The story of chocolate begins with the discovery of America in 1492. Columbus was the first European to come into contact with cacao. Columbus was struck by how much value the Indians placed on them as he did not know the beans were used by currency. It is unlikely that Columbus brought any of these beans back to Spain and it was not until about 25 years later that Cortez grasped the commercial possibilities when he found the Aztecs using the beans to make the royal drink “chocolate”.
The Spanish, in general, were not fond of the bitter drink so Cortez and his followers made it more palatable by adding cane sugar and later cinnamon and vanilla were added. Spanish monks let the secret out back home and, although the Spanish hid it from their neighbors for a hundred years, finally chocolate’s popularity grew until it was their fashionable drink at the French court and the wise choice of customers at London meeting houses.
The cacao tree is strictly a tropical plant only in hot, rainy climates. Thus, its cultivation is limited to countries not more than 20 degrees north or south of the equator (赤道). The cacao tree is very delicate and sensitive. It needs protection from the wind and requires a fair amount of shade under most conditions. This is true especially in its first two or three years of growth. A newly planted young cacao tree is often sheltered by a different type of trees. It is normal to plant food crops for shade such as bananas, plantain, coconuts or cocoyams. Rubber trees and forest trees are also used for shade. Once established, however, cacao trees can grow in full sunlight, provided there are fertile soil conditions and intensive farming. With cutting and careful cultivation, the trees of strains will begin bearing fruit in the fifth year. With extreme care, some strains can be stimulated to produce good crops in the third and fourth year.
The process of turning cacao into chocolate hasn’t changed much since the Swiss made the major breakthroughs in the process in the late 1800s. First the beans go through a process of fermentation ( 发酵 ) and drying. They are then sorted by hand before cleaning and then roasting. Winnowing ( 风 扬 ) follows which removes the hard outer layers and leaves what is as the “grains”. A crushing and heating process known as Hunte’s Process is then used to remove nearly half of the cocoa butter from the nibs. This makes unsweetened chocolate. Basic eating chocolate is made from a mixture of the unsweetened chocolate with some of the cocoa butter along with other ingredients such as sugar and vanilla. The resulting product is then “purified” and this purifying gives chocolate the silky texture that we know so well. The finished result is then shaped, cooled, packaged by machine, distributed, sold and of course, eaten!
1.Why didn’t Columbus bring beans back to Spain at once when he found cacao?
A.Because he couldn’t afford to buy the cacao bean.
B.Because he didn’t know how to turn cacao bean into chocolate.
C.Because he was not aware of the monetary value of cacao bean then.
D.Because Spaniards then didn’t favour the chocolate that the Aztecs originally drank.
2.The underlined word “palatable” in paragraph 2 probably means .
A.affordable B.agreeable C.patent D.portable
3.Which of the following is correct about cacao tree?
A.Cacao trees need a lot of looking after to be used commercially.
B.Cacao trees require hot, rainy climates and adequate sunlight.
C.Cacao trees won’t produce fruit until the fifth year.
D.Cacao trees can grow well in all continents.
4.Which is the correct order of turning cocoa into chocolate?
① The chocolate is reheated to melt it, put into patterns and then cooled to make its final shapes.
② The beans are harvested on the farm.
③ Some cocoa butter is then obtained using Hunte’s Process to make cooking chocolate.
④ The cooking chocolate is then mixed with other ingredients to make the various types of eating chocolate available today.
⑤ The beans are winnowed after fermentation and drying and these two processes produce the grains.
⑥ The finished product is wrapped, sent to shops and then sold.
A.②①③④⑤⑥ B.②③①⑤④⑥ C.②④⑤①③⑥ D.②⑤③④①⑥
The Apollo Missions
“That's one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.”
— Neil Armstrong
Apollo’s Goals
The national effort that enabled Astronaut Neil Armstrong to speak those words as he stepped onto the lunar surface fulfilled a dream as old as humanity. Project Apollo’s goals went beyond landing Americans on the moon and returning them safely to Earth.
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 has been called a “successful failure,” because the crew never landed on the Moon, but they made it home safely after an explosion crippled their ship. When the associated heater was turned on during flight, the tank exploded depleting almost all of the power from the command module and forcing the crew to use the lunar module as a lifeboat. Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert came home safely thanks to the mission control team’s improvised procedures and their own ability to implement them.(Launch: April 11, 1970; splashdown: April 17)
Apollo 14
Notable for the return of America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard, to space, Apollo 14 also was probably the smoothest lunar landing to that point. The crew spent more than nine hours outside the lunar module and set up a number of experiments. Shepard set a new distance record by walking more than 9,000 feet on the lunar surface, pulling a hand cart to carry their tools and samples.(Launch: Jan. 31, 1971: lunar landing: Feb. 5: splashdown, Feb. 9)
Apollo 15
For the first time, humans drove a car on the Moon. The first of the Apollo “J” Missions-designed for longer stays on the Moon - the mission carried a lunar rover, which Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin used while they were on the surface for more than I8 hours. They traveled more than 17 miles in the rover, setting up experiments and collecting 170 pounds of samples. Before leaving the lunar surface, Scott conducted an experiment to test Galileo’s theory that objects in vacuum, without air resistance, would fall at the same rate. He dropped a geological hammer and a feather, which hit the ground at the same time, proving Galileo right.(Launch: July 26, 1971, lunar landing: July 30: splashdown: Aug. 7)
1.Why has Apollo 13 been called a “successful failure”?
A.Apollo 13 finally exploded as planned in space.
B.All the crew succeeded in landing on the Moon.
C.The crew managed to escape from a severe accident and returned to Earth.
D.The crew finished the experiment although they failed to land on the Moon.
2.Which of the following is True according to the passage?
A.It took five days for Apollo 14 to reach the Moon.
B.The lunar rover was used as a lifeboat for space travel.
C.Shepard tested Galileo’s theory successfully on the Moon.
D.Apollo 15 remained in space for the shortest period of time.
3.Which of the following column is this article most likely to be found?
A.Booming Science B.Exploring the Unknown
C.Mechanical World D.Transforming Moon
Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up. “There’s a cyclone coming, Em,” he called to his wife. “I’ll go look after the stock.” Then he ran toward the sheds where the cows and horses were kept.
Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance told her of the danger close at hand. “Quick, Dorothy!” she screamed. “Run for the cellar!” Toto jumped out of Dorothy’s arms and hid under the bed, and the girl started to get him. Aunt Em, badly frightened, threw open the trap door in the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small, dark hole. Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt. When she was halfway across the room there came a great roar from the wind, and the house shook so hard that she lost her footing and sat down suddenly upon the floor.
Then a strange thing happened. The house circled around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon. It was very dark, and the wind blew horribly around her, but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily. After the first few twists and turns, and one other time when the house tipped badly, she felt as if she were being rocked gently, like a baby in a cradle (摇篮). Toto did not like it. He ran about the room, now here, now there, barking loudly; but Dorothy sat quite still on the floor and waited to see what would happen.
At last she crawled over the swinging floor to her bed, and lay down upon it; and Toto followed and lay down beside her. In spite of the swinging of the house and the crying of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.
1.What does the underlined word “cyclone” in paragraph 1 probably mean?
A.deadline B.flood C.monster D.tornado
2.Why did Aunt Em go into the hole in the floor when the cyclone approached?
A.To find the puppy Toto. B.To find shelter from the cyclone.
C.To protect their fortune. D.To get tools to help Henry.
3.Which of the following is True about Dorothy?
A.She managed to control the house. B.She found herself flying in a balloon.
C.She turned baby crying loudly. D.She remained undisturbed with Toto.
4.Which words can be used to describe Dorothy in the emergency?
A.Afraid and brave. B.Curious and tired.
C.Flexible and calm. D.Excited and thrilled.
Facial-Recognition Technology Cannot Read Emotions
Do not believe claims that facial-recognition technology can accurately identify people’s emotions, advised several scientists at the 2020 AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle.
Such claims that a photo of a face can be easily_______are based on a flawed theory that we smile when we are happy and scowl (沉下脸) when angry, said Professor Aleix Martinez. “There’s no way that technology will ever be able to detect_______ that you’re experiencing following that approach,” Martinez said.
Research shows that, on average, people scowl only 30% of the time that they are angry, said Lisa Feldman Barrett, professor of psychology at Northeastern University. The rest of the time, they make other faces when they are angry, she said._______, people may scowl for other reasons — “when they’re concentrating, when someone tells them a bad joke,” she said. “Any AI that is claiming to detect a scowl and interpreting it as anger has some real_______.”
So much goes into communicating our emotions beyond our_______ movements. Other factors involving little use of language include our body pose, body movement and hormone responses like those that cause one’s face to go red from embarrassment or_______, said Martinez.
Martinez offered an example of the importance of having enough information. For instance, when he showed people a photo of a _________ man with his mouth wide open and his eyes nearly closed, most thought the man was extremely angry, his research showed. Yet anyone viewing the context — that the subject was a soccer player — could_________ that he was displaying excitement while celebrating a goal.
A mistake like this may not matter much, but so-called emotion-recognition technology has a larger reach. The technology’s _________ to incorporate facial movements could have serious, even dangerous outcomes, said Martinez. AI is sometimes used in classrooms, in the judicial (司法的) system and in hiring for jobs, he noted. Many of these systems learn from U.S. and European data ______________ by white people. Such inputs could negatively impact, for instance, the hiring of candidates of other races, Martinez said. “I think we have to take seriously the______________ in which this AI is being used,” said Barrett.
Seth Pollak, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shared research about the____________ of our ability to understand facial expressions and emotions. For several decades, scientists thought that infants arrived into the world with a little understanding about emotions, Pollak said. To the contrary, babies do not express____________ emotions. They have a distress system that broadcasts whether they are OK or not. Children learn about emotions beyond good or bad, and research shows that even with incredibly brief levels of exposure to contextual information, very young children start to change how they____________ their inferences about other people’s emotions. “Human brains are actually able to____________ patterns and make inferences about what might be happening at a sophisticated computational level with actually very little experience.” he said.
1.A.recognized B.interpreted C.noticed D.realized
2.A.emotions B.experiences C.incidents D.impacts
3.A.Therefore B.However C.Anyway D.Additionally
4.A.outlooks B.problems C.results D.mysteries
5.A.body B.brain C.facial D.gesture
6.A.disappointment B.unemotionality C.excitement D.shock
7.A.red-faced B.long-eyed C.round-shouldered D.short-haired
8.A.propose B.ensure C.indicate D.infer
9.A.failure B.capability C.fight D.initiative
10.A.dominated B.calculated C.concluded D.preserved
11.A.approach B.direction C.context D.contest
12.A.varieties B.differences C.resources D.origins
13.A.specific B.internal C.strong D.uncomfortable
14.A.pick B.categorize C.express D.expect
15.A.take out B.bring out C.carry out D.figure out
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
Luxembourg makes all public transport free
One square meter Luxembourg makes all public transport free. With a population of 602,000, Luxembourg is one of Europe’s 1. (small) countries - yet it suffers from major traffic jams. But that could be about to change. As of March 1, 2020 all public transport - trains, trams and buses - in the country is now free. The government hopes the move 2. (ease) heavy crowding and bring environmental benefits.
Tiny country, big traffic 3. (landlock) Luxembourg which is surrounded by three countries is one of the richest countries in Europe. 4. (take) up 2,586 square kilometers, Luxembourg is roughly the size of Rhode Island. From the capital of Luxembourg City, Belgium, France and Germany 5. all be reached by car in half an hour.
High housing costs, especially in Luxembourg City, mean more than 180,000 of the country’s workforce make regular journeys from those neighboring countries every day. Luxembourg is a very attractive place for jobs. But 6. “booming economy” and high concentration of jobs have led to crowding issues.
In 2016, Luxembourg had 662 cars per 1,000 people, and driving is a “primary means of transportation” for people. That year, drivers in Luxembourg City spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams. It fared worse than European cities Copenhagen and Helsinki, 7. have comparable population sizes to all of Luxembourg - yet drivers in both only spent an average of 24 hours in traffic. Park and rides around Luxembourg’s borders in the three neighboring countries, however, will encourage commuters to use free mass transit.
Free transport for all Luxembourg’s public transport system covers the whole country and costs $562 million per year to run. The government is putting up the cost of it free so that the people can benefit from the good economy. People still hold the concern 8.making transport free may unintentionally prevent people who would normally walk or cycle in urban areas. 9.walking 500 meters, people see a bus coming and they say, “we can get on and travel 500 meters 10.it’s free”.However, the new scheme can signal important changes ahead when it comes to Luxembourg’s reliance on driving.
The government might say, “It’s important that you throw away your car, and look, we made public transport free” - and maybe this is helpful given the enormous cultural shift we need.”
Questions are based on the following passage.
1.
A.He feels lonely living all by himself.
B.He finds it hard to afford the rent all by himself.
C.He wants to get help with his courses from his roommate.
D.He need to find somebody to make the apartment more comfortable.
2.
A.The fridge is broken by a heavy box.
B.The carpet in the living room is old and dirty.
C.The toilet is blocked and the sink has a few leaks.
D.The windows in the bathroom can keep the heat up.
3.
A.Attractive price. B.Convenient location.
C.Relaxing atmosphere. D.Furnished bedroom.
4.
A.Offer a loan to the man. B.Find a job for the man.
C.Help the man fix up the house. D.Look for another place.
