For the soldiers, the true technological hero...

For the soldiers, the true technological hero may be the body armor (盔甲).

Capable of stopping most bullets, the body armor worn by all of the troops is being trusted for saving many lives. Soldiers shot at close range are walking away with no more than broken ribs (肋骨).

While the newest smart bombs get more attention, improvements in soldiers’ armor are improving safety on the battlefield. The new body armor in particular, may help reduce deaths in the firefights.

In addition to the lighter and more protective body armor, soldiers now wear more comfortable, stronger helmets.

“Everything they have is much better,” says Robert Kinney, director of individual protection at the Army’s Soldier Center in Natick, Mass. “It means an increase in their quality of life.”

The new equipment is a result of years of research and development at the lab.

The new body armor, named “the interceptor”, is similar to but stronger than ones worn by the police. It can also protect the neck. Two other plates are put into it and cover vital organs. As a result, far fewer deaths arrive at military hospitals with abdomen (腹部) or, chest wounds, says Air Force Maj. Mark Ervin, a surgeon at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. “That’s remarkable,” Maj. Ervin says.

Altogether it weighs 16 pounds, one-third lighter than the previous armor that protects only against shrapnel (弹片) but couldn’t stop bullets. The lighter weight is a welcome improvement for soldiers already carrying 100 to 120 pounds of gear.

Soldiers’ helmets have also been improved since the first Gulf War. They also offer more protection. They are capable of stopping handgun or small machine gun rounds, but not high-powered shots.

1.Why is the body armor regarded as a hero?

A.It’s able to stop all the bullets. B.It saves a hero soldier’s life.

C.It prevents rib injuries effectively. D.It reduces deaths among soldiers.

2.Which of the following best describes the new body armor?

A.Stronger. B.Heavier.

C.More expensive. D.More attractive.

3.What is the main idea of the text?

A.The new body armor is able to stop most bullets.

B.The new body armor has saved many lives on the battlefield.

C.Soldiers are equipped with improved body armors and helmets.

D.Helmets are as important as the body armor to soldiers.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Thomas _____ a soldier, for he is much too short.

A．needn’t be       B． should be         C．may be           D．can’t be

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. It may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer in ways that were never before possible.

Rishi Rawat teaches AI at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast. Rawat provides information about cancer cells to a computer. He says this data helps the machine learn. “...You can put the data into them and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition that’s important to making decisions.”

David Agus is another USC researcher. He believes that “machines are not going to take the place of doctors.” He adds, “Computers will not treat patients, but they will help make certain decisions and look for things that the human brain can’t recognize these patterns by itself.”

Once a confirmed cancerous growth is removed, doctors still have to treat the patient to reduce the risk of cancer returning. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer. Currently, researchers take a thin piece of tissue, put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cells. This process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do something better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can recognize complex patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized. The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick diagnosis（诊断）of cancer that is free of human mistakes.

“All of a sudden, we have the computing power to really do it in real time...We couldn’t have done this, we didn’t have the computing power to do this several years ago, but now it’s all changed.” Agus adds that the process could be done “for almost no cost in the developing world.” He says that having a large amount of information about patients is important for a machine to effectively do its job in medicine.

A doctor faces a series of critical decisions every day. The best a doctor can do is to make those decisions as informed as possible. Some of them are still hard to make. A doctor can ask people of whom he values their opinions and that’s it. Imagine discussing these with an AI system that is even more rational（理性的）than anyone else.

The University of Southern California researchers are now only studying breast cancer. But doctors predict artificial intelligence will one day make a difference in all forms of cancer.

1.According to Rawat and David Agus, AI can be used to ___________.

A. take the place of doctors　　 B. treat all forms of cancer

C. remove doctors’ mistakes　　 D. help doctors diagnose cancer

2.From the passage, we learn that doctors may benefit from AI because it can ___________.

A. use data to recognize patterns of cancer

B. decide on the form of cancer treatment

C. reduce the risk of cancer returning

D. monitor the medical procedure

3.What does the underlined word “critical” in Paragraph 6 mean?

A. reliable　　 B. important

C. evident　　 D. doubtful

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A. How Do AI Systems Work?　　 B. Can AI Cure Cancer?

C. Can AI Make Doctors Better?　　 D. How Can Doctors Use AI?

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Artificial intelligence (AI人工智能) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. It may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer in ways that were never before possible.

Rishi Rawat teaches AI at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast. Rawat provides information about cancer cells to a computer. He says this data helps the machine learn. “You can put the data into them and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition that’s important to making decisions.”

David Agus is another USC researcher. He believes that “machines are not going to take the place of doctors.” “Computers will not treat patients, but they will help make certain decisions and look for things that the human brain can’t recognize these patterns by itself.”

Once a cancerous growth is removed, doctors still have to treat the patient to reduce the risk of cancer returning. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer. Currently, researchers take a thin piece of tissue (组织), put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cells. That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do something better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can recognize complex patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized.

The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick identification of cancer that is free of human mistakes. The University of Southern California researchers are now only studying breast cancer. But doctors predict artificial intelligence will one day make a difference in all forms of cancer.

1.What can we infer from the passage?

A.Computers will replace doctors one day.

B.AI technology help doctors treat diseases mainly through counting cells.

C.Cancer once cured will not come back again.

D.Breast cancer patients will benefit a lot from the AI technology application.

2.Where can you most probably see the article?

A.Medical instructions. B.Textbook.

C.Newspaper. D.Science fiction.

3.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A.Artificial intelligence to make doctors better.

B.Great benefits from artificial intelligence.

C.New discoveries about cancer.

D.The process to recognize cancer cells.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Using technology in the classroom can produce unbelievable results. But for note-taking, it may pay to keep it old-school and stick with pen and paper. Students who take notes by hand appear to process information more deeply than those who take notes on a laptop or an iPad and other technological appliances, according to a study published this year.

Using the new fashionable method generally produces more raw notes. But students using laptops tend to do worse than note-takers by hand when answering conceptual questions about the material.

Researchers from Princeton and UCLA conducted several experiments with college students watching some video lectures. In one experiment, note-takers by hand wrote down fewer words than those typing on laptops. But the two groups performed about the same when answering factual questions about the lecture material, and students who wrote longhand did much better than laptop note-takers on conceptual questions .

What gives? Students using laptops tended to write what they heard word by word rather than processing the information; that resulted in a sort of “shallower” learning, the researchers say.

In a second experiment, students taking notes on laptops were told not to write down what they heard word by word. It didn't help in spite of the instructions. They still took notes word by word and they still did worse on conceptual questions than those taking notes by hand.

In a third experiment, students were able to briefly study their notes before answering questions asked a week after the lecture. Those reviewing their longhand notes did far better than students reviewing their typed notes.

A student named Jerry from the experiment said, “The study is right, and we have to think about what was said to take the notes because I could not write down every word. I even developed complex letter symbols to help. To study for tests, I went over and underlined key points to reinforce them. The process helped me understand the lectures better.”

1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 probably mean？___

A.It is necessary to take notes on a laptop or an iPad.

B.It is not worthwhile to take notes with pen and paper.

C.It needs much money to go to schools with a long history.

D.It may bring good results to use the traditional note-taking style.

2.What do the results have in common in the three experiments?

A.The students using laptops don’t understand the instructions.

B.The students using longhand write down all that they hear.

C.The students using laptops learn worse than those by hand.

D.The students using longhand don't process the information.

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A.Jerry is good at inventing letter symbols. B.It's very hard for Jerry to write down notes.

C.Notes guarantee good performance in tests. D.Jerry approves of the study and its result.

4.Where is the text probably taken from?

A.An education column. B.A health magazine.

C.A travel guide. D.A biology textbook.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Flying devices called drones(无人机) may be one of the most important technologies of the future.

The number of jobs for people who know how to design, build and control them is increasing. Because of this increase, several U.S. universities have started offering degrees in unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS.

One of these universities is the University of Washington in Seattle. Ward Handley is seeking a master’s degree in UAS at the university. When the drone program first began, he did not think it was a good idea. “Drones can be used to invade privacy(侵犯隐私).” He said. But later, Handley changed his opinion. He said, “I think there are good enough purposes for them.”

The FAA (the part of the U.S. government that controls air travel and traffic) is creating new rules to control the use of drones, however. A new law requires drone owners to register(登记) their drones. People who do not register their drones could face fines of up to US$20,000.

The new rules may also present problems for students. One problem is finding a legal place to fly.

Students at Blue Mountain Community College fly inside the college gym. In Seattle, University of Washington students test their drones in a big room.

Christopher Lum, a scientist at the University of Washington, helps students explore how drones can safely share the sky with regular aircraft. Lum explained why they test drones inside a building, “We need to register our aircraft and get permission to fly outside. That process can take months.”

At this time, Kansas State University is the only school with permission to offer unmanned aircraft flight classes to students outside. The FAA selected Kansas State University and 15 other universities to be part of a national research group.

Lum and some of his students recently moved their research to Australia. Australia has fewer rules limiting drones. A professor at Western Washington University also took his department’s drones to Canada for the same reason.

1.Degrees in UAS were created in several U.S. universities because of ________.

A. the increasing interest in the field

B. the increasing employment opportunities

C. the support from the government

D. the development of this technology

2.Why didn’t Handley think the drone program was a good idea at first?

A. Drones can be used for bad purposes.

B. The use of drones was very limited.

C. Few people can benefit from the program.

D. The university didn’t attach great importance to the program.

3.According to Lum, why does he teach flight classes inside a building?

A. It’s safer for the students.

B. It’s very expensive to register the aircraft.

C. It takes a very long time to get official permission.

D. He hasn’t got permission from the university.

4.What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?

A. Australia is promoting the use of drones.

B. Kansas State University is the first to offer a UAS degree.

C. Australia has fewer rules than Canada to control the use of drones.

D. The U.S. has more rules than Canada to control the use of drones.

高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Today, the technology that is being developed for cell phones is surprising. Soon our cell phones will be able to do things that we thought impossible or not even thought of at all.

When picturing the future, there are quite a few things that we would love our cell phones to be able to do. Let’s take a look at the ones that are likely to be in the next generation of cell phones. Cell phones of the near future will be able to start and unlock cars, turn lights on and off in houses, make payments(付款), work as computers. This sounds too good to be true, right? Fortunately, this future is just over the horizon; you won’t wait too long. New technology for phones is being developed to realize eye scans(扫描)and fingerprint scans as new“unlock your phone”, so you needn’t worry about your information being stolen.

What do I want my phone to be able to do? I want it to be special. For example, I will shout to my phone across the room“Give me directions to the market”and it pulls up the directions and sends them to my printer. Is it possible? Yes. Maybe someday cell phones will be able to change into robots and walk our dogs and clean our houses too. Who knows? In the last 30 years we have gone from hardly knowing what a cell phone was to surfing the Internet with excellent cell phones.

It is hard to believe that technology is advancing as quickly as it is, with no end in sight. In 5 years the technology of today will be a thing of the past, and the world won’t look back one bit.

1.We learn from the text that cell phones________in the future.

A. can do a number of jobs you want it to do

B. only do the work we once thought of

C. don’t look like today’s cell phones at all

D. can pay for whatever you want to buy

2.The underlined phrase“over the horizon”in Paragraph 2 can be replaced by“________”.

A. arriving as time goes　　 B. what people all hope

C. what we work hard for　　 D. coming in a short time

3.If one’s eye scan is done by his cell phone, ________.

A. his picture is kept in it forever　　 B. his information won’t be lost

C. his cell phone only serves him　　 D. his cell phone won’t be stolen

4.What is special about your future cell phone?

A. It works as a robot does.　　 B. You can speak loudly to it.

C. It can give you information.　　 D. It can warn you out of danger.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The expo is being held in Shanghai, _______a lot of advanced technology is shown for the first time.

A. why           B. which           C. when           D. where

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Things Your Pilot Won't Tell You

You may not be getting the airline you paid for．

You may go to an airline website and buy a ticket, and get onto an airplane that has a similar name painted on it, but half the time, you're really on a regional （地方的） airline．The regionals aren't held to the same safety standards as the majors: their pilots aren't required to have as much training and experience, and the public doesn't know that．

—Captain at a major airline

If you're a nervous flier, book a morning flight．

The heating of the ground later causes bumpier （颠簸的） air, and it's much more likely to thunderstorm in the afternoon．

—Jerry Johnson , pilot, Los Angeles

The smoothest place to sit is often over or near the wing．

The bumpiest place to sit is in the back．If you're in the middle, you don't move as much．

—Patrick Smith, pilot, and author of Cockpit Confidential

Sit in the front if you want fresher air．

The general flow of air in any airplane is from front to back．So if you're really concerned about breathing the freshest possible air or not getting too hot, sit as close to the front as you can．Planes are generally warmest in the back．

—Tech pilot at a regional airline, Texas

You never know where the safest seat is．

There is no safest place to sit．In one accident, the people in the back are dead; in the next, it's the people up front．

—John Nance, aviation safety analyst and retired airline captain, Seattle

I've been struck by lightning twice．

Most pilots have．Airplanes are built to take it．You hear a big boom and see a big flash and that's it．You're not going to fall out of the sky．

—Charlotte, pilot for a regional earner,．North Carolina

People don't understand why they can't use their cell phones．

Well, what can happen is 12 people will decide to call someone just before landing, and I can get a false reading on my instruments saying that we are higher than we ideally are．

—Jim Tilmon, retired American Airlines pilot, Phoenix

1.Jerry Johnson advises nervous fliers to ______．

A.sit in the back

B.fly in the morning

C.fly with major airlines

D.avoid flying in bad weather

2.The best seats for those who need fresh air are ______．

A.in the front B.in the middle

C.in the back D.near the wing

3.Passengers' use of cellphones before landing is likely to ______．

A.increase the risk of being struck by lightning

B.make it difficult for pilots to control the plane

C.cause the instruments of the plane to break down

D.affect pilots' judgment about the height of the plane

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Following news of the potential for life on the recently-discovered TRAPPIST-1 system, there may be another competitor ready to take its place.

With the help of the Cassini spacecraft, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) scientists have picked up the first evidence that chemical reactions are taking place deep below the surface of Enceladus, Saturn’s (土星的) sixth-largest moon. This means that there could be life in Enceladus’ warm underground seas.

An early study found that liquid oceans exist miles below Enceladus’ surface. But to reveal what is happening down there, scientists must rely on the plumes (股) of water that spray (喷射) through cracks in Enceladus’ icy surface. In October 2015, NASA sent Cassini into a deep dive into one of the plumes.

Cassini’s findings, published on April 13 in the journal Science, showed that hydrogen (氢) not only exists on Enceladus, but is also responsible for a chemical reaction between hot rocks and water in the ocean beneath its surface.

This same process on Earth provides energy for entire ecosystems around volcanic vents (火山口). There, tiny creatures are able to survive without sunlight, using hydrogen and carbon dioxide as fuel in a process known as “methanogenesis (甲烷生成)”.

The discovery of this chemical energy source on Enceladus means it could be a very good candidate to host life.

“Confirmation (确认) that the chemical energy for life exists within the ocean of a small moon of Saturn is an important milestone (里程碑) in our search for habitable (可居住的) worlds beyond Earth,” Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA, told the Daily Mail.

Alien life was once only thought possible on habitable planets within the “Goldilocks zone” – far enough from our sun not to be a fireball, but not so far as to be freezing.

Research on Enceladus is still in its early stages, but the recent findings have important meanings for future exploration.

“At present, we know of only one genesis (诞生) of life, the one that led to us,” David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences (行星与地球科学) from the Open University in the UK, told The Telegraph.

“If we knew that life had started independently in two places in our solar system, then we could be pretty confident that life also got started on some of the tens of billions of planets and moons around other stars in our galaxy,” he said.

1.What is the article mainly about?

A. The connection between the TRAPPIST-1 system and Enceladus.

B. The potential for life on Saturn’s moon, Enceladus.

C. The chemical energy source on Enceladus.

D. Scientists’ constant search for life in the solar system.

2.Scientists assume that there could be life on Enceladus because ______.

A. there is evidence of a warm ocean under Enceladus’ surface

B. hot rocks and water have been discovered on Enceladus

C. hydrogen discovered on Enceladus could be a chemical energy source

D. the entire ecosystems of Enceladus are somewhat similar to those of Earth

3.According to David Rothery, the recent findings on Enceladus could mean that ______.

A. there is only one genesis of life in our galaxy

B. there could be many habitable planets, but all in the “Goldilocks zone”

C. it won’t be long before scientists find a habitable planet beyond Earth

D. alien life could exist on some other planets if it existed on Enceladus

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析