Language learning apps are very popular now and offer opportunities to learn vocabulary and practice grammar. But there has been a discussion about just how effective such apps can be.
Among the most popular apps are Duolingo and Busuu. A previous research found positive results on the use of them. But it mainly concentrates on studies with learners who had signed up for language courses and these apps worked as an after-class support, so the results were not always reliable. A recent study of 4,095 Busuu users has been carried out to find out if users can actually learn a language with an app.
Busuu provides learning materials for 12 different languages. It offers special models where some contents are available for free while some contents are not, We find that its users are an even mix of men and women. More than half consider themselves to be at the beginner level as there is a decrease in users as their language levels go up. Most people use the app because of personal interest, or because they want to study or live abroad. Females tend to use it less often but for longer periods of time than male users.
Getting any feedback on Busuu depends on whether your answer is correct or not. While it is helpful, this is not the sort of feedback language teachers prefer, as it does not explain why the answer is right or wrong. In spite of this, feedback in the app is very highly rated.
More than 92% of the people state that the app has met their expectations and 86% consider the app as very good or good. In fact, more than 80% of the users surveyed strongly agree that using the app has helped them improve their knowledge of the language they are learning.
Besides, language learning apps also create an environment where mistakes are only known to the users, and this can address the performance anxiety that many learners suffer from when asked to speak a foreign language. So language teachers should encourage their students to use them to do the grammar work, leaving precious class time for more language communication.
1.Why weren’t the results of the former research always dependable?
A.Because it used out-of-date methods.
B.Because it just focused on positive results.
C.Because it was only carried out before class.
D.Because it only considered users of a limited type.
2.What can we learn about the app Busuu from the text?
A.All the contents are free to use. B.It’s used by more advanced learners.
C.Most users consider it satisfying. D.It’s more popular with female learners.
3.Which of the following can probably replace the underlined word address?
A.Deal with. B.Write down. C.Turn to. D.Speak of.
4.What is the main idea of the text?
A.Students won’t suffer anxiety in learning languages by using Busuu.
B.Language learning apps are effective and satisfactory to language learners.
C.Language learning apps are very popular with most language teachers.
D.Students should be required to use apps for homework after class.
Science is finaly beginning to embrace animals who were, for a long time, considered second-class citizens.
As Annie Potts of Canterbury University has noted, chickens distinguish among one hundred chicken faces and recognize familiar individuals even after months of separation. When given problems to solve, they reason: hens trained to pick colored buttons sometimes choose to give up an immediate food reward for a slightly later (and better) one. Healthy hens may aid friends, and mourn when those friend die.
Pigs respond meaningful to human symbols. When a research team led by Candace Croney at Penn State University carried wooden blocks marked with X and O symbols around pigs, only the O carriers offered food to the animals. The pigs soon ignored the X carriers in favor of the O's. Then the team switched from real-life objects to T-shirts printed with X or O symbols. Still, the pigs walked only toward the O-shirted people: they had transferred their knowledge to a two-dimensional format, a not inconsiderable feat of reasoning.
I’ve been guilty of prejudiced expectations, myself. At the start of my career almost four decades ago, I was firmly convinced that monkeys and apes out-think and out-feel other animals. They're other primates(灵长目动物), after all, animals from our own mammalian(哺乳动物的) class. Fairly soon, I came to see that along with our closest living relatives, whales too are masters of cultural learning, and elephants express profound joy and mourning with their social companions. Long-term studies in the wild on these mammals helped to fuel a viewpoint shift in our society: the public no longer so easily accepts monkeys made to undergo painful procedure kin laboratories, elephants forced to perform in circuses, and dolphins kept in small tanks at theme parks.
Over time, though, as I began to broaden out even further and explore the inner lives of fish, chickens, pigs, goats, and cows, I started to wonder: Will the new science of "food animals" bring an ethical (伦理的) revolution in terms of who we eat? In other words, will our ethics start to catch up with the development of our science?
Animal activists are already there, of course, committed to not eating these animals. But what about the rest of us? Can paying attention to the thinking and feeling of these animals lead us to make changes in who we eat?
1.According to Annie Potts, hens have the ability of_____________.
A.interaction B.analysis
C.creation D.abstraction
2.The research into pigs shows that pigs___________.
A.learn letters quickly
B.have a good eyesight
C.can build up a good relationship
D.can apply knowledge to new situations
3.Paragraph 4 is mainly about________.
A.the similarities between mammals and humans
B.the necessity of long-term studies on mammals
C.a change in people's attitudes towards animals
D.a discovery of how animals express themselves
4.What might be the best title for the passage?
A.The Inner Lives of Food Animals
B.The Lifestyles of Food Animals
C.Science Reports on Food Animals
D.A Revolution in Food Animals
Prateek Sharma was born into a family of farmers. After 10 years of being a chief manager of Kotak Mahindra Bank, he did a good job and earned a good pay. But Prateek couldn’t continue the corporation life with ease, as his heart was always in farming. So he worked as a banker on weekdays and on weekends travelled 100 km to get to his 5-acre in Dhaba Khurd.
By the end of 2015, Prateek had set up a house on his farm to grow offseason vegetables. Prateek thought he’d quit his job once he was able to earn enough from farming, but this wasn’t an easy decision to make. This was because costs to grow these vegetables were very high, along with the fact that farmers weren’t a part of the value chain and thus couldn’t decide the price of their own vegetables.
Fortunately, Prateek met Vinay Yadav, another educated farmer. They then decided to start their own value chain and sell their vegetables and grains, while skipping the middlemen. The variety of vegetables they grew wasn’t enough, so they decided to form a group of farmers.
Once the plan was ready, the group was registered by the name of Farmer Producer Organization (FPO). However, the trial failed in the first year as most of the farmers were grain growers and had limited knowledge of growing vegetables. However, the largest reason was the switch to organic from chemical.
Luckily, once the soil was used to organic methods, the next round of crops were successful and the FPO had a good amount of produce. So at the end of 2017, Prateek finally quit his job and devoted all his time to farming. Now he’s successful and recently his team has started two farmer resource centers at Dhaba Khurd and Nathrula Canj.
1.Why did Prateek have trouble continuing his life as a banker?
A.He felt it so boring to be a banker.
B.He almost never satisfied his boss.
C.He found farming easier to do well.
D.He was enthusiastic about farming.
2.Why was it difficult for Prateek to decide on quitting his job?
A.The prices of organic products were low.
B.The income from farming wasn’t much.
C.He had no money to put into farming.
D.He found farming produce hard to sell.
3.What did Prateek and Vinay Yadav set about doing after they met?
A.Building their own marketing system.
B.Raising the prices of their products.
C.Switching from chemical to organic.
D.Adding the kinds of vegetables grown.
4.What mainly resulted in the failure of FPO’s first year trial?
A.Their no experience in growing vegetables.
B.Their poor management on the employees.
C.The soil’s not adapting to organic farming.
D.The wrong ways of doing organic farming.
Welcome to SummerCamps.com; find and book the very best summer camps. Your children are precious so we offer the highest quality of camps that will meet each child’s needs and interests.
Catalina Sea Camp
Sea Camp offers three one-week sessions to boys and girls aged 8-13 and two three-week sessions to teens aged 12-17. Our hand-picked instructors create an atmosphere of fun and excitement while leading campers to a host of ocean adventures, marine(海洋的) biology, and social summer camp activities.
Address: Toyon Way, San Bruno, California 94066
Phone: 800-645-1423
Camp Cayuga
Camp Cayuga is a private summer camp for children aged 6 to 16. The camp is on a 350-acre land in the Pocono Mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania, just outside the village of Honesdale. It’s a 3-hour drive from New York City and Philadelphia.
Address: 321 Niles Pond Road-Suite ISC, Honesdale, Pennsylvania 18431
Phone: 908-470-1224
Camp Rockmont
Camp Rockmont is a Christian summer camp for boys, aged 6-16, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Rockmont’s duty of developing boys into healthy young men is accomplished through age-appropriate skills, activities, and challenges that help campers to know themselves better.
Address: 375 Lake Eden Road， Black Mountain, North Carolina 28711
Phone: 828-686-3885
Primitive Pursuits Overnight Camps
Primitive Pursuits Overnight Camps offer week-long Summer Adventure Overnight Camps in New York’s Finger Lakes to your children aged 11-15. Campers experience a week of nature-based skills training, inspiring challenges, and fun activities under the guidance of skilled instructors.
Address: 611 County Rd 13, Van Etten, New York 14889
Phone: 607-272-2292
1.Where should a girl of 7 go camping?
A.Toyon Way, San Bruno.
B.611 County Rd 13, Van Etten.
C.375 Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain.
D.321 Niles Pond Road- Suite ISC, Honesdale.
2.What is special about Camp Rockmont?
A.It’s targeted at older boys.
B.It provides skills training.
C.It is located in the mountains.
D.It has something to do with religion.
3.Who is the text most likely intended for?
A.Campers. B.Educators.
C.Parents D.Children.
假定你是李华，你校英语角要举办主题为“中外体态语异同”的活动，你想邀请外教Lynn参加，请给她写一封电子邮件。内容包括：
1. 活动目的；
2. 活动介绍；
3. 征求其建议。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
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。
I live in a peacefully village in the countryside where we have many friendly neighbors. Several day ago, a heavy rain hit the surrounding region. Several dams in the upper reaches of the river was broken through, cause a flood in the river nearby. Two bridges were also washed away. When a flood drew back, many big fish were trapped in the river. They had raised in the dams. Every day, one of their neighbors went to catch up fish with a net.
Yesterday, the neighbor came to give us four big fresh fish, that had been frozen in his fridge. We had fish soup for lunch that day. What delicious!
