Your next Saturday night takeaway could be brought to you by a robot after a major food delivery company announced plans to use automated vehicles to transport meals. Europe’s biggest online takeaway food company Just Eat has partnered with Starship Technologies to deliver food with robots on the streets of London later this month. “Nobody has ever done deliveries with land-based robots,” said Allan Martinson, the chief operating officer of Starship.
The robot courier can travel up to 4 miles per hour for about 10 miles. It uses a GPS signal and nine cameras to navigate(确定方向). Instead of a person arriving at their door, customers could find themselves receiving a notification(通知) on their phone that says a robot is on its way and a code to unlock the automated courier. “Put the code in, the robot opens up, and there’s your food,” said David Buttress, chief manager of Just Eat.
The robot, which has so far been tested in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Glastonbury, costs £1 to transport within 3 miles, compared with the £3 to £6 it costs for a human courier. To date 30 robots have driven nearly 5,000 miles without getting into an accident or finding themselves picked on by passers-by. They have driven in more than 40 cities around the world, including London and Tallinn, Estonia.
An initial worry was how the public would react to robots. But Martinson said the public has been calm when passing the delivery machine on the streets. “The most surprising reaction has been the lack of reaction,” said Martinson.
Another significant fear was that people would disrupt(扰乱) the robots, or try to steal them and their contents. To prevent this, the robot is fitted with nine cameras, two way audio, and movement sensors that send a warning if it is lifted off the ground. And it opens only with a pass code provided to the customer via a notification. “It’s much easier to shoplift than it is to steal a robot,” said Martinson.
1.The test of Starship robots shows that ________.
A. they are easy to operate
B. the robot delivery is appreciated in big cities
C. the robot delivery is cheaper than human delivery
D. they can travel for 10 hours continuously
2.Which of the following is one of the worries about Starship robots?
A. People’s indifference to the robots.
B. Safety of the robot delivery.
C. Accuracy of the robot delivery.
D. People’s concern about public traffic.
3.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Great Improvement of Just Eat
B. Global Trend of Food Companies
C. New Robots to Move on the Road
D. Delivery Robots to Replace Takeaway Drivers
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题
Your next Saturday night takeaway could be brought to you by a robot after a major food delivery company announced plans to use automated vehicles to transport meals. Europe’s biggest online takeaway food company Just Eat has partnered with Starship Technologies to deliver food with robots on the streets of London later this month. “Nobody has ever done deliveries with land-based robots,” said Allan Martinson, the chief operating officer of Starship.
The robot courier can travel up to 4 miles per hour for about 10 miles. It uses a GPS signal and nine cameras to navigate(确定方向). Instead of a person arriving at their door, customers could find themselves receiving a notification(通知) on their phone that says a robot is on its way and a code to unlock the automated courier. “Put the code in, the robot opens up, and there’s your food,” said David Buttress, chief manager of Just Eat.
The robot, which has so far been tested in Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Glastonbury, costs £1 to transport within 3 miles, compared with the £3 to £6 it costs for a human courier. To date 30 robots have driven nearly 5,000 miles without getting into an accident or finding themselves picked on by passers-by. They have driven in more than 40 cities around the world, including London and Tallinn, Estonia.
An initial worry was how the public would react to robots. But Martinson said the public has been calm when passing the delivery machine on the streets. “The most surprising reaction has been the lack of reaction,” said Martinson.
Another significant fear was that people would disrupt(扰乱) the robots, or try to steal them and their contents. To prevent this, the robot is fitted with nine cameras, two way audio, and movement sensors that send a warning if it is lifted off the ground. And it opens only with a pass code provided to the customer via a notification. “It’s much easier to shoplift than it is to steal a robot,” said Martinson.
1.The test of Starship robots shows that ________.
A. they are easy to operate
B. the robot delivery is appreciated in big cities
C. the robot delivery is cheaper than human delivery
D. they can travel for 10 hours continuously
2.Which of the following is one of the worries about Starship robots?
A. People’s indifference to the robots.
B. Safety of the robot delivery.
C. Accuracy of the robot delivery.
D. People’s concern about public traffic.
3.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Great Improvement of Just Eat
B. Global Trend of Food Companies
C. New Robots to Move on the Road
D. Delivery Robots to Replace Takeaway Drivers
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
From the end of next year, all shops, market stalls and takeaways in Wales will be obliged to charge up to 15p each for plastic or paper bags. Wales is to become the first part of Britain to ban free carrier bags after deciding that efforts by supermarkets to cut waste have proved ineffective.
Jane Davidson, the Welsh Environment Minister, said that the revenue(收入) would go to a new independent body, which would spend the money on local environmental projects. She admitted that a small number of people might switch to shops in England, where there are no plans to charge for carrier bags. She said that tough action was necessary. Ms Davidson, a Labor member of the Welsh Assembly’s ruling Labor-Plaid Cymrucoalition, hopes the ban will embarrass her counterparts(对应的人) in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland into similar action.
Wales is planning to use a little-known clause(条款) in last year’s Climate Change Act, which enables the government to outlaw free bags. Ms. Davidson said: “We want to encourage people to think about what they do. All the other ministers are still signed up to the voluntary agenda. You will see a different message from me.”
Last week the media revealed that Tesco had published misleading figures giving the impression that it had met a voluntary target to halve the use of plastic bags in three years. Seven supermarket chains reported last month that the total number of free bags they had issued had fallen by 48 percent to 450 million a month in the three years to last May. The figures masked that Marks & Spencer, the only chain to charge for bags, had made much faster progress than its rivals. It cut bag use by 83 percent after introducing a 5p charge last year. Ms. Davidson said that banning free bags would encourage a wider shift to a less wasteful society. She was considering a charge of between 5p and 15p, but indicated that she favored the upper end of the range.
1.Which city is the first part of Britain to ban free carrier bags? _______
A. Wales B. England
C. Scotland D. Northern Ireland
2.A certain amount of purchase will take place in England because_____________.
A. the carrier bags are cheaper there B. the goods there are free
C. the goods there are cheaper D. the carrier bags are free there
3.The government cited a little-known clause in last year’s Climate Change Act for the purpose of _________.
A. arousing public’s sense of reducing waste B. reducing the customers’ resistance
C. promoting charging bags with legal means D. enabling supermarket to cut waste
4.According to Ms. Davidson, she preferred a free bag’s charge to be ________.
A. 5p B. 15p
C. between 5p and 15p D. above 15p
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
——Look at your pale face. You ______ a sleepless night.
——You bet. The work site next to the hotel was so noisy.
A. must have had B. might have
C. should have had D. cannot have had
高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
The next time you need to get somewhere, you may be able to follow your nose. A study has found that a strong sense of smell is associated with a strong sense of direction.
Researchers conducted an experiment at McGill University in Canada. Fifty-seven adults were invited to participate in a virtual"way-finding task"in which they had to make their way around a virtual environment. They were given 20 minutes to learn about the virtual city. After having passed by each of eight landmarks at least twice, the participants were placed in front of one of the landmarks and asked to find the most direct route to one assigned by the researchers.
The participants also smelled 40 scented(有香气的)pens one at a time. After a brief sniff, the participants chose one word that best identified the smell from four words on a screen.
An additional exercise used a virtual maze(迷宫)to determine if the participants were more likely to rely on landmarks to find the way or if they used a more habit-based method built over time as people travelled the same route over and over again.
What the researchers found was that those with the ability to correctly identify the smells of the pens also had the easiest time performing the way-finding task by way of landmarks. A strong sense of smell was not identified in the participants who used the more habit-based method.
The connection between the sense of smell and way-finding likely came about as a result of the evolution of the nervous system. The original function of the sense of smell in humans may have been intended to support our spatial memory.
Keep that in mind the next time you get lost going to the dentist. It won't prevent you from getting horribly lost, but it's good food for thought along the way.
1.How did the researchers carry out the study?
A.By using typical landmarks in a real city.
B.By combining virtual tests with real-life tests.
C.By testing different senses in a virtual environment.
D.By collecting routine observation data from the participants.
2.What were the participants asked to do after they smelled a scented pen?
A.Decide whether they liked the smell.
B.Use a sentence to describe the smell.
C.Choose a suitable word for the smell.
D.Find the landmark that featured the smell.
3.Which of the following factors is better related to a strong sense of direction according to paragraph 5?
A.The way of using landmarks.
B.More experience in describing things.
C.Quick adjustment to the virtual world.
D.A more habit-based way-finding method.
4.The meaning of the word "spatial" underlined in Paragraph 6 relates to _____.
A.the situation B.the position
C.the spirit D.the time
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
If you had brought your swimming suit with you, we ___________ swimming in the lake now.
A. could go B. could have gone
C. can go D. have gone
高二英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析
If you had brought your swimming suit with you, we ___________ swimming in the lake now.
A.could go B.could have gone
C.can go D.have gone
高二英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析
Now I'd like to talk to you about your final exam. The exam will be held next Thursday, the last day of the exam week. Remember to bring two of three pens in case you run out of ink. And unlike the mid-term exam, this test will not include multiple --- choice questions; it will consist entirely of essay. You'll have to answer three of the five essay questions. The exam will be comprehensive, which means you'll be responsible for all of the subject matters we covered in class this term, I would suggest you review your mid-term exam as well as textbooks and your class notes. The final exam will count as 50 percent of your grade of the course. The research project will count as 20 percent and the mid-term exam 30 percent. I'll be in my office almost all day next Tuesday. If you run into any problems, please drop in. Good luck to you and I'll see you on Tuesday.
1.. What will be included in the exam?
A. There will be only multiple-choice questions.
B. The exam will contain both multiple-choice and essay questions.
C. The exam will have an oral and a written section.
D. There will be only essay questions.
2.Why does the teacher call the exam comprehensive?
A. It will be easy to understand.
B. Students will be tested on all the material discussed in class.
C. It will cover topics from a wide variety of subjects.
D. Students must complete all parts of it.
3.When was this talk most likely given?
A. During the first week of class B. During mid-term week
C. On the last day of class D. On the last day of exam week
高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
Next time you’re planning to go out for a relaxing walk with your MP3 player, be sure to check the weather forecast first. Summer is the prime time for lightning strikes, a fact that Jason Bunch, a teen from Castle Rock, Colo, learned in a hard way. A couple of summers ago, he was mowing (割草) grass while listening to some Metallica on his iPod. Although there wasn’t any rain falling on Bunch, he did hear distant thunder. Bunch was then struck by lightning, which seemed to travel through his music player, blowing out his eardrums and leaving him with burns where the device and its power lines were close to his body.
Devices such as MP3 players don’t attract lightning, says Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, an emergency room physician at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. However, they may change the pathway that lightning’s energy follows in the human body. Lightning that might have passed rather harmlessly over the skin may react differently to the metal of these devices and cause damage.
Rather than leaving your tunes at home, your best bet is watching out for lightning before it hits. Though people have been injured while using MP3 players in storms, Cooper says, “The devices’ main task is keeping you from paying attention to thunder and the sky.” If you’re caught in a storm, seek shelter.
1.When does lightning happen most?
A. Winter. B. Fall. C. Summer. D. Spring.
2.What was the effect of this lightning strike on Jason Bunch?
A. The lightning burned Bunch and blew out his eardrums.
B. The lightning passed harmlessly over Bunch’s skin.
C. Bunch fell to the ground and couldn’t move his upper body.
D. Bunch was fine, but his iPod was burned by the lightning.
3.What can you conclude about the safety of using MP3 players during a storm?
A. MP3 players are desperately unsafe to use during a storm.
B. IPods are safe to use during a storm, but other MP3 players are not.
C. MP3 players increase your safety during a storm by directing lightning toward the ground.
D. MP3 players become unsafe to use if they keep you from paying attention during a storm.
4.The primary purpose of this text is .
A. to describe the joy that Jason Bunch felt after he survived a lightning strike
B. to inform the risks of wearing an MP3 player during lightning strikes
C. to tell a lightning emergency Jason Bunch met with
D. to show that MP3 players are so popular among teenagers
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Don’t get mad the next time you catch your teenager texting when he promises to be studying. He simply may not be able to resist. A University of lowa (UI) study found teenagers are far more sensitive than adults to the immediate effect or reward of their behaviors. The findings may help explain why the initial rush of texting may be more attractive for adolescents than the long-term payoff of studying.
“For the teenager, the rewards are seductive.” says Professor Jatin Vaidya, an author of the study. “They draw adolescents. Sometimes, the rewards are a kind of motivation for them. Even when a behavior is no longer in a teenager’s best interest to continue, they will, because the effect of the reward is still there and lasts much longer in adolescents than in adults.”
For parents, that means limiting distractions so teenagers can make better choices. Take the homework and social media dilemma: At 9 p.m., shut off everything except a computer that has no access to Facebook or Twitter, the researchers advise. “I’m not saying they shouldn’t be allowed access to technology,” Vaidya says “But some help in resetting their concentration is necessary for them so they can develop those impulse-control skills.”
In their study, Vaidya and co-author Shaun Vecera note researchers generally believe teenagers are impulsive(冲动的), make bad decisions, and engage in risky behavior because the frontal lobes(额叶) of their brains are not fully developed. But the UI researchers wondered whether something more fundamental was going on with adolescents to cause behaviors independent of higher-level reasoning.
“We wanted to try to understand the brain’s reward system and how it changes from childhood to adulthood," says Vaidya, who adds that the reward character in the human brain is easier than decision-making. “We’ve been trying to understand the reward process in adolescence and whether there is more to adolescent behavior than an under-developed frontal lobe,” he adds. For their study, the researchers persuaded 40 adolescents, aged 13 and 16, and 40 adults, aged 20 and 35 to participate.
In the future, researchers hope to look into the psychological and neurological(神经学上的)aspects of their results.
1.What does the passage mainly tell us?
A.Always, rewards are attractive to teenagers.
B.Sometimes, adolescents just can’t resist.
C.Resistance can be controlled well by adolescents.
D.Getting rewards is the greatest motivation for adolescents to study.
2.What does the underlined word “seductive” mean?
A.Necessary. B.Attractive.
C.Useful. D.Important.
3.Which statement agrees with Vaidya’s idea?
A.The influence of the reward is weak in adolescents.
B.Parents should help children in making decisions.
C.Children should have access to the Internet.
D.Children need help in refocusing their attention.
4.What result does teenagers’ brain underdevelopment lead to?
A.Doing things after some thought. B.Making good decisions.
C.Joining in dangerous actions. D.Escaping risky behavior.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Don't get mad the next time you catch your teenager texting when he promised to be studying. He simply may not be able to resist. A UI (University of Iowa) study found teenagers are far more sensitive than adults to the immediate effect or reward of their behaviors. The findings may help explain why the initial rush of texting may be more attractive for adolescents than the long-term payoff of studying
“For the teenager, the rewards are attractive, ” says Professor Jatin Vaidya, an author of the study. “They draw adolescents. Sometimes, the rewards are a kind of motivation for them. Even when a behavior is no longer in a teenager's best interest to continue, he will still go on. That’s because the effect of the reward is still there and lasts much longer in adolescents than in adults.”
For parents, that means limiting distractions so teenagers can make better choices. Take the homework and social media dilemma for example: At 9 p.m., shut off everything except a computer that has no access to Facebook or Twitter, the researchers advise. "I m not saying they shouldn’t be allowed access to technology, Vaidya says. "But some help in netting their concentration is necessary for them so they can develop those impulse(冲动)-control skills.
In their study, Vaidya and co-author Shaun Vecera note researchers generally believe teenagers are impulsive, make bad decisions, and engage in risky behavior because the frontal lobes(额叶) of their brains are not fully developed. But the UT researchers wonder whether something more fundamental is going on with adolescents to cause behaviors independent of higher-level reasoning.
“We want to try to understand how the brains reward system changes from childhood to adulthood, "says Vaidya, who adds the reward character in the human brain is easier than decision-making. "We’ve been trying to understand the reward process in adolescence and whether there is more to adolescence behavior than an underdeveloped frontal lobe, "he adds. For their study, the researchers persuaded 40 adolescents, aged 13 and 16, and 40 adults, aged 20 and 35 to participate.
In the future, researchers hope to look into the psychological and neurological aspects of their results.
1.What does the passage mainly tell us?
A. Adolescents care more about instant rewards.
B. Adolescents cannot resist temptation of bigger rewards.
C. Adolescents are most fond of texting to friends.
D. Adolescents are sensitive to the effect of their behaviors.
2.What is the underlined word distractions closest in meaning to?
A. Immediate rewards. B. The pull of social media.
C. Concentration training. D. Obstacles to attention.
3.Which statement agrees with Jatin Vaidya's idea?
A. Children should have access to the Internet
B. Children need help in maintaining their attention.
C. Parents should help children in making decisions.
D. The influence of the reward is weak in adolescents
4.What result does teenagers’ brain underdevelopment lead to?
A. Making good decisions B. Avoiding risky behavior
C. Joining in dangerous actions D. Doing things after some thought
高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析