Our neighbor said the storm lasted four minutes. The town houses are destroyed or damaged. Amazingly, none of us were severely injured.
On the day the tornado hit, there was no indication that severe weather was on its way. The first alert my husband, Jimmy, 67, and I, 65, got came around 9 p.m., from some rolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching. He ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom, and we changed the channel to our local Pensacola, Florida, station.
No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. The bones of the house shook, and the power went out. We had three flights of steps to get to the relatively safe closet down on the first floor.
As we reached the last flight of steps, our front door blew out. Suddenly, a three-foot-long tree branch whipped through the doorframe. It flew over our heads, missing us by inches. Had we been one step up, it would have stuck through us.
Finally, Jimmy pushed me down to the closet floor, but he couldn’t get inside himself because of the wind. I grasped Jimmy’s arm as the tornado sucked the door open and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees and scalp(头皮) were full of glass, but in that moment, I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out the back of the house and into the bay.
All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn’t believe it was over.
1.How was the old couple aware of the tornado?
A. They learned it from their neighbors who passed their house.
B. They learned it from some common indications before a tornado.
C. They found the news report forecasting the tornado on TV.
D. They found the tornado on top of them when they were upstairs.
2.We can infer from paragraph4 that ____________
A. The old couple was very grateful to the branch.
B. The old couple missed the branch very much.
C. The old couple was hit by the branch on the head.
D. The old couple was fortunate to have a narrow escape.
3.Why did the old woman feel no pain in paragraph5?
A. Because she was worried about her husband.
B. Because she was brave enough to bear the pain.
C. Because she didn’t actually feel any pain.
D. Because she had a good husband to comfort her.
4.The passage is most probably taken from _______.
A. a brochure B. a novel
C. newspaper D. a magazine
Microsoft has developed a new smartphone app that interprets eye signals and translates them into letters, allowing people with motor neurone disease to communicate with others from a phone.
The GazeSpeak app combines a smartphone’s camera with artificial intelligence to recognize eye movements in real time and convert them into letters, words and sentences.
For people suffering from ALS（渐冻症）, also known as motor neurone disease, eye movement can be the only way they are able to communicate.
“Current eye-tracking input systems for people with ALS or other motor impairments are expensive, not robust under sunlight, and require frequent re-calibration and considerable, relatively immobile setups,” said Xiaoyi Zhang, a researcher at Microsoft who developed the technology. “To mitigate the drawbacks…we created GazeSpeak, an eye-gesture communication system that runs on a smartphone, and is designed to be low-cost, robust, portable and easy to learn.”
The app is used by the listener by pointing their smartphone at the speaker. A chart that can be stuck to the back of the smartphone is then used by the speaker to determine which eye movements to make in order to communicate. The sticker shows four grids of letters, which each correspond to a different eye movement. By looking up, down, left or right, the speaker selects which grids the letters they want belong to. The artificial intelligence algorithm is then able to predict the word or sentence they are trying to say.
Zhang’s research, Smartphone-Based Gaze Gesture Communication for People with Motor Disabilities, is set to be presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in May.
1.The underlined word “mitigate” in paragraph probably means __________________.
A. adjust B. correct
C. strengthen D. lessen
2.We can learn from the passage that _________________________.
A. the present eye-tracking input systems can hardly meet the demand of ALS suffers
B. ALS suffers can only be understood through the newly-developed app
C. speakers can make different eye movements to choose preferable word or sentence
D. the GazeSpeak app is going to be released at the Conference on Human Factors in May
3.Which is the best title for the text?
A. Microsoft finds hope for patients with ALS
B. Motor neurone disease might be cured by a smartphone app
C. A smartphone app helps ALS suffers speak with their eyes
D. ALS suffers finally find a way to communicate
Crossing your legs is an extremely common habit; most people don’t even notice that they’re doing it when they sit down. While you may find it comfortable to sit with one knee crossed over the other, it might be causing health problems that you are not aware of.
A study published in Blood Pressure Monitoring stated that sitting with your legs crossed can increase your blood pressure. The reason this happens is because the blood in your legs has to work against gravity to be pumped back to your heart, crossing one leg over the other increases resistance, making it even harder for the blood to circulate. This causes your body to increase your blood pressure to push the blood back to the heart.
Crossing your legs can also lead to neck and back pain. When you sit with your legs crossed, your hips are in a twisted position, which can cause one of your pelvic (骨盆的) bones to rotate. Since your pelvic bone supports your neck and spine, this can cause pressure on your lower and middle back and neck.
You also might notice that when you sit with your legs crossed for long periods of time, your feet and legs get tingly or have the feeling of being asleep. This is because when one leg sits on top of the other, it causes pressure on the veins (血管) and nerves in your legs and feet. It can cause numbness and/or temporary paralysis in the legs, ankles, or feet.
So next time you sit down, try to get yourself in the habit of sitting with both of your feet on the floor. Not only will it help your posture and stability, but it will also save your health in the long run.
1.Crossing legs may lead to the following health problems except ________.
A. It can increase your blood pressure
B. It can cause pressure on your lower and middle back and neck
C. It will make your neck and spine twisted
D. It can cause paralysis for the time being
2.Why can crossing your legs increase your blood pressure?
A. Because the blood in your legs has to work against being pumped back to your heart.
B. Because it will prevent the blood circulating.
C. Because crossing legs results in less resistance for the blood to circulate.
D. Because higher blood pressure contributes to pushing the blood back to the heart.
3.What is the purpose of writing this article?
A. To persuade us not to cross our legs any longer.
B. To make us aware of the health problems caused by crossing legs.
C. To tell us the benefits of sitting with our feet on the floor.
D. To show that crossing legs is an extremely common habit.
假如你是李华，你的新西兰笔友Jack最近迷上电脑游戏而熬夜，忽视学业，并受父母责骂，请你发一封劝告的电子邮件，不少于120词。
参考词汇：be addicted to... 对……有瘾
Dear Jack,
I’m sorry to know that _____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Faithfully yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同学们交换修改作文，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。错误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，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。
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。
Being a volunteer can bring much benefits to us. We can learn new skills, gain valuable experiences, meet new people and so on. In the late August last year, I took part the voluntary work for a international sports meeting. Every day I worked in the supply office in the Athlete Villages for about seven hours. My job is to deliver daily supplies to the officials and athletes. When the sports meeting closed, I finished my job successful. Though the job was hard, but it was very meaningful. I made some friends with the people live there and some athletes from all around the world. This voluntary work also enriched your working experience, from that I learned some skills as well.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
1. present, high school students are under increasing pressure to study long hours every day. They spend over 8 hours a day studying at school, some of 2.even have to attend extra 3.(class) in their spare time. This greatly affects their health and make their parents and teachers concerned. 4.(help) solve the problem, recently, some relevant government departments have made 5. new regulation(规定) that no students shall go to school at weekends or during official holidays. We support such a reform( 改革) and we know that 6. is necessary and important for us students to balance study and 7. ( relax). You see, New Year's Day8.(come) , and I'll make good use of the time to relax. Also, I come to realize that 9.I can rest well, I will be able to study 10.( effective) when I come back to school.
