Pigeons (鸽子) may be considered mice of the sky, but some scientists have found greater value in these urban birds: the blueprint for a new generation of flying machines.
Birds can transform the shape of their wings by fanning out their feathers or moving them closer together. Those adjustments allow birds to cut through the sky more flexibly than rigid drones (无人机). Now, using new insights into exactly how pigeons ‘joints control the spread of their wing feathers, researchers have built a robotic pigeon. This research paves the way for creating more light aircraft, says Dario Floreano, a roboticist in Switzerland not involved in the work.
“What’s really cool about this robot is that you can make adjustments in a robotic wing that you could never do when studying flight in a bird”, says David Lentink, an engineer and biologist at Stanford University. A controllable robotic pigeon solves that problem. In flight tests, Lentink’s team observed that bending only the fingers of one wing eased the robot into a banked turn-offering the first evidence that birds may sometimes use just their fingers to direct in flight. In a second study, Lentink’s group used their robotic wing design to confirm another insight into bird flight: how gaps are prevented from forming between feathers on extended wings.
This is the best set of robotic wings yet for testing how birds adjust their flight feathers to move through the air, says Tyson Hedrick, a biomechanist. But “there’s plenty of room for improvement.” For instance, a future flying robot could include a shoulder joint to investigate how waving a bird’s wings up and down influences flight, he says.
1.What is the newly-found worth of pigeons?
A.They help study other species.
B.They protect other urban birds.
C.They provide proof of mice’s harm.
D.They inspire a new aircraft.
2.What is Dario Floreano’s attitude to the research?
A.Negative. B.Positive.
C.Neutral. D.Critical.
3.What do the underlined words “that problem” in paragraph 3 refer to?
A.Pigeons in flight can hardly be observed.
B.People can’t make adjustments in birds’ wings.
C.It is difficult for pigeons to make a banked turn.
D.Pigeons fail to control the spread of their wing feathers.
4.Where does the text probably come from?
A.A travel journal.
B.A travel brochure.
C.A science fiction.
D.A science magazine.
I remember doing the household chores to help my mother when I was nine. I hated changing the vacuum cleaner (真空吸尘器) bag and picking up things the machine did not suck up. Twenty years later, in 1978, with this lifelong dislike of the way the machine worked, I decided to make a bagless one.
Easier said than done, of course. I didn’t realize that I would spend the next five years perfecting my design, a process that resulted in 5,127 different prototypes (样机). By the time I made my 15th prototype, my third child was born. By 2,627, my wife and I were really counting our pennies. By 3,727, my wife was giving art lessons for some extra cash, and we were getting further and further into debt. These were tough times, but each failure brought me closer to solving the problem.
In the early 1980s, I started trying to get licensing agreements for my technology. The reality was very different, however. The major vacuum makers had built a business model based on the profits from bags and filters (滤网). No one would license my idea, not because it was a bad one, but because it was bad for business. But soon after, the companies that I had talked with started making machines like mine. I had to fight legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic to protect the patents on my vacuum cleaner.
I was still in financial difficulties until 1993, when my bank manager personally persuaded Lloyds Bank to lend me $1 million. Then I was able to go into production. Within two years, the Dyson vacuum cleaner became a best-seller in Britain.
Today, I still embrace risk and the potential for failure as part of the process. Nothing beats the excitement of invention,
1.What drove the author to make a bagless vacuum cleaner?
A.His willingness to help mom.
B.His curiosity about machines.
C.His trouble in doing family chores.
D.His discontent with existing cleaners.
2.What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us?
A.The help from the author’s wife.
B.The financial problems of the family.
C.The tough process of the new invention.
D.The procedures of making a bagless cleaner.
3.Why did the companies refuse to license the author’s technology?
A.They thought they might suffer loss.
B.They considered it not good enough.
C.They faced legal problems themselves.
D.They had begun making such machines.
4.What lesson may the author learn from the experience?
A.Think twice before acting.
B.Failure is the mother of success.
C.Actions speak louder than words.
D.A good beginning makes a good ending.
The UK’s music festivals are world famous but there are plenty more to celebrate in the country.
Burns Night, Scotland
On 25 January. Scots celebrate the life and works of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns by holding a special Burns Supper. This can be a casual gathering of friends or a huge formal dinner. Guests take it in turn to recite Burns’ poems or sing one of his songs.
Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye, Wales
For 10 days each May, the small town of Hay-on-Wye on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales is filled with writers, filmmakers, musicians, comedians, politicians, and people who come to hear them talk and exchange ideas. The festival celebrates great writing of all genres (体裁) and it all takes place in a tented village in the town.
Camp Festival, Dorset
As a branch of a festival held in Dorset, it’s one of the best family festivals in the UK. Held every year in the grounds of the historic Lulworth Castle in Dorset, the festival includes top live music acts but, as the organizers say, “kids are king” at Camp Festival, with a wide variety of entertainment, workshops and fun for kids. The 2020 Camp Festival takes place from 25 to 28 July.
Guy Fawkes Day or “Bonfire Night”
All over the UK on 5 November, the British light bonfires and set off fireworks in their back gardens or, more commonly these days, at organized events in public parks. They celebrate the Catholic Guy Fawkes’ failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5 November, 1605.
1.Which festivals are related to literature?
A.Burns Night and Hay Festival.
B.Hay Festival and Camp Festival.
C.Burns Night and Guy Fawkes Day.
D.Camp Festival and Guy Fawkes Day.
2.When does the festival most appealing to children take place?
A.In January. B.In May.
C.In July. D.In November.
3.What does Guy Fawkes Day celebrate?
A.A historical event.
B.A successful explosion.
C.An organized strike.
D.An impressive building.
Directions: Write an English composition in 120-150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
你校学生会正开展主题为“The first job I want to take”的英语征文比赛，请你撰文参加（文中请不要出现真实的校名和人名）。你的征文内容需包括：
1.离开校园、步入社会后，你想从事的第一份职业是什么；
2.你想从事这份职业的原因（可从个人特点、职业价值等方面进行阐述）。
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Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in the brackets.
1.这位诗人的作品以天马行空而著称。(famous)
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2.越来越多的旅游公司开始涉足自助游项目的开发。(involve)
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3.在全球教育市场上,美国和英国仍占主导地位,但中国正在快速迎头赶上。(the lead)
_______________________
4.我们所需要的是这样的科学家,他们能用通俗的语言解释复杂的问题,并且敢于就重要的事情提出自己的见解。(What)
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Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Does your memory fail as you age?
I’m 62 years old. Like many of my friends, I forget names that I used to be able to recall effortlessly. When packing my suitcase for a trip. I walk to the bedroom and by the time I get there, I don’t remember what I came for. And yet my long-term memories are perfect. I remember the names of my third-grade classmates, the first record album I bought, my wedding day.
This is widely understood to be a classic problem of aging. But the problem is not necessarily age-related I’ve been teaching undergraduates for my entire career and I can prove that even 20-year-olds make short-term memory errors — loads of them. They walk into the wrong classroom; they show up to exams without the required No. 2 pencil; they forget something I just said two minutes before. These are similar to the kinds of things 70-year-olds do.
The relevant difference is not age but rather how we describe these events, the stories we tell ourselves about them. Twenty-year-olds don’t think, “Oh dear, this must be early-onset Alzheimer (早老性痴呆症).” They think, “I really need to get more than four hours of sleep.” The 70-year-olds observe these same events and worry about their brain health. This is to say that every error of short-term memory doesn’t necessarily indicate a biological disorder.
So how do we account for our subjective experience that older adults seem to search for words and names with difficulty? First, there is a generalized cognitive (认知的) slowing with age-but given a little more time, older adults perform just fine. Second, older adults have to search through more memories than younger adults to find the fact or piece of information they’re looking for. Your brain becomes crowded with memories and information. It’s not that you can’t remember — you can — it’s just that there is so much more information to sort through.
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