Must-read Books that Are Hitting the Big Screen This Year
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
Starring: Jessica Chastain and Johan Heldenbergh
Release Date: July 31, 2017
This true story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Ackerman artfully retells the story of Jan and Zabinski and how they used their zoo to save over three hundred people from the Nazis. After their zoo was bombed, they managed to hide people in animal cages, giving animal names to their guests and human names to their animals. This is one story we truly hope lives up to the hope on film.
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
Starring: Sienna Miller and Robert Pattinson
Release Date: August 14,2017
Looking for adventure? This story is just what you need. The book(and film) tells the tale of British explorer Percy Fawcett and how he ventured into the Amazon jungle in 1925, never to return. It's an enchanting mystery that we can’t wait to see play out on screen.
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Starring: Richard Gere and Rebecca Hall
Release Date: October 5,2017
We always say we'd do absolutely anything for our kids, right? The story begins with two couples politely, eating dinner together, avoiding a conversation about their children who have committed a horrific act. As the story goes on, you'll see just how far these parents will go to protect the ones they love.
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Starring: Emma Watson and Patton Oswalt
Release Date: November 28,2017
A young woman, Mae, is hired to work for a powerful Internet company and Feels like she's hit the job jackpot. The facility is very advanced, lively, and a bit wild. Mae's story begins as one of ambition but soon tums into a heart-racing story of suspense.
1.Why did Jan and Zabinski put people in animal cages?
A.To offer them living places B.To treat them as animals
C.To avoid being bombed D.To hide from the Nazis
2.Who plays the role of a modern white-collar woman?
A.Emma Watson B.Rebecca Hall
C.Sienna Miller D.Jessica Chastain
3.When can you go to see the film if you enjoy adventure stories?
A.In July B.In August
C.In October D.In November
4.Which of the following is related to parents' raising kids?
A.The Zookeeper's Wife B.The Lost City of Z
C.The Dinner D.The Circle
请认真阅读下列材料和图表，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Campus security has recently attracted wide public attention. In order to ensure the safety of teachers and students, our school prohibits strangers, students’ parents included, from entering the campus at will. This rule has aroused a strong response from parents. For this reason, our school has recently conducted a public opinion survey among students on whether parents should enter campus. The results of the survey are as follows.
（写作内容）
1.用约30个单词概括阅读材料的主要内容；
2.用约120个单词简要描述图中的信息(包括人数比率、观点及原因)；并就“家长该不该进校园”谈谈你的看法和理由。
（写作要求）
1.可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；
2.不必写标题；
3.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。
（评分标准）
概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，语篇连贯。
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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。
Anxiety is a typical human reaction to stress. But too much anxiety can get in the way of living a healthy, happy life. If you feel caught up in your anxiety, try one or a few of the following exercises anytime and anywhere to find relief.
When you’re feeling anxious, you might notice that your heart rate and breathing get a bit faster. First, you should sit in a quiet and comfortable place. Put one of your hands on your chest and the other on your stomach.
Then take a slow and regular breath in through your nose. Watch and sense your hands as you breathe in. The hand on your chest should remain still while the hand on your stomach will move slightly. Breathe out through your mouth slowly. Repeat this process at least 10 times or until you begin to feel relaxed.
If it doesn’t work, try think of your ideal place that you find very calming, happy, peaceful, and safe. Think about how the place would smell, feel, and sound. Envision yourself in that place, enjoying it comfortably.
Once you have a good picture of your “happy place,” close your eyes and take slow and regular breaths through your nose and out of your mouth. Be aware of your breathing and continue focusing on the place you’ve imagined in your mind until you feel your anxiety lifting.
But it can be hard to think clearly when you feel anxious. Sometimes anxious thinking can make us believe harmful thoughts that are untrue or make us do things that make our anxiety worse. Here’s how to avoid so: ask yourself whether endless worry is a problem for you. If the answer is yes, it’s good to be aware of that. Then try different ways such as singing a silly song, , listening to music, reading a book or the like.
Counting is also a simple way to ease your anxiety. When you feel anxiety washing over you, close your eyes and slowly count to 10. If necessary, repeat and count to 20 or an even higher number. Keep counting until you feel ease.
Sometimes this relief occurs quickly, but other times it might take a while. Stay calm and patient. It’s a great tool to use in a crowded or busy space where you can’t do other anxiety exercises.
Choose an anxiety exercise and try it until you’re feeling relaxed. If one exercise doesn’t work, try a different one. But anxiety exercises may not work for those with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). If you have GAD, consult your doctor for more effective treatment options.
Anxiety exercises to help you relax | |
Introduction | Too much anxiety can 1. with your healthy and happy life. One or a few of the exercises can help you relieve yourself anytime and anywhere. |
Relax by 2. | Controlling your breath can help address your body’s stress 3., like increased heart rate and rapid breathing. *Find a quiet and comfortable place, and breathe in slowly and regularly through your nose, with one hand on your chest remaining still and the other on your stomach 4. slightly |
Relax by visualizing | Paint a mental picture of a place that makes your relaxed and happy. *Find an ideal place to relax and imagine enjoying yourself while thinking of the 5.. *Take slow and regular breaths through your nose and out of your mouth, with your eyes closed and your attention 6. on the happy place. |
Relax by interrupting your anxious thinking | Anxiety thinking can result in a bad 7.. It’s helpful to break it. *Identify the problem and try different ways like singing a silly song, , listening to music, reading a book and so on. |
Relax by 8. | When other anxiety exercises might be challenging to 9. out, counting may work. *Keep counting slowly until you find your anxiety decreasing. |
Conclusion | Choose one anxiety exercises and keep trying until you feel 10. anxious. However, it makes sense for those with GAD to consult doctors. |
The outstanding biography — from the same author who brought us Steve Jobs and Einstein —portrays the life of the complicated Renaissance (文艺复兴时期的) artist with details. We come to see da Vinci as not only an inventor of musical instruments and early flying machines, but also a notebook keeper and vegetarian (素食者), who had trouble finishing many of the projects and paintings he started.
Yet what is most thrilling is getting to know da Vinci the scientist. Isaacson explains how loving science and applying the scientific method to observing the world was really what made da Vinci a great artist and, Isaacson argues, a genius.
Da Vinci was fascinated with observing and understanding phenomena in nature, from the proportions of the human body to how the muscles of the lips moved. He wanted to know about everything around him, in minute detail, Isaacson writes. He wondered about questions “most people over the age of ten no longer puzzle about”— for instance, how the tongue of a woodpecker works.
To learn about the world, da Vinci combined his own observations with experimentation. Never formally schooled, “he preferred to induce from experiments rather than deduce from theoretical principles,” Isaacson explains. He recorded his observations, looked for patterns among them, and then tested those patterns through additional observation and experimentation.
When he became fascinated with the idea that he could invent flying machines, three and a half centuries before the Wright brothers flew the first airplane, he observed various birds and filled notebooks with the function and speed at which their wings flapped. That’s why Isaacson calls da Vinci an exemplar of this scientific method.”He goes on:“Galileo, born 112 years after Leonardo, is usually credited with being the first to develop this kind of approach and is often regarded as the father of modern science,” the historian Fritjof Capra wrote. “There can be no doubt that this honor would have been bestowed (赐予) on Leonardo da Vinci had he published his scientific writings during his lifetime, or had his notebooks been widely studied soon after his death.”
Da Vinci’s emphasis on empirical observation also helped him improve his art. First, he was able to use what he learned from looking at nature to paint and draw. His studies of the body, animals, motion, shadow and light, perspective and proportion helped him better understand what he was seeing in front of him, and render it in art more accurately and finely than anyone else of his time. He also used his observations of nature to make connections among phenomena. A recorder (竖笛) was like a larynx (喉管) in the throat. Here’s Isaacson again: What Leonardo probably began as four distinct elements ended up woven together in a way that illustrates a fundamental theme in his art and science: the interconnectedness of nature, the unity of its patterns, and the similarity between the workings of the human body and those of the earth.
Most importantly, his curiosity-driven explorations, and ability to connect art and science, helped him innovate in his work. They helped him think differently, Isaacson argues. Da Vinci made surprisingly diverse series of discoveries, including conceptualizing the helicopter and solar power and advancing knowledge about everything from the reproductive organs to botany. This genius is also what drew Isaacson to Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs as subjects: They’re all innovators who were inspired by and drew connections between art and science.
“Leonardo da Vinci is the ultimate example of the main theme of my previous biographies: how the ability to make connections across disciplines — arts and sciences, humanities and technology — is a key to innovation, imagination, and genius,” Isaacson writes. And this wonderful book is a reminder, in a time of increasingly narrow specialization and focus, that the methods of Renaissance men like da Vinci are as relevant as ever.
1.What is the highlight of da Vinci’s biography?
A.His unfinished paintings.
B.His preference for vegetables.
C.His spirit of exploring science.
D.His opposition to formal education.
2.What made da Vinci’s thinking different from others?
A.He was used to skipping school.
B.He kept his childhood’s sense of curiosity.
C.He was filled with ambition to become an artist and inventor.
D.He developed a fascination with historical novels.
3.Why does Isaacson mention Galileo in the book?
A.To introduce his important findings.
B.To memorize the father of modern science.
C.To show the prejudice faced by da Vinci during his lifetime.
D.To illustrate the significance of da Vinci’s research method.
4.The underlined word “render” in Paragraph 6 can be replaced by“_____”.
A.express B.mix C.confirm D.associate
5.What does Isaacson think of the methods of Renaissance men?
A.They are too complicated to understand.
B.They focus on the workings of the human body.
C.They are more accurate than modern methods.
D.They still apply to contemporary scientific research.
6.What might be the best title for the passage?
A.How a Genius Changed the World
B.The Features of Renaissance Art
C.How Science Shaped His Art
D.The Comparison between Induction and Deduction
You have probably read about robots replacing human labor as automation takes root in one industry after another. But a new report suggests humans are not the only ones who might lose their jobs.
In New Zealand, farmers are using drones (无人机) to herd (放牧) and monitor livestock (牲畜), assuming a job that highly intelligent dogs have held for more than a century. The robots have appropriated one of the animal’s effective tools: barking, Radio New Zealand reports. The DJI Mavic Enterprise, a $3,500 drone favored by farmers, has a feature that lets the machine record sounds and play them over a loud speaker, giving the machine the ability to imitate its canine counterparts.
Corey Lambeth, a shepherd on a sheep and beef farm, told RNZ the machines are surprisingly effective. “That’s the one thing I’ve noticed when you’re moving cows and calves: the old cows stand up to the dogs, but with the drones, they’ve never done that.” he said. That means the drones move livestock faster, with less stress, than the dogs do.
Farmers told RNZ the drones come in handy for more than just herding cows and sheep. The robots allow farmers to monitor their land from afar, monitoring water and feed levels and checking on livestock health without disturbing the animals.
Jason Rentoul told RNZ last spring that a two-hour herding job that used to require two people and two teams of dogs could be accomplished in 45 minutes using a single drone.“Being a hilly farm where a lot of stuff is done on foot, the drones really saved a lot of man hours,” he said. “The drone does the higher bits that you can’t see (from the ground). Before using drones, you would (otherwise) have to walk half an hour to go and have a look and then say, “Oh, there are no sheep here.”
Farmers all over the world are using drones. In South Africa, they monitor crop health from above, which boosts harvests, according to CNN. In California, winemakers use drones equipped with sensors to grow healthier grapes, according to MIT Technology Review. Because drones fly closer to the ground, they are able to provide high-resolution images that are less expensive than hiring someone to fly over a field in a manned aircraft, the publication reported.
For now, farmers in New Zealand say, some dogs are already learning to work alongside drones, identifying the machines as more co-worker than enemy. Besides, there is still a need for herding dogs, primarily because they have a longer life span than drones, can work in bad weather and do not require an electrical socket (插座) every few hours to recharge.
1.The underlined part in Paragraph 2 probably refers to“_____”.
A.farmers’ order
B.dogs’ barking
C.the call of sheep
D.the sound of loud speakers
2.What’s the advantage of drones according to the farmers?
A.They can be purchased at a low price.
B.They put less stress on livestock.
C.They can do more than one task efficiently.
D.They help them monitor weather conditions.
3.What does Paragraph 6 mainly talk about?
A.The secret to harvesting healthier grapes.
B.The application of drones in global agriculture.
C.How drones provide less expensive but clearer images.
D.Why manned aircraft are losing appeal for
4.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ________.
A.drones function normally in extreme weather
B.farmers are troubled by where to charge drones
C.the herding dogs show no enthusiasm to drones
D.drones cannot replace dogs entirely at the moment
Fireflies flash not just for mating (交配), but survival, a new study suggests. Scientists wanted to find out if there’s more to the lightning bug’s signature blinking glow (一闪一闪的亮光) than finding a mate. Some experts had assumed it was a glaring signal to predators (捕食者), like bats, that fireflies taste bad.
To test out whether the glow acted like that, researchers at Boise State University in Idaho put bats and fireflies in front of high-speed cameras. They published their results in Wednesday’s journal Science Advances.
The painstaking experiment required researchers to introduce western bats, which had never seen lightning bugs before, to the insects. Later, they hand-painted firefly bellies black, turning off their night lights but avoiding the holes the insects breathe through. When the bats first saw the unfamiliar lit-up fireflies, they acted excitedly and ate a lot of the bugs, only to get a bad taste in their mouths.“They shake their heads and spit and generally hate their caretakers for giving them such a rude meal,” said study author Jesse Barber, a Boise State biology professor and author of the study. After a few tries, the bats then avoided the glowing fireflies. Despite the popular misconception, bats aren’t blind, a study author noted.
Once the fireflies essentially taught bats that they taste bad, Barber and his colleagues introduced the darkened fireflies. About 40 percent of the painted ones were eaten, while none of the normal fireflies were eaten. Researchers also think the way lightning bugs fly signals what they are. To test that they put fireflies on fishing lines and the bats went after them, despite already knowing that fireflies don’t taste good. The results make sense and are valuable, said Nick Dowdy, a Purdue University researcher in Indiana, who was not involved in the study.
Scientists already knew that fireflies have distinctive flash patterns that tell others who they are and where they are. And some females prefer males that flash at higher rates, according to study co-author Marc Branham of University of Florida. Barber noted that even in their larval (幼虫) stage, the bugs glow and don’t get eaten. So he theorized that when it comes to evolution, fireflies’ glowing trait (特点) may have developed first as protection from predators and later became a mating signal.
So, Barber said, “Bats may have invented fireflies.”
1.The purpose of the researchers’ study is to see________
A.whether fireflies flash to warn their predators away
B.how fireflies react to high-speed cameras
C.how fireflies flash to attract a mate
D.when fireflies make a bright light
2.Why did the researchers put fireflies on fishing lines?
A.To hide their flashes.
B.To make them fly faster.
C.To make them more energetic.
D.To change their flying patterns.
3.What does Barber mean in the last paragraph?
A.Bats have influenced fireflies’ evolution.
B.Bats and fireflies depend on each other.
C.Bats have similar traits to fireflies.
D.Bats tend to avoid larval fireflies.
