Brenda Bongos was a girl with one big ambition- to play the drums in a band. But a(n)________lay in her way. To be good enough to play in a______, Brenda had to practice a lot, but she lived next-door to lots of_______people in a care home. The sound of beating drums would really annoy them.
Brenda was________. She always tried to find a way of practicing her drums without ________other people. But without success. However,________to practice as much as she could. Brenda________all kinds of ways.
One day, while watching a science documentary, she heard that________cannot travel in space without air. At that moment, Brenda bongos decided to become a________astronaut.
So Brenda built a space________connected with a machine, which drew out all air.Inside was a________of drums. Once inside, Brenda________the machine and played like mad!
It wasn't long before she had become________. Many people came to see her play in her space bubble.________ -afterwards she started giving________out of the bubble,________ Brenda became a real musical astronaut as the government asked her to be part of a space journey, and had gone far beyond her first________of playing drums in a band.
When asked how she had________all this, she said, "If those old people next-door hadn't________so much to me, I wouldn’t have gone to such ________to find a solution, and none of this would have ever happened.
1.A.obstacle B.question C.figure D.hand
2.A.match B.band C.talks D.scene
3.A.sick B.local C.elderly D.poor
4.A.delightful B.wonderful C.awful D.respectful
5.A.waking B.reaching C.embarrassing D.bothering
6.A.scared B.thrilled C.determined D.encouraged
7.A.tested B.tried C.played D.found
8.A.light B.sound C.air D.heat
9.A.musical B.classical C.medical D.physical
10.A.bag B.bubble C.container D.aircraft
11.A.set B.pair C.couple D.part
12.A.turned on B.put on C.got on D.held on
13.A.mature B.skillful C.famous D.confident
14.A.Hardly B.Shortly C.Rarely D.Swiftly
15.A.advice B.lessons C.speeches D.concerts
16.A.Suddenly B.Generally C.Finally D.Fortunately
17.A.effort B.performance C.ambition D.attempt
18.A.gained B.done C.got D.achieved
19.A.mattered B.related C.owed D.talked
20.A.classes B.places C.difficulties D.lengths
This app could checkmate dating game
George Church, a leading professor of genetics at Harvard University, is planning to create a dating app that can match users based on their genetic agreement.
1.Two people considering going on a date take out their smartphones first and check each other's genetic table to see whether there are any undesirable genes that cannot be determined from outward appearance. Genetic deficiencies that might lead to diseases in offspring will be screened out first. Heart disease? No. Immune deficiency? No.Hemophilia? No.
2.Eye color, height preference, curly or straight hair. In the end, only those with the genes that promise the users a perfect child will date.
It sounds terrible. If the app becomes a reality, it could split people into different camps based on the genes they carry.
Some might argue that even now people are not wholly equal to each other-there are the rich and the poor to begin with. 3.Genes, on the other hand, are fixed, with no hope of changing at least in the near future.
Church didn’t have this divisive goal in mind. In an interview, he said he hopes to let people know the genetic deficiencies(基因缺陷) in their mating partners so as to minimize the chances of giving birth to children with diseases.4.
The problem is not so much with genetic technology, which can help people find possible diseases before birth, and possibly even cure them through gene editing. But it would be a mistake to let everybody know of each other s genetic information and make choices on that basis.
5.Gene sequencing(基因排序)is becoming increasingly popular with many people choosing to know their genes better. It is reaching a stage when it becomes urgent for the law to protect such information and avoid possible leaks.
A. He will make it.
B. This is how it works.
C. That in turn calls for legislation(法律;法规).
D. The app will be popular with different people.
E. Then comes the turn of harmless appearance characteristics.
F. But he will not be able to stop the above- mentioned possibility.
G. However, one can always struggle to improve one's quality of life.
With a bag on his back and his hands in his pockets, Ye Tian sneaked around the fence,trying to find an entrance to the abandoned coking works without being noticed.
However, a guard dog gave Ye second thoughts. I'm not afraid of the gatekeeper-at least I can negotiate with him. But a dog? Forget it. I'll find another way. "While planning his special(uninvited)visit to the Beijing site, the 25-year-old did some research, but still failed to locate the entrance.
Ye is among the thousands who are interested in “taking adventures”, which they call urban exploration, or “urbex”. The aim is to explore structures-usually abandoned ruins or “hidden components of the man-made environments”.
Venturing into abandoned structures is one of the most common examples of urban exploration. Although targets vary from one country to another, high-profile abandoned structures usually include amusement parks, factories, power plants, missile silos, fallout shelters, hospitals, asylums, schools and houses.
Urban explorers are interested in visiting such sites, as they can discover “other parts of a city”and get to understand its history from a different angle.
Ye, who worked as an intern for a German company in Beijing for six months, said he enjoyed the contrast between the city's two sides- modern and crowded, compared with old-fashioned and silent-and wanted to learn more about the capital during his short stay.
Ye said that he was able to finally sneak in through another entrance, yet he was still asked to leave by a gatekeeper shortly after. But he then managed to get into a newly built residential block, climbed to the top and took a picture of the factory ruins at sunset.
“I will come back another day,” he said.
1.What do we know about Ye Tian in the passage?
A.He enters a place easily every time.
B.He loves exploring natural environment.
C.He is afraid of nothing.
D.He is interested in old buildings.
2.What made Ye Tian fail to enter the entrance first?
A.The fence. B.The gatekeeper.
C.The dog. D.The bag.
3.Why are the urbe explorers keen on visiting the abandoned structures?
A.Because they can do all the research.
B.Because they can move from one country to another.
C.Because they can visit different kinds of places.
D.Because they can know the history of the city.
4.As an urbex explorer, what characteristic is probably most necessary?
A.Hesitation. B.Thoughtfulness.
C.Determination. D.Inspiration.
An invention to tackle canal plastics pollution was one of the highlights of the recent Amsterdam International Water Week.
The instrument, named"the great Bubble barrier" is a bubble screen that will remove plastic trash from the canals and therefore prevent it from flowing through to the river IJ and the North Sea.
“This is a very important step in reducing the amount of plastic in the oceans,”co-inventor Philip Ehrhorn said “It is a lot easier to stop it at an earlier stage instead of in the ocean.”
The tool works as follows. By pumping air through a tube with holes in it, which is located on the bottom of a waterway, a bubble barrier appears. This creates an upward thrust, which brings waste to the surface of the water.
By placing it diagonally in the waterway, the barrier uses the natural current to guide the plastic to the catchment system at the riverside. Both ships and fish can pass through the Bubble Barrier, but plastic will be stopped.
The invention's origins go back around four years, when Dutch students Saskia Studer, Anne Marieke Eveleens and Francis Zoet looked at the bubbles of a beer glass in a bar and thought they should do something similar. Ehrhorn, a German student, had the same idea. After he found out about the plans of the three Dutch women, they decided to join forces in Amsterdam.
“It is the first step of many”, Ehrhorn continued on the project. “First, the different rivers and canals in the Netherlands-cities, industrial areas, ports. In the following years ,we will go to the rest of Europe, Asia and elsewhere.”
“We have learned to live with water and have built a thriving society.”Nijhof said.
1.What's a bubble barrier?
A.A dam made of concrete. B.An invention to trap plastic.
C.A canal to deal with waste. D.A container to hold beer.
2.According to Philip Ehrhorn, which of the following is true?
A.The barrier is effective in a way.
B.It's easy to deal with plastic.
C.This instrument can deal with all waste.
D.We can do nothing with sea waste.
3.Which paragraphs describe the barrier's working principle?
A.Paragraph 1&2. B.Paragraph 2&3.
C.Paragraph 3&4. D.Paragraph 4&5.
4.Which might be the best title of Paragraph 2&3 of the passage?
A.Plastic becomes easier to remove.
B.An action to remove the plastic.
C.An instrument will be invented.
D.A new invention to fight plastic pollution.
Pets are supposed to provide us with warm and fuzzy feelings, but most of the time they worry us. We need pet cameras to make sure they behave while we're not home and GPS dog collars to warn us when they break through the fence to run after rabbits. But Amazon can help you enjoy your holiday parties in peace with a sale on some of our favorite pet trackers.
Keep a close watch with the whistle 3 pet GPS tracker on sale for $49.98 at Amazon Not only that, Amazon also has the whistle go Explore health and location tracker on sale for $104.95.
Every Whistle tracker uses GPS tracking through AT&T cell towers and Google Maps to provide accurate locations. A Whistle subscription can cost $9.95 with a monthly plan or $6.95 per month if you choose a two-year commitment.
For anyone with a tighter budget to consider, a whistle 3 for less than $50 is the perfect match. You get important data such as how far they travel and how many calorie they burn in a day.
But if your fat pet needs to shed a few pounds, the Whistle Go Explore can help you monitor their progress. It provides daily stats on how much they sleep, scratch, and even lick themselves. Whistle then takes all of this information and overall activity level to provide you with weekly wellness reports. Not only that, Whistle even emails your vet with a 30-day health report so you can get an expert opinion.
Pet owners deserve peace of mind, so a deal on Whistle GPS pet trackers could be the absolute best gift for the dog lover in your life.
1.What do we know about pets according to paragraph 1?
A.They always make us worried.
B.They are supposed to give us warmth.
C.They should help us enjoy our holiday.
D.They usually behave well when we are not home.
2.Which will be your best choice if you don't have enough money?
A.Whistle GO Explore. B.Whistle GPS.
C.Whistle 3. D.ATt &T.
3.What does the underlined word “shed” in paragraph 5 probably mean?
A.increase B.lose
C.share D.put on
4.What type is probably the passage?
A.An announcement. B.An advertisement.
C.A report. D.a poster.
Guilin rice noodles
Guilin rice noodles have a history of more than 2, 300 years. It is said that Oin Shi Huang, the founder of the Qin Dynasty (221 B C-206 B. C), took his army to southern China to wage war, aiming to unify southern China. However, the soldiers are from northern China and got used to eating wheat. They could not adapt to eating rice, which is the staple food in southern China, and couldn't digest it. In order to solve this problem. The chef had the idea to combine rice with wheat. They first inflated the rice and ground (把……磨成粉) it into rice syrup .After filtering the water from the rice syrup the chef smashed the rice into rice dough and steamed it, and then pulled it into noodles. The noodles were cooked with some special brine made from traditional Chinese medicine that cured the soldiers' digestive problems. The soldiers regained their energy after eating the cooked rice noodles, and finally unified southern China, according to reports .
Spring rolls
The spring roll is rolled from a thin pancake made of rice and filled with meat and vegetables. The rolls are very crispy after being deep fried.
The spring roll, a kind of traditional snack in northern China, is well known all over the world. Traditionally, the spring roll is very small.
According to reports, a man from the Song Dynasty (960-1279)studied very hard and often forgot to eat meals. His wife reminded him to eat meals on time but he failed. So she came up with the idea to make rice into a pancake, and filled it with meat and vegetables. By doing this, her husband could eat food from an entire meal in one roll, which was very convenient and nourishing.
1.According to the the first paragraph, the following are in Guilin rice noodles except________.
A.rice B.Brine
C.wheat D.energy
2.What can we learn from the passage about the Spring roll?
A.It was very small in old days.
B.It is filled with meat and fruits.
C.It is crispy after being steamed.
D.It is rarely seen in south China.
3.According to the passage, why did the wife make rice into a pancake with meat and and vegetables?
A.Her husband couldn't eat meals on time.
B.Her husband didn't think of any good idea.
C.Her husband couldn't eat all the food.
D.Her husband hardly studied.
