Almost everyone has heard the expression, “the calm before the storm”. It is usually used to describe a peaceful period just before a very stressful situation or a tense argument.
British sailors coined the phrase in the late 1600s; they noted that before certain storms the seas would seem to become static and the winds would drop.
But why is it often so calm before a storm?
Science has given us the answer. According to US infotainment (资讯娱乐) website HowStuffWorks, a calm period occurs because many storms, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, draw in all the warm and humid air from the surrounding area. As this air rises into the storm clouds, it cools and acts as “fuel for the storm, like petrol in a car”.
Once the storm has taken all the energy it can from the air, it is pushed out from the top of the storm clouds and falls back down to ground level. As the air descends (下降), it becomes warm and dry. Warm, dry air is stable, so once it covers an area, it causes a calm period before the storm.
This same process also causes the “eye of the storm” in hurricanes and tornadoes. In these conditions, the calm occurs in the center of the storm because of the strong rotating (旋转的) winds.
The Weather Network has a tip for working out how far away a storm is. First, count how many seconds there are between a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder. Roughly three seconds equal one kilometer. So, for example, if you count nine seconds, the storm is about 3 kilometers away. A good gauge (评估) is that if your count is below 30 seconds, you should seek shelter straight away.
However, due to the complexity of storm system, not all storms are preceded by calm. Given the right conditions, some storms announce themselves with heavy rain and chilling (寒冷的) winds. So, your best bet is to keep yourself updated with weather reports for any predictions regarding a coming storm in your area. That’s the most reliable and sensible way to predict the next display of nature’s temper (脾气).
1.What is the main idea of Paragraphs 4 and 5?
A.To explain how a storm comes into being.
B.To support previous research on storm clouds.
C.To explain why a peaceful period occurs before a storm.
D.To show how dangerous a storm can be in certain situations.
2.If there are 15 seconds between a flash of lightning and a thunder clap, how far away is the storm?
A.Three kilometers. B.Four kilometers.
C.Five kilometers. D.Six kilometers.
3.What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A.It is not always quiet before a storm.
B.Storms have a big influence on life.
C.Heavy storms don’t usually last for a long time.
D.Weather reports may fail to predict a storm.
The year 2019 saw the end of the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Now, another popular comedy, Modern Family, follows in their footsteps. After 11 seasons the final episode aired on April 8, bringing an end to a sitcom “widely recognized as one of the funniest and most decorated sitcoms of this century”, according to EOnline.
Hitting our screens in 2009, the show claimed 22 Emmys in total, an American award that recognizes excellence in television. At its peak the show attracted over 9 million viewers for its relatable family dynamic, loveable characters and mockumentary (伪纪录片) style. In this format, characters can convey their own thoughts and feelings directly to the audience via a short sit-down interview.
Over the course of the series, fans have witnessed the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan (家族), an extended Los Angeles family, overcome the trials and tribulations of any modern family, including death, adoption and mental health.
The big family’s highs and lows have made it so relatable that we see them as part of our own family and care about their stories. From fights between siblings (兄弟姐妹) to parental disagreement about children’s education, the show, despite being a comedy, deals with serious modern issues that are familiar to the audience.
Despite its success, showrunners admitted that the sitcom had been running on fumes (后劲不足的) during the last few seasons. The final episode went as expected, with the growing branches of each family going their separate ways following one giant on-screen embrace involving every cast member.
As the camera cut to each departing family member, Jay Pritchett, the patriarch (大家长) of the family, expressed an important theme of the show. “Life is full of change. I learned a long time ago you can fight it, or you can try to make the best of it. And that’s a whole lot easier if you’ve got people helping you face whatever life throws at you,” he said emotionally.
Just as the final episode concluded, fans were treated to one last heartfelt moment. As each family switched off their porch (门廊) light, Claire asks Phil (a couple in the show) what they’ll do now that their kids have grown up and moved on. Phil said, “Leave the porch light on – they come back,” a subtle (巧妙的) hint that the show might someday return.
1.How can we define Modern Family?
A.A mockumentary series about an extended family’s history.
B.Sit-down interviews about people’s emotional problems.
C.A comedy encouraging people to adapt to changes.
D.A sitcom about funny family stories and social issues.
2.Why has Modern Family appealed to the audience so much?
A.It applies a variety of shooting formats.
B.It won the most Emmy Awards.
C.Its characters, plot and style are quite relatable.
D.It teaches them how to deal with challenges in life.
3.What does the underlined phrase “trials and tribulations” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A.fears B.problems
C.changes D.boundaries
4.What does Modern Family convey to us, according to Jay Pritchett?
A.Parenting and education are important.
B.Fighting is the best way to handle changes.
C.Life will be easier if you are able to get help.
D.Changes in life shape a harmonious family.
As doctors and nurses struggle for medical supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic, help is coming from an unlikely place – high school students.
The Career Technical Education Charter (CTEC) High School, US, has been utilizing (利用) its nine 3D printers to make face shields (防护面罩) for healthcare workers on the frontline.
Face masks have been particularly challenging to find across the US since the outbreak. Gavin Newsom, Governor of the State of California, announced recently that the state is set to spend $1 billion (about 7 billion yuan) to purchase 200 million masks each month to boost its supply.
Valerie Castro, 16, a CTEC sophomore, is part of a team of teachers and students who came up with design tweaks (改进) that cut almost 30 minutes off the time it takes to build a face shield.
“That’s what makes this school kind of different,” she said. “Even though all these bad things are happening, we’re able to make an impact positively. It’s like leaving your little mark on the world.”
Makerbot, a New York-based company that makes 3D printers, has also helped CTEC to maximize the building process.
They’ve been churning out (大量生产) nearly 100 shields each day, and that production rate is set to triple as 20 more 3D printers come online at the school.
CTEC staff and students have provided masks to hospitals, dentists, urgent care centers and retirement homes in Fresno County and the surrounding areas in California.
“I was shocked,” Stacy Vohra told school staff in a video. “We were so thrilled to have the donation from CTEC. This is something that we’ve been needing.”
The entire staff has switched from daily teaching to face shield production, said Jonathan Delano, director of CTEC.
When the new 3D printers arrive, some of them will go to students’ houses so kids can help with the hands-on process, Delano said.
“That’s how we get through these things,” Delano said. “Our high school focuses on giving back to the community. Students should know the skills they hold can have an impact on a community.”
1.What sets The Career Technical Education Charter High School apart, according to Castro?
A.They joined healthcare workers on the frontline.
B.They donated about 200 million masks in a month.
C.They designed a more protective face shield.
D.They made a difference in such difficult times.
2.According to Paragraph 7, what will happen when they triple their production rate?
A.They will get 20 more 3D printers from Makerbot.
B.They will produce a face shield in less than 30 minutes.
C.They will be able to produce about 300 face shields every day.
D.They will start to sell their face shields on their school’s website.
3.What does Delano think of CTEC’s face shield production?
A.It has boosted the supply of masks in Los Angeles.
B.It has interrupted the school’s daily teaching.
C.It reminds the students of the value of their skills.
D.It challenges students to handle 3D printers by themselves.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A.Teenagers helping design and produce face masks.
B.3D printing technology being used to produce face masks.
C.Donations from high schools to fight the pandemic.
D.A high school making contributions by producing face shields.
请阅读下面文字， 并按照要求用英语写一篇 150 词左右的文章。
There’s no doubt that work deadlines can be stressful. When you have too many, you can feel overcome. And nearing deadlines encourages last-minute dashes for the finish line, like when students pull ‘all-nighters’ in an attempt to achieve weeks’ worth of essay writing in a handful of hours.
Yet there’s no question deadlines can serve a positive psychological function-after all, without them, many students might never even finish their work. You can see evidence for the power of deadlines in the ‘real world’, too. For instance, in 2015, when the US National Science Foundation dropped its usual twice-yearly deadlines for grant submissions in geoscience, as part of an attempt to help the overburdened system, the effect was dramatic. Annual submissions fell by 59% without the pressure of a deadline and it seems that many scientists lacked the urgency and motivation to deliver their applications.
As new research findings shed light on the psychology of deadlines, we can learn ways that deadlines can be used to increase focus and boost perseverance.
（写作内容）
1. 用约 30 个单词概括上文信息的主要内容；
2. 谈谈设置”截止日期”的重要性；
3. 就 如何确保在”截止日期”内完成任务提出你的建议( 不少于两点) 。
（写作要求）
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3. 不必写标题。
（评分标准）
内容完整， 语言规范， 语篇连贯， 词数适当。
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请认真阅读下列短文， 并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意: 每个空格只填 1 个单词。 请将答案写在答题卷上相应题号的横线上。
Driverless cars used to be the sort of thing you’d see in sci-fi films, but in 2020 they’re becoming a reality. Autonomous car technology is already being developed by the likes of Lexus, BMW and Mercedes, and we’ve even tested Tesla’s driverless Autopilot system on UK roads. Across the Atlantic, Google is developing its automated technology in the wild, and Apple is rumoured to be working with BMW on its own-probably automated-car.
Fully-driverless tech is still at an advanced testing stage, but partially automated technology has been around for the last few years. Executive saloons like the BMW 7 Series feature automated parking, and can even be controlled remotely.
With so much investment and interest in driverless technology, it’s easy to assume that self-operating cars are likely to happen soon, but they’re much further away than we might think. Before driverless vehicles go to market widely, manufacturers must deal with a range of technical and ethical challenges, and prevent the biggest threat to autonomous technology: humans.
The human problem
Humans present problems for autonomous cars as both drivers and pedestrians, and dealing with our unpredictable behaviour represents a significant challenge for the technology.
The Google Car is one of the most experienced autonomous vehicles. Even so, its interaction with human drivers has given rise to the exposure of one of driverless cars’ main weaknesses. The first injury involving the Google Car wasn’t due to a fault in its system, but human-error. While correctly waiting at traffic lights, Google’s self-driving car was hit by an inattentive driver and, in spite of its sophisticated array (复杂精密的数组) of sensors, there was little it could do to avoid the incident. Luckily, the accident only resulted in minor injury for a few of the passengers, but it’s a reminder that autonomous cars are at risk when surrounded by human road users.
Despite their sophisticated systems, self-driving cars currently have no plan B for human road users. Human drivers are able to interact with each other and make allowances, but also make countless, small mistakes when driving-mistakes to which current self-driving cars simply can’t adapt.
Dealing with pedestrians
The way human drivers interact with pedestrians raises difficult moral and ethical questions for car manufacturers-with implications.
Autonomous cars need to understand the way pedestrians behave, while also imitating the behaviour they’d expect from a human driver. “Everyone has a knowledge of how a human being is going to react, because we are all human beings,” says computer ethics commentator Ben Byford. “So if you walk out in front of a car, and presumably the car driver knows you’re there, they’re going to react in a certain way.”
“ If I walked out in front of a Google car travelling at 60mph, I have no real knowledge of how the vehicle will behave, so I’m effectively putting myself in danger.”
How 1. away are we from autonomous cars? | ||
Background information | ● Autonomous car technology has been 2. in some famous car manufacturers. ● Partially automated technology has been in 3. for the last few years. ● Before our roads are 4. with driverless vehicles, manufacturers have a lot of things to do. | |
5. about the autonomous technology | The human problem | ● The Google car’s accident has 6. one of driverless cars’ weaknesses. ● 7. the sophisticated array of sensors, Google’s self-driving car could do little to avoid the accident. ● With no alternative plan, self-driving cars cannot have a good 8. with human drivers. |
Dealing with pedestrians | 9. human drivers who know pedestrians well, autonomous cars have difficulty in 10. their behavior, thus putting pedestrians in danger. |
For more than three decades, Deirdre Taylor only knew the firefighter who saved her life through the black-and-white photos on the front page of the New York Daily News, on Dec. 30, 1983.
She was only 4 then, a blond, wide-eyed toddler pictured in the paper in the arms of the firefighter, Eugene Pugliese, who had just carried her out of her burning apartment building. Taylor, now a registered nurse in Alexandria, Virginia, kept the Daily News article for years. She wished as she got older that she could find Pugliese and thank him-a desire that intensified after she became an emergency room nurse, as she learned how rare it was to hear back from patients she encountered on the worst days of their lives.
But she hadn’t lived in New York since the fire, and didn’t know where to start. She periodically searched his name on Google, finding nothing. Finally, in March, Taylor thought she may have one last chance to find him. With her family’s support, she decided to move from Virginia to New York for eight weeks to work in an overwhelmed Manhattan emergency room- trying to help save the lives of coronavirus patients, while searching for the man who saved hers.
“When I was packing my bags, I packed the Daily News article with me, ____①____ “ Taylor, 40, said, “and I told myself that one of the things I’m going to accomplish while I’m here is track him down, or track a family member down, and just say thank you. “
Pugliese, 75, had never had someone track him down to say thank you before, he said. For decades, the Daily News front-page article hung in his office. How could he forget Deirdre? “I've had her picture on my wall for 24 years,” he said.
He remembers the day clearly. It began when a man came running up yelling that there was a fire. Pugliese rushed to the burning building, where thick smoke was pouring out of a sixth-floor apartment. He went into and found it engulfed in flames. Taylor’s mother was crying, “My baby! My baby!” Pugliese remembered. He quickly helped her out of the room before returning on his hands and knees, crawling through the burning studio and blinding smoke for about six feet, when he felt the child. She was unconscious. He carried her to the living room, where he gave her mouth-to-mouth breath to bring her back. He rushed down the six flights of stairs to get her to an ambulance, when to Pugliese’s relief, she woke up and started to cry. “ _____②____ I was just in the right place at the right time,” Pugliese said. Pugliese later received a medal for Taylor’s rescue, in a ceremony that is among his most prized memories.
Taylor’s first two weeks in New York were overwhelming, as she and her colleagues dealt with patient after patient struggling to breathe. During her time off, she tried on one occasion to go to the firehouse where Pugliese worked, only to find a sign on the door discouraging visitors due to covid-19. But finally, last week, Taylor caught a break. A group of firefighters came to the ER to deliver the medical staff pizzas for dinner, to show their appreciation. Taylor explained to them that she was trying to find a likely retired fireman from Ladder No. 20, and did they have any suggestions on how to start?
One of the firemen gave her a phone number to connect her with the fire chief.
“Oh, Gene?” the chief told her. “He stops by the firehouse all the time.”
“ _____③____ “ Taylor said, “I couldn’t believe it. I really didn’t think he was still going to be around. I really thought I was going to hit a dead end.” He said, “Yeah, I have his phone number in my cellphone.”
The chief phoned Pugliese right away. Less than an hour later, Taylor’s phone rang. “It’s Gene Pugliese,” he said. “I’m the firefighter who rescued you that day.” Finally, Taylor told him what she had been meaning to say. Taylor said she could only describe the moment as surreal. Pugliese asked if her hair was still blond. It was. He told her the story of the fire, and she told him the story of her life afterward. They learned they had plenty in common. Both were die-hard Yankees fans. Both spent time in the military.
After the call, Pugliese said, “ ____④____ I cried for the rest of the day.”
1.The underlined part in Paragraph 2 implies ___________.
A.it is impossible to receive the feedback from the one you helped.
B.it is not urgent to find Pugliese because of Taylor’s busy work.
C.it is precious to receive the feedback from the one you helped.
D.it is Taylor’s responsibility to save the lives of coronavirus patients.
2.Why did Pugliese hang the Daily News picture on his wall for 24 years?
A.He was a responsible firefighter.
B.He has a long-lasting memory.
C.The rescue took him much effort.
D.The rescue was the highlight of his career.
3.In which blank can we put the sentence “My heart literally skipped a beat” ?
A.① B.② C.③ D.④
4.How did Pugliese feel after their talk on the phone?
A.He felt sad but relieved. B.He felt delighted and moved.
C.He felt shocked and grateful. D.He felt excited but awkward.
5.What is likely to happen after the call?
A.Pugliese and Taylor may meet in person.
B.Taylor may award Pugliese a medal for his rescue.
C.Pugliese and Taylor may work together to fight the virus.
D.Pugliese and Taylor may lose touch again due to the virus.
6.What can be the best title for the passage?
A.A Brave Hero B.A Dedicated Nurse
C.A Debt of Gratitude D.An Incredible Coincidence
