When life gives you pineapples—and hundreds of millions of tons of pineapple waste—what do you do? Engineers in Singapore and Vietnam decided to tum all the waste into something useful—the heat barrier for their pineapple juice. Not only does their new material keep drinks cool better than many commercial coolers, but it could also offer a final resting place for the world’s pineapple waste.
To find a use for those leftovers, the researchers mixed pineapple fibers, which they cut up in an electric device, with a sticky agent as a solvent. They then treated the mix with sound waves at frequencies greater than 20 kHz and heated it in an oven at 80℃ for 2 hours. The suspension that formed was then cooled before being freeze-dried.
The result was a pale yellow aerogel (气凝胶) that is lightweight, flexible, and more than 96% porous (多孔的)—qualities that make it an ideal material against both heat and sound.
When the researchers wrapped a sheet of the pineapple aerogel around a military-style canteen bottle, they found that the aerogel could provide three times the heat exchange reduction of commercially available alternatives—they reported this month in Materials Chemistry and Physics. The gel-wrapped bottle kept -3℃ water cooled below 0℃ for 6 hours and liquid heated to 90℃ above 40℃ for 2.5 hours. What’s more, the pineapple gel also acted as a sound barrier; in another test, the gel did a better job of preventing noise from getting in or out than Basmel, a popular kind of sound barrier.
The findings provide a new, eco-friendly approach to recycling agricultural cast-offs—and a good excuse to get a better electric device for your kitchen.
1.Why do engineers come up with the idea of the heat barrier?
A.To lower the cost of heat barriers. B.To make good use of pineapple waste.
C.To find a better cooler for pineapple juice. D.To turn pineapples into something more useful.
2.What is the last step of making the pineapple aerogel?
A.Freeze-drying the suspension. B.Cooling the formed suspension.
C.Cutting up the pineapple leftovers. D.Treating the mix with sound waves.
3.What can we learn about the pineapple aerogel from paragraph 4?
A.It kept the liquid heated to 130℃ for about 2.5 hours.
B.It kept the water cooled below -3℃ for nearly 6 hours.
C.It could be three times as effective as other heat barriers.
D.It did a better job as a sound barrier than as a heat barrier.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.A Better Way to Keep Drinks Cool. B.An Alternative Way to Recycle Waste.
C.Pineapple Waste, a Wonderful Drink Cooler. D.Pineapples, One of the Most Common Fruits.
As temperatures approached 90 degrees in New York City last July 4th, three police officers hurried into a Whole Foods Market to get something cold to drink. What they walked into was a heated human drama.
Once inside, the cops (警察) , Lt. Louis Sojo and Officers Esanidy Cuevas and Michael Rivera, were approached by a store security guard who asked for help with a suspected thief. The woman in question didn’t have the look of a career criminal. She was obviously scared, and her cheeks were wet with tears.
The cops looked quickly inside her bag. “Al1 we saw was containers of food. We didn’t see anything else,” Cuevas told CBS New York.
“I’m hungry,” she explained quietly.
Caught red-handed, the woman no doubt expected to be cuffed (带上手铐) and put into prison for the crime of being hungry while poor. But the cops had other ideas. “We’ll pay for her food,” Sojo told the surprised security guard.
There’d been no discussion among the three men, no need to see whether they were all in. It went unsaid. Instead, they picked up the woman’s bag and escorted (护送) her to a cash register, where each contrilbuted $10 to pay the bill. She would not be arrested today.
All the woman could do was weep in thankfulness. Covering her face with a handkerchief and drying her eyes, she repeated, “Thank you, thank you.”
She wasn’t the only one touched by this act of sympathy and understanding. “It was a very beautiful, genuine moment,” says Paul Bozymowski, who was at the store. He was so taken by what he’d witnessed that he posted a photo on Twitter for all to see.
But attention was never what the officers sought. They were driven by a far more common emotion. As Sojo told CNN, “When you look at someone’s face and see that they need you and they’re actually hungry, it’s pretty difficult as a human being to walk away from something like this.”
1.Why did the woman weep at first?
A.She was scared of being arrested. B.She was wrongly accused of stealing.
C.She was too poor to pay for the goods. D.She was touched by the act of these cops.
2.What does the underlined word “red-handed” in paragraph 5 refer to?
A.In the act of committing a crime. B.For lack of knowledge or experience.
C.Because of the blood-covered hands. D.On account of her pretended innocence.
3.We can infer that the cops paid the bill for the woman to __________.
A.seek attention of the public B.gain both fame and wealth
C.solve the problem as soon as possible D.help the hungry and poor woman out of trouble
4.Which of the following best describes the three cops?
A.Patient. B.Caring.
C.Humorous. D.Ambitious.
Go to college or university in Ontario, Canada
Come and learn the relevant information about Ontario’s 20 public universities, 24 colleges or 400+ registered private career colleges.
Admissions standards and what to offer
In most cases, you need a high school diploma to go to college or university in Ontario. If you are 19 or older without a diploma, you can still apply to most, if not all schools.
Colleges offer certificate programs, diplomas, and degrees. Universities offer under-graduate and graduate degrees and other professional programs. All programs vary in length and preconditions—the pre-work or qualifications you need to be eligible (符合条件) for a program.
Check a school’s website or contact them directly for specific information about admissions.
How to apply
The process depends on where you want to go to school and your personal situation. If you live in Ontario, anywhere else in Canada or abroad, you apply through 1 of 2 places:
Colleges: www.ontariocolleges.ca
Universities: www.ouac.on.ca (the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre)
You will need to apply directly through a school if you are:
● planning to study part time
● a mature student (generally of a certain age and away from formal education for some time)
● an international student
● applying for graduate studies (e.g., a Masters or Doctoral degree)
● planning to attend a private career college
Loans, grants (补助金), scholarships
Canada Student Loans, Grants and Scholarships are open to all Canadians.
Canadian citizen and Ontario resident for at least 12 months: you could be eligible for OSAP (the Ontario Student Assistance Program) and other financial aid programs.
Canadian students living outside of Ontario: you can apply for financial aid through your home province or territory.
International students: you can apply for scholarships offered through the federal (联邦的) government, community agencies and colleges and universities directly.
1.What do universities in Ontario offer students?
A.Honors degrees. B.Associate degrees.
C.Certificate programs. D.Professional programs.
2.Where can international students apply for scholarships?
A.Through community agencies. B.Through their home governments.
C.Through other provinces in Canada. D.Through the Ontario Student Assistance Program.
3.From which is the text probably taken?
A.A scientific journal. B.A research paper.
C.A travel brochure. D.An official website.
假定你是李明，你的新西兰朋友Steven向你了解中国在抗击新冠肺炎(COVID-19)的成就。请你根据下列要点给他回复一封电子邮件。
1.英明的领导做出的正确决定；2.强有力的政府给病人免费治疗；3.专业敬职的医生和配合的人民。
注意:
1.词数100左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已经给出，但不计入总词数。
参考词汇:Lock down封城；free medication免费医疗；specialized and dedicated专业敬职
Dear Steven,
I’m glad to receive your letter asking for how successful China is in struggling against COVID-19. Thank you for your concern.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes.
Yours sincerely,
Li Ming
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:在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下而写出修改后的词。
注意:
1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Will our parents check our homework? Not really. Since having already growing up, we can’t act like little baby and rely on our parents all the time.
When I was in Grade Three, my parents asked us to check my homework by myself. I don’t know what to do in that time, so I cried. Before that, I got used to correcting my own homework and became more independent.
Check homework by ourselves is very good habit. It can not only help us find mistakes in exams more easy but also let our parents worry less about our studies. Because parents will leave us some day, so we should learn to do everything by ourselves.
One day, when I was 12, my mother gave me________: I was to walk to the public library and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to________my strange problem-inability to read.
In the library, I sat down on the floor in the children’s section, and________a few books off the shelf at random. The cover of a book caught my eye, it___a picture of a dog. I had recently had a dog, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone,_____to someone who had a space and money to care for him. I never forgot my dog.
There on the book’s cover was a dog which looked___to my dog, as if they were the same one. I ran my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the________, Amos, the Dog with a Plan.________I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library.
Under the_____of a bush I started to read about Amos. I read very slowly with difficulty. Though________were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been________from his family and who finally found his way back home. At the end of the story, my mind________the final scene of reunion, on and on,________my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together.
My mother’s_____returned me to the real world. It___to me that I had read a book, and I had loved reading that book. Books________be incredibly wonderful and I was going to read them.
I________told my mother about my “miraculous” experience that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable improvement in my classroom____during the next year. And years later, she was______that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature, and____his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. The power of the words has held.
1.A.a suggestion B.an order C.a job D.a direction
2.A.defeat B.abandon C.destroy D.complete
3.A.pushed B.fetched C.brought D.pulled
4.A.presented B.printed C.included D.displayed
5.A.given away B.given up C.given in D.given off
6.A.small B.hairy C.identical D.brave
7.A.picture B.title C.cover D.dog
8.A.unknowingly B.unconsciously C.uneasily D.unwillingly
9.A.shade B.light C.background D.influence
10.A.paragraphs B.words C.fingers D.pages
11.A.stolen B.separated C.gone D.sold
12.A.witnessed B.continued C.struggled D.learned
13.A.before B.when C.until D.while
14.A.shout B.call C.worry D.swear
15.A.seemed B.occurred C.happened D.referred
16.A.would B.could C.should D.must
17.A.seldom B.always C.never D.frequently
18.A.performance B.activity C.response D.reaction
19.A.proud B.eager C.crazy D.happy
20.A.mastered B.found C.owned D.authored
