14 percent.

The survey for hotels.com, part of the Expedia group, was conducted among over 1,900 travellers between May 11­28 this year.

1.Which of the following about London's taxi drivers is wrong?

A. They are the friendliest.

B. They are the most knowledgeable.

C. They charge the most money.

D. They drive fastest.

2.What does the underlined word “rigorous” mean in the third paragraph?

A. strict　　　　　　 B. important

C. official　　　　　　 D. lawful

3.Rome's taxi drivers are lack of ________.

A. good manners

B. driving skills

C. the sense of cleanliness

D. the sense of safety

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Michael Herr, who has died aged 76, was the author of Dispatches (1977), the best book about the Vietnam War. It took Herr eight years to write Dispatches, in part because he went home from Saigon with a bad case of stress disorder. He had gone to Vietnam as a journalist for Esquire magazine. An American general asked him whether he was there to write about military fashion and humor. No. He wrote little for Esquire, but took advantage of the US government’s decision to allow journalists extraordinary access to go to war with the soldiers. He shared their discomforts and their fears, witnessed their death and recorded their language.

His own language, a stream of consciousness pulsing with energy, but masterfully controlled, captured the fear and the horror, but also the excitement, of the war in the jungle and paddy fields. He recorded with a connoisseur’s expertise (行家专长) such details as the many ways in which soldiers would wish each other good luck, and the degrees of madness that were considered acceptable.

The power of the book, perhaps, comes from Herr’s insistence on describing the war, or more precisely his own responses to it, rather than protesting against it. It also comes from the ceaseless accompaniment of two elements, drugs and music — more particularly rock music, and especially the music of Jimi Hendrix. Herr himself spent drug-fuelled weekends in a flat in Saigon, staring at an ancient French map of Indochina. He met soldiers with a left pocket full of Dexedrine, the “upper” (兴奋剂) officially administered by the army to get them into battle, and a right pocket full of “downers” (镇定剂) to get them through it.

Dispatches did not come out until 1977, when the country was beginning to have its mind on other problems, but it did more, perhaps, than any other book to freeze an image of despair and a sense of waste about the war, rather as the trench poets of 1914 —1918 did in Britain.

Herr also made vital contributions to two of the most influential Vietnam films Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. His work, in the book and the two films, has been seen as part of the process whereby the US came to see itself and its history no longer merely through traditional literature, but in sounds and images.

1.Why did Michael Herr go to Vietnam during the war years?

A. To join the soldiers in military actions.

B. To report military actions and advances.

C. To give an authentic account of the war.

D. To write about military fashion and humor.

2.Which of the following about Dispatches is true?

A. It truly reflects Herr’s responses to the war.

B. Music and drugs give the author inspiration.

C. Its language is casually selected and organized.

D. It fully describes Herr’s protest against the war.

3.US soldiers brought drugs with them during the war most probably because 　　　　　　　 .

A. they suffered stress disorder

B. they were addicted to drugs

C. they used them to cure the wounds

D. they exchanged them for music records

4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. Herr directed two influential Vietnam films.

B. Herr’s work played a positive role in traditional literature.

C. Herr stopped writing after the book Dispatches was published.

D. Herr’s work offered Americans more ways to know themselves.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析