Japans biggest airline is betting that the future of travel isn't traveling at all. For the last month, a married couple has been interacting with a robot -called an Avatar -that's controlled by their daughter hundreds of miles away. Made by ANA Holdings Inc. it looks like a cleaner with an iPad attached But the screen displays the daughter's face as they chat, and its wheels let her move slowly about the house as though she's really there.
"Virtual travel"is nothing new, of course. Storytellers, travel writers and artists have stimulating(刺激)the sense of armchair tourists for centuries. It's only in recent decades that frequent, safe travel has become available to the non-wealthy.
Yet even as the world's middle classes climb out of the armchair and into economy-class seats, there are signs of a post-travel society coming into being. Concerns about sustainability(可持续发展)are having an negative influence on carbon-intensive airlines. And the aging of wealthy societies is both slowing down physical travel and creating demand for various ways to experience the world. For the travel industry, virtual (虚拟的)reality offers an attractive response to these trend.
Of course, far- out technologies encourage far-out claims. ANA doesn't plan to start selling Avatars until next year. Profits, too, will probably be difficult to achieve: according to one investigation, the global market for this kind of technology will be worth only about $300 million by 2023. By contrast, ANA's traditional travel business brought in more than $19 billion last year .
But if the business case for virtual vacations is still weak, the market for technologies that bridge physical distances between families and coworkers seems likely to soy expand.ANA's robots may not replace its airplanes any time soon, but they ' ll almost certainly be a part of travel’s high-tech future.
1.“Avatar” is mentioned in paragraph 1 to_________.
A.display how people travel with the robot “Avatar”.
B.introduce a new service offered by Japan's biggest airline.
C.lead in the topic of virtual travel by providing a vivid scene.
D.describe what the robot"Avatar" looks like and how it works.
2.It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that people's choice of virtual travel may be the result of________.
A.the demand for safe travel
B.wealthy people's growing old
C.worries about low-carbon airlines
D.the support of advanced technologies
3.By saying “far-out technologies encourage far-out claims”, the writer means_______.
A.traditional travel business is not profitable
B.global market for virtual travels is hard to predict
C.the time is ripe for selling Avatars in term of technology
D.virtual travels will take the place of traditional ones very soon
4.What's the writer's attitude to virtual technology?
A.Uncertain. B.Cautious.
C.Enthusiastic. D.Optimistic.
With the average number of children in a British family falling beneath an average of 2.0,the population of the UK has been declining for quite a few years. The size of the British workforce is declining. This trend (趋势) is quite worrying for the British economy.
There is a whole range of reasons accounting for the worrying trend. One of them is that British people are new having their children at a much older age than previously, meaning they have fewer years in which they can have children. Most young People today tend to choose to go university first and build up work experience before getting desired jobs.
Expensive houses also play a part. Many young people are forced to stay with their parents early in their careers. So it's not until people are about 30 years old that they can afford to buy their own home, and then they can start to think about settling down and having children.
So a British person manages to get a job, get a home and get married. Why isn’t he or she then having at least two children on average? The major reason is that it is relatively expensive to bring up a child in the UK. Usually both parents need to work to cover their living expenses, which means they then need to pay someone to look after their child during the day, such as nanny (保姆) or nursery school.
In addition, uncertainty in the global economy often affects British family size. In face of an economic downturn, young British find it more difficult to find jobs or keep their existing ones This discourages them from having larger families. And with this much pressure on families, it’s no wonder that the divorce rate remains so high
To save the British family, the government is taking active measures, for example , by increasing monthly Child Benefit money and offering increasing amount of government subsidy (津贴)for parents to claim. There are also laws allowing parents to take more time off work so that they can look after their children themselves rather than having to pay others to do it.
Let's hope it's not too late to save the British family. Otherwise, the British won't have enough time, energy or money to have children. And where's the fun in that?
1.According to the author, what may account for the decrease of UK's population?
A.People's choice of being single to acquire further education.
B.The trend for people to have children at a younger age.
C.Larger family size brought by weak global economy.
D.The relatively high expenses in raising children.
2.What does the author mainly imply in the last paragraph?
A.It is important to raise people's awareness of saving the British family.
B.It is necessary to reduce subsidies for families and nursery schools.
C.It is urgent to handle the present serious situation.
D.It is difficult for parents to balance life and work.
3.What is the best title for the passage?
A.Disappearing Families. B.Declining Economy
C.Increasing Divorce D.Worrying Workforce
The disease malaria(疟疾) has caused trouble to mankind throughout history. In the 1860s as the drug called chloroquine began to lose its effectiveness, malaria began to appear again in Southeast Asia. Every country in the world then poured huge amounts of human resources into discovering another anti-malaria drug In 1964, China put forward the plan to seek a breakthrough from among traditional Chinese medicinal drugs. There was no great discovery until 1981. When Chinese scientist Tu Youyou gave a speech titled" Chemical Research into Artemisinin(青蒿素)”. at an international conference of the WHO. The speech was regarded as a lifeline for malaria sufferers.
Tu Youyou graduated from the Medical College of Peking University. In 1969, just as the research into treating malaria had reached dead end, the 39 year-old Tu, in order to overcome this terrible problem, took on the job as head of a research team into this problem. The first thing Tu did was interview experienced doctors of Chinese medicine. Then she and her colleagues conducted various kinds of experiments on hundreds of kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs, including artemisinin. However, the results were disappointing: even those involving artemisinin, which had been universally well regarded, were less than satisfactory.
But later, when Tu found a relevant passage written by Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), it occurred to her that high temperatures destroy artemisinin's effectiveness: it needs a low temperature to work properly. The discovery pointed to a brand-new direction for Tu and her research team. Finally, in 1972, an extract(# R40) of it was found to be one hundred percent effective against the disease!
In 2000 the WHO announced artemisinin was a leading anti-malarial drug, and promoted it worldwide. So far, it has been playing a great role in the battle against malaria. Beginning at the age of 39, Tu devoted her fife-te-her reseach. In 2015, at the age of 85 and as the first Chinese scientist, she received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. How did Tu manage to accomplish such a great achievement? You probably have the answer to that already.
1.What can be learnt about “chloroquine”from paragraph1?
A.It contributed to Tu’s great discovery.
B.It was discovered by experts in Southeast Asia.
C.It was a breakthrough out of Chinese medicine.
D.It used to be effective against the disease of malaria.
2.What did Tu Youyou do after reading a passage by Ge Hong?
A.She interviewed doctors to collect their experience.
B.She attempted to heat the extract at a low temperature.
C.She made necessary adjustments in each stage of her research.
D.She expanded access to the anti-malarial drug around the world.
3.Which of the following can best summarize the main reason for Tu's success?
A.You reap what you sow.
B.Actions speak louder than words.
C.Don't claim to know what you don’t know.
D.Live and learn through your mistakes or experience.
假定你是李华。你的澳大利亚朋友Mike写信告诉你,他将参加他所在城市举行的“我所了解的中国传统节日”的演讲比赛,请求你为他推荐一个中国传统节日。请你给他回信,要点包括：
1. 收信时的感想；
2. 推荐并介绍中国节日；
3. 预祝对方取得好成绩。
注意：1.词数100左右
2.可以适当增加细节,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10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
A lecture on "How to Learn English" was held in a school auditorium on the afternoon of last Friday in our school. The lecture giving by a professor from Peking University lasts from 2: 00 to 4: 00. He first stressed serious the importance of learning English in modern times. Then he shared their learning experience with us. Besides, he introduced some useful ways to memorized English words or improve our spoken English.
After the interest lecture, we asked him for advices on some problems we had while learning English. We have been benefited a lot from this lecture.
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入一个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式
Almost everyone suffers from a headache 1. (occasional). But some people suffer from repeated frequent headaches.
What is headache? What causes it? What can you do about a headache? What research is being done on headaches? The dictionary defines headache simply2. "a pain in the head".3. most people mean by headache4.(be)a pain that lasts several minutes or hours. It covers the whole head, or one side of it, or perhaps the front or the back of the head. To add to the confusion about definition, some people call'" tight feeling in the head" a headache.
A headache is important because5. can be the first warning of a serious condition which probably could be controlled when6.( discover) early. If person7.(remove) the warning, day after day, with a pain-killer, he may pass the point of easy control.
A headache is important also because it disturbs people, 8.(prevent)them from living a happy life. The9.(employ) with headache does less work. In a flash of temper he may upset his fellow 10. (guy) or customers, causing direct or indirect loss to his organization. The mother with a headache suffers and disturbs the family. She upsets her husband and children.
