My parents visited me to help with a project I’d put off — cleaning the house. Now, Mom and Dad are— hmm, how should I put this? — cheap! So when I offered to pick up the cleaner, they said, “Never mind. We have everything we need right here in the house.”
Mom pushed past me and went straight for the white vinegar (醋). I watched her remove a dirty mark on the blanket with it. I thought it a bit strange, but less so than her smelling at my bookshelf. When one book caused her nose to blow, she walked it into the fridge.
“That’ll clear up that unpleasant smell for a while,” she said. I nodded in agreement, although I wasn’t sure. I thought only her husband would know. I found Dad in the yard adding vodka, and some dish soap into a spray bottle (喷雾瓶).
“I’m hunting weeds,” he said.
“A wine?”
“Yes, the wine does dry them up.”
How come? They must have lost their marbles! I thought as I walked back into the house, where Mom was cleaning my shoes with banana skins.
“Mom, what are you …” BAM! I slipped on a banana skin. “Ooh, my back ...”
“Don’t move! I’ll get the meat tenderizer (嫩化剂)!”
However, she first pulled off my shoe, grabbed a sock and disappeared into the kitchen. I tried to run for my life, but Mom was quicker. She returned with my sock filled with meat tenderizer and water, and rubbed it on my back.
Before I had a chance to call 911, something amazing happened—my back began to feel better! It was working.
Suddenly, I saw things anew. My shoes were clean. And though the blanket smelled like salad, the mark was gone. Inside the yard stood Dad, drinking his weed killer and admiring his handiwork.
1.The parents come to my house _________.
A.to do the cleaning
B.to cook a delicious meal
C.to prepare a gathering
D.to share a learning experience
2.What does the underlined sentence “They must have lost their marbles!” in the text mean?
A.They wasted time. B.They were clever.
C.They made wonders. D.They were crazy.
3.Which of the following can best describe the parents?
A.Foolish but reliable B.Generous and devoted
C.Mean but intelligent D.Caring and experienced
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Mom's Love B.Life Wisdom
C.A Sudden Visit D.Magic Cleaner
A small dairy（乳制品）farm that floats on waterways is being tested in the Netherlands as a way to bring animal products closer to the cities and save space.
Dutch businesswoman Minke Van Wingerden looks proudly at her 32 cows at an automated milking station on an unusual farm: a platform located on one of the waterways in Rotterdam port. She is one of the developers of the “Floating Farm,” testing whether dairy farming like this is feasible in the heart of one of the world’s most urban, industrial areas.
“This idea started in 2012. My partner Peter was involved in a project in New York and then Hurricane Sandy hit New York very badly, so it was flooded and after two days there was no fresh food on the shelves anymore,” she said, “So then we realized, ‘Why not produce fresh food on the water close to the city?’, and that’s where the idea came up.”
The cows can rest on the upper level of the structure. Milk and waste processing facilities are located on the lower deck, as well as the visitors’ entrance and store. The top level of the structure is used to collect rainwater. Power for the farm comes from a solar panel floating nearby.
“The amount of arable（可耕的）land is decreasing and the world population is growing. So how can we produce enough healthy food in the future?” Ms. Van Wingerden said. “Why not use water to produce fresh healthy food near to the consumers?”
The whole farm is equipped with the latest dairy tech such as an automated feeding system, waste-moving robots, self-serve cleaning stations, and the smartphone app. It sells some bottles of raw milk on-site to visitors, while the rest is turned into milk. It is sold to customers nearby via an online grocery, Picnic, known for its small, electric delivery trucks.
1.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “feasible” in paragraph 2?
A.Disgusting. B.Practical.
C.Enjoyable. D.Flexible.
2.What do we know about the platform?
A.It was once flooded by a hurricane.
B.It is powered by the waterways nearby.
C.It was originally invented in New York.
D.It has three floors for different functions.
3.We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.
A.picnic deals mainly with dairy products
B.electric equipment is being tested on the farm
C.modern tech has been applied to farm management
D.visitors prefer bottles of raw milk to farm-made milk
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.New Food Farm Solves Problems of the Public
B.“Floating Farm” Creates Local Dairy for Cities
C.Latest Invention Contributes to Food Shortages
D.Less Arable Land Threatens World Population
As Alice and Mike watched their son Allan graduate from Cambridge University last month, they thought back to the moment he was born.
“I’m so sorry your baby is blind,” a neighbor had said. Even though Allan’s family were middle class and they lived a comfortable life, as a blind child, Allan Hennessy’s future was poor.
The local hospitals could not offer Allan hope of giving him sight because there weren’t enough eye specialists. But when Allan was 6 months old, an opportunity came and Allan’s father seized it. “My dad sold his car, belongings and some of his land to pay for my treatment. We left our home country with very little.”
The opportunity was an operation in London which restored the sight in Allan’s left eye. “My mom remembers the first time I looked at her: the first time we made eye contact. She burst into tears. Since then, I’ve just been rocking on with the little sight I have,” he explained.
For Allan, life as an immigrant was challenging. When he was accepted into Cambridge University, Allan realized there were so many peers at Cambridge.
“I felt visibly different,” he said. When you’re a half-blind guy climbing the greasy pole, everyone can see that and they judge you, even though they are climbing it too.”
But after spending three years at Fitzwilliam College, Allan said it was transformative（改造作用的）. “I met the most amazing people from all over the world.” What would his life be like if he had stayed in his home country? “I wouldn’t have a Cambridge law degree; I wouldn’t even be sighted. My family there have faced terrible events. Perhaps I wouldn’t be alive.”
After graduating this summer, Allan is taking up a scholarship at law school.
“If you’ve got a first-class law degree from Cambridge University, that should set you up for life,” he said. “But when you’re a half-blind immigrant living in Britain today, there is so much more I have to do. The journey has only just begun.”
1.When Allan was born, __________.
A.a local doctor offered to help with his eye problems
B.he lived in a poor area
C.his family was ready to move to London
D.he couldn’t see anything
2.The underlined word “ it” in Paragraph 3 refers to __________.
A.the selling of Mike’s belongings
B.an operation to cure Allan’s eyes
C.the comfortable life in London
D.the bright future of the family
3.How was Allan’s life in Cambridge?
A.He was helped by many of his peers.
B.He worked hard to keep up with his peers.
C.He was bullied by others for many years.
D.He found it challenging but life-changing.
4.We can infer from the last paragraph that Allan__________.
A.won’t stop challenging himself in the future
B.is proud of his achievements in college
C.is determined to help other half-blind students
D.is unsatisfied with his life as an immigrant
In March, 2016, the pride of humankind was crushed by a computer. Google's AlphaGo defeated the South Korean Go master Lee Sedol four games to one, as the world looked on with shock and awe. Artificial intelligence had suddenly reached a new and unexpected height.
But as smart as AlphaGo is, it's no longer the best Go "player" in the world. Google's artificial intelligence group, DeepMind, has created the next generation of its Go-playing program, called AlphaGo Zero. The new AI program is unique in the way it learned to play Go. Instead of learning from thousands of human matches, as its predecessor (前任) did, AlphaGo Zero mastered Go in just two days without any human knowledge of the game and defeated AlphaGo by day three, reported The Guardian. It then went on to defeat AlphaGo 100 games to zero.
To learn how to play Go, AlphaGo Zero played millions of matches against itself using only the basic rules of the game to rapidly create its own knowledge of it. Like the previous version, it used "reinforcement (增强) learning to become its own teacher," according to DeepMind's website.
"It's more powerful than previous approaches," David Silver, AlphaGo's lead researcher, told The Guardian, "because by not using human data, or human expertise in any fashion, we've removed the constraints of human knowledge and it is able to create knowledge itself."
AlphaGo Zero's approach to self-learning is a significant advancement in AI that could be applied to help solve some of the world's biggest problems, according to a recent research report published in the journal Nature. For example, DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis argues that AlphaGo Zero could probably find cures for a number of serious diseases within weeks, according to The Telegraph. Indeed, the AI is now being used to study protein folding, which is connected to diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
So now that AI has gone beyond the bounds of human knowledge, perhaps the question is not about what AI can learn from humans, but what humans can learn from AI. We can only wait and see.
1.What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?
A.AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol five games to zero.
B.AlphaGo Zero defeated AlphaGo within one day.
C.AlphaGo Zero has become the new best Go player.
D.AlphaGo Zero is the first program to defeat a human at Go.
2.What does the underlined word "constraints" in the fourth paragraph probably mean?
A.advantages B.disadvantages
C.restrictions D.regulations
3.What's the possible application of AI in the future according to the article?
A.Treating diseases. B.Making new Go rules.
C.Solving math problems. D.Creating new proteins.
最近你班同学就使用微信朋友圈（WeChat Moments）的利弊展开讨论。请你根据提示内容用英语写一篇短文，介绍此次讨论情况，并谈谈你的看法，然后发表在你校的英语论坛上。
注意: 1. 词数 100 左右；2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有5处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅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，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改 5 处，多者(从第 6 处起)不计分。
Seeing him head out without a jacket on, ZhouKai’s mother felt anxious and asked him to put on his jacket. He had to do as he told. ZhouKai’s mother always makes sure he eats healthily and has a balance diet, so he rarely gets colds. Besides, ZhouKai takes a lot of exercises and is the captain of his class team.
