With smart technology increasingly influencing all aspects of our lives, it is only a matter of time before someone invents “smart” shoes—ones that can be made based on personal needs. Called “ShiftWear”, the sneakers are the brainchild of a team of businessmen, and engineers led by New York-based designer David Coel.
The adaptable shoes can be customized by using a smart phone app. Shoe owners will have the option of selecting a design from a variety of HD pattern by famous artists or creating one themselves. The company’s founders imagine a marketplace where artists can not only share but also sell their designs to others. Despite being electronic, the designs are clearly visible even in the brightest sunlight. What’s even cooler is that by switching on a backlight, users can even show off their designs in the dark!
According to Coel, the sneakers will keep their charge “forever” if only images are displayed. Though they will need periodic recharging, active users have nothing to worry about. That’s because the shoes are equipped with special walk-n-charge technology that powers the shoes—with every step. Inactive users also have options of charging the sneakers without using wires.
The bottom part of the shoes is covered with Kevler fibers, a kind of strong material, reducing normal wear and tear. Even better? They are completely waterproof (not let water through) and can even be thrown into an ordinary laundry machine for a quick wash! The company predicts that the shoes will range the price from $150 to $1000 depending on the size of the E-panels where the designs are displayed.
This is not the first time that electronics and shoes have combined. Lithuania-based iShuh Technology has come up with a similar concept that connects e-reader panels to a smart phone app via the Bluetooth. Whether these smart shoes become as popular as our smart devices remains to be seen, though they surely are attractive.
1.What can we know about the smart shoes from the text?
A.The electronic designs can not be seen clearly at night.
B.The designers make sure every pair of sneakers are unique.
C.The bottom of the shoes can last longer due to special materials.
D.The shoes have to be washed by hand to protect the electronics.
2.What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?
A.How the sneakers are charged.
B.How the sneakers can work well.
C.What images the sneakers show.
D.What technology the sneakers carry.
3.The varied prices of the sneakers mainly depend on ________.
A.the length of the shoes
B.the size of their e-panels
C.the designers of the shoes
D.the materials of their bottoms
4.How does the author feel about the sneakers’ future market?
A.Negative. B.Anxious.
C.Uncertain. D.Confident.
When you start working on something but don't finish it, thoughts of the unfinished work continue to jump into your mind even when you've moved on to other things. Psychologists refer the phenomenon as the Zeigamik effect. The effect was first observed by a Russian psychologist named Bluma Zeigamik. While sitting in a busy restaurant in Vienna, she noted the waiters had better memories of unpaid orders. Once the bill was paid, however, the waiters had difficulty remembering the exact details of the orders.
In one of her studies, participants were asked to complete simple tasks such as putting together puzzles, or solving math problems. Half of the participants were interrupted halfway through these tasks. After an hour-long delay, Zeigamik asked the participants to give an account of what they'd been working on. She discovered that those who had their work interrupted were twice as likely to remember what they had been doing as those who had actually completed the tasks.
We can use this effect to our advantage. For example, if you're struggling to memorize something important, momentary interruptions might actually work to your advantage. Rather than simply remember the information over and over again, review it several times and then take a break. While you're focusing on other things, you'll find yourself mentally returning to the information you were studying.
We often put off tasks until the last moment, only completing them in a rush at the last possible moment. Unfortunately, this tendency can lead to heavy stress and even poor performance. One way to overcome this is to put the Zeigamik effect to work. Start by taking the first step, no matter how small. Once you have begun — but not finished — your work, you'll find yourself thinking of the task until, at last, you finish it. You might not finish it all at once, but each small step you take puts you closer to your final goal.
1.What does the Zeigamik effect refer to?
A.Waiters tend to have good memories.
B.Once interrupted, one will forget things easily.
C.Most people can't focus on one thing for a long time.
D.People remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones.
2.How should we study according to the Zeigamik effect?
A.Repeat over and over again.
B.Divide our study session.
C.Focus on several tasks at a time.
D.Have enough rest before studying.
3.What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
A.How to get rid of heavy stress.
B.Why we should set a final goal.
C.How to break the habit of delaying work.
D.Why we always complete tasks in a rush.
In the middle of a hot July afternoon, I became a thief of some sort — a thief of music.
For the first time, I created an original piano arrangement of one of my favorite songs. Using only my ears and iPad, I transformed a mix of sounds and melodies into the tones of a single instrument; I created complex harmonies (和声) and voices into something I could perform with only two hands. No help, no guide — I did it on my own.
I've been a pianist since my hands grew big enough to touch the piano. With my father as a musician, I was all but born on the piano bench. For many years, my musical identity was defined by the notes that others had written in the past centuries: elegant lines of neatly printed notes stamped across the sheet music became the script I had to perform. I valued classical music — adored it — but I felt such performances were shallow. I had nothing of my own to contribute to the masterful compositions of Bach or Rachmaninov.
This was why, when I put the finishing touches to my piano version of a modem song, my pride was glorious: this arrangement was mine. What I'd done seemed magical: an ability to take what had already existed — to "steal" a song from my favorite band — and to change it into something different all on my own. I was a thief but I was also an artist.
In music, as in other aspects of life, I believe that true originality rarely exists. Almost everything has been done before, in one form or another. The most passionate romance novel may be a slightly changed version of a play written by Shakespeare, which in turn was borrowed from the writers of Ancient Greece: the same themes, different characters, and different circumstances. But the novel no less deserves praise just because its uniqueness is compromised.
The gift of creativity is just like the ability to do what I did on the piano: to find out something beautiful, to analyze and change it and lose yourself in the mystery of its composition, and then to make it new. Such an act is not copying; it is finding inspiration and having the strength and the innovation to use it as fuel for your own masterpiece.
1.Why did the author create the piano arrangement?
A.Because he was not satisfied with the old one.
B.Because he wanted to create music of his own.
C.Because he was tired of his father's music-teaching method.
D.Because he wanted to show respect for Bach and Rachmaninov.
2.By mentioning Shakespeare, the author wants to tell us______.
A.there is no true creativity in music.
B.Shakespeare9s plays are totally original.
C.many of Shakespeare,s plays deserve no praise.
D.originality is connected with what has already existed.
3.We can conclude from the passage that______.
A.creativity is to find something beautiful.
B.adaptation has nothing to do with creativity.
C.a masterpiece can be a changed version of an existed work.
D.common people don't have the ability to create something new.
假定你是学生李津。你的美国朋友Tom在给你的邮件中提到他对中国的移动 支付（mobile payment）很感兴趣，请你给Tom回复邮件并做简要介绍。内容包括：
1. 目前中国使用移动支付的情况；
2. 移动支付的好处；
3. 你对移动支付的看法。
注意：（1）词数不少于120；
（2）可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯：
（3）回邮开头及结尾己为你写好，不计入词数。
参考词汇：微信：WeChat；支付宝：Alipay；二维码：QR code
Dear Tom,
In you letter you asked about mobile payment in China.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Jin
阅读下面短文，按照要求用英语回答问题。
My name is Brooke Parsons, and the story of my life is different. One day, in April, 1993, I was home alone when I had a stroke. When my parents came home, they took me to the hospital to learn what lay ahead for all of us. The stroke has left me with permanent brain damage. The doctors suggested I quit school. However, I chose the opposite.
After returning to high school, I learned very slowly. I had to decide whether or not to complete the twelfth grade in 2 years. Thinking I would fail if I chose to do it in one year, finally I made my decision. The staff at school were very supportive and helped me through the rough times. Finally, I graduated from high school. Graduating from high school was a huge achievement for me. That was an opportunity for me to be really proud of just how far I had come with all the odds I had to beat.
I can now walk, talk, dress myself, feed myself and be the independent person I am today. I have achieved my VCE and I am now at university, studying to be a social worker. I have been a scholarship winner. I have become a life-long member of the local musical band. All of these achievements are beyond my imagination. Now I am even in a novel called Second Chances by Neil Mitchall.
I could have easily listened to the doctors when I first had my stroke, but I decided I was going to prove them wrong as they did not know me, nor did they know just how determined I would be.
It’s a big world out there. I have done and achieved so much and never once will I allow the odds to get the better of me, as there is still a whole lot more things out there for me to do. I love life and I am living it to the maximum
1.How was the author affected by the stroke? (no more than 6 words)
2.What decision did he make after returning to school? (no more than 10 words)
3.What did the authors efforts bring him? (no more than 10 words)
4.What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean? (no more than 10 words)
5.What do you think of the author and why? (no more than 20 words)
One might expect that the evergrowing demands of the tourist trade would bring nothing but good for the countries that receive the holidaymakers. Indeed, a rosy picture is painted for the longterm future of the holiday industry. Every month sees the building of a new hotel somewhere. And every month another rockbound Pacific island is advertised as the ‘last paradise(天堂) on earth’．
However, the scale and speed of this growth seem set to destroy the very things tourists want to enjoy. In those countries where there was a rush to make quick money out of seaside holidays, overcrowded beaches and the concrete jungles of endless hotels have begun to lose their appeal.
Those countries with little experience of tourism can suffer most. In recent years, Nepal set out to attract foreign visitors to fund developments in health and education. Its forests, full of wildlife and rare flowers, were offered to tourists as one more untouched paradise. In fact, the nature all too soon felt the effects of thousands of holidaymakers traveling through the forest land. Ancient tracks became major routes for the walkers, with the consequent exploitation of precious trees and plants.
Not only can the environment of a country suffer from the sudden growth of tourism. The people as well rapidly feel its effects. Farmland makes way for hotels, roads and airports; the old way of life goes. The onetime farmer is now the servant of some multinational organization; he is no longer his own master. Once it was his back that bore the pain; now it is his smile that is exploited. No doubt he wonders whether he wasn't happier in his village working his own land.
Thankfully, the tourist industry is waking up to the responsibilities it has towards those countries that receive its customers. The protection of wildlife and the creation of national parks go hand in hand with tourist development and in fact obtain financial support from tourist companies. At the same time, tourists are being encouraged to respect not only the countryside they visit but also its people.
The way tourism is handled in the next ten years will decide its fate and that of the countries we all want to visit. Their needs and problems are more important than those of the tourist companies. Increased understanding in planning worldwide tourism can preserve the market for these companies. If not, in a few years' time the very things that attract tourists now may well have been destroyed.
1.What does the author indicate in the last sentence of Paragraph 1?
A.The Pacific island is a paradise.
B.The Pacific island is worth visiting.
C.The advertisement is not convincing.
D.The advertisement is not impressive.
2.The example of Nepal is used to suggest ________.
A.its natural resources are untouched
B.its forests are exploited for farmland
C.it develops well in health and education
D.it suffers from the heavy flow of tourists
3.What can we learn about the farmers from Paragraph 4?
A.They are happy to work their own lands.
B.They have to please the tourists for a living.
C.They have to struggle for their independence.
D.They are proud of working in multinational organizations.
4.Which of the following determines the future of tourism?
A.The number of tourists.
B.The improvement of services.
C.The promotion of new products.
D.The management of tourism.
5.The author's attitude towards the development of the tourist industry is ________.
A.optimistic B.doubtful
C.objective D.negative
