The 2014 Nobel Prize in physics went to three scientists who gave lighting a big change by inventing blue LED lights. A big change in lighting efficiency is under way around the world.
Save and green
LEDs use less energy than other forms of lighting. A typical LED bulb(灯泡) can produce around 83 lumens per watt — a measure of how much brightness you can get from a unit of electrical power — much more efficient than other lighting facilities.
LEDs produce light by passing electric current through a semiconductor, while traditional bulbs pass current through a wire. The wasted heat energy is chiefly why traditional bulbs are so much less efficient.
LEDs also last about 30 times longer than traditional bulbs, and many LED bulb products promise up to 25,000 hours of use — more than 17 years if you used one for about four hours a day.
Lighting the world
The lighting application is not only in homes. LEDs are also being used for street lights, public holiday and decorative displays, commercial buildings, and other large energy users.
Car lighting is another application where LEDs are making progress. LEDs used to be used only for daytime running lights, but now many new cars have LED headlights for night-time use.
LEDs also hold promise for bringing light to the more than 1.5 billion people around the world without access to electricity, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted. Indeed, several proposed solutions to energy poverty include the distribution of LED lights, particularly solar-powered ones.
Digital displays
Without blue LEDs, the world wouldn’t have back-lit smart phones, TV and computer LCD screens, blu-ray(蓝光) players, many forms of lighting, and countless other products.
In the electronics industry, LEDs provide back lighting for the liquid crystal displays (LCDs) in many smart phones, laptops, and televisions. The LEDs are more energy efficient and allow for very thin displays.
Blu-ray players use blue LED lasers(激光) to read data off a digital optical disc. When these systems switched from using an infrared(红外线) laser to a blue LED laser, it became possible to store five to 10 times as much data.
LEDs are now being explored for their potential to transmit(传送) data from the Internet across open space, similar to WiFi. Such a system could transmit a lot more data than WiFi alone. This high bandwidth is possible because LEDs can turn on and off millions of times per second.
The rise of LED lighting came at a time when people were just starting to be concerned about global warming. Because of LEDs’ energy efficiency, using them for the world’s lighting would have “an extreme impact” on society.
I1.___________ for Blue LED Lights to win the 2014 Nobel Prize in physics
●They2._______ big changes in lighting.
II3.________ of LEDs
●Save and green
1. Compared with other forms of lighting, LEDs are much more efficient because of the different4._________ they pass electric current
2. LED bulbs can be used 30 times longer than traditional bulbs.
●Lighting the world
1. Besides5._ ___________ of LED bulbs they can also be used as street lights and car headlights.
2. Because of their high efficiency, LEDs, especially solar-powered ones, promising to light areas6.____________ electricity.
●Digital displays
1. Many smart phones, laptops and televisions use LEDs to back-light their LCD7._________.
2. By using blue LED lasers, blu-ray players are likely to8.___________.
3. People are now exploring more9._________ uses of LEDs such as transmitting data.
III Conclusion
LED lighting will10._________ on environmental protection.
Butterflies are some of the most fascinating and beautiful insects in the world. Adult butterflies will live about two to four weeks. They use their senses of sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste to survive in the world, find food and mates, lay eggs in a proper place, migrate and avoid hungry enemies.
Butterflies have large compound eyes (复眼), which allow them to see in all directions without turning their heads. Like most insects, butterflies are very near-sighted, so they are more attracted to many flowers. Butterflies do not “see” colors such as red, green and yellow, but they can sense sunlight, which shows the direction in which the sun is shining, as well as ultraviolet light (紫外线), which is present on many flowers and guides butterflies to find honey sources.
Butterflies have a very well-developed sense of smell, but it is not in their nose, since they don’t have one. Sense receptors (感受器) are in their antennae (触角), feet and many other parts of the body. They can help butterflies find their favorite flower honey, food and mates.
Butterflies’ feet have sense organs that can taste the sugar in flower honey, letting the butterflies know if something is good to eat or not. Some females also carefully choose host plants by tasting to find proper places to lay their eggs. Adult butterflies feed their babies using a long tube. Butterflies force blood into the tube to straighten it out, allowing them to feed. Butterflies get all their food from this tube.
Butterflies don’t have ears. Instead they “hear” sounds through their wings by sensing changes in sound vibrations.
Butterflies may possess senses we haven’t known about till today, because their body structure is very different and difficult to understand, when observed through our own human senses. (325 words)
1.What can we learn from the second paragraph?
A. Butterflies have good eyesight.
B. Butterflies can see in all directions and don’t need to turn heads.
C. Butterflies are sensitive to bright colors including red and yellow.
D. Butterflies cannot sense the ultraviolet light.
2. How do butterflies hear sounds?
A. Using their feet to sense the vibration of things
B. Using their ears to listen directly
C. Using their wings to sense the sound vibrations
D. Using their antennae to judge the sound
3.Why do female adult butterflies carefully choose the host plants?
A. To find high-qualified honey.
B. To have a good place for living.
C. To make it easier for them to hide from the enemies.
D. To find a proper place for their eggs.
4.What does the last paragraph imply?
A. There’s a long way to understand butterflies well
B. Butterflies give great help to human beings
C. Butterflies are the most beautiful insects in the world
D. Butterflies possess more senses than humans
5.The text mainly focuses on __________.
A. butterflies’ living habits
B. butterflies’ beauty
C. butterflies’ daily activities
D. butterflies’ senses
According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the U.K. has about 7.7 million families with dependent children, of which 3.7 million have just one child, compared to 3 million with two and 1.1 million with three children or more. The number of families today with just one dependent child is now 47 percent and will likely rise to more than 50 percent in a decade. As the ONS confirms, “It appears that families are getting smaller.”
One obvious reason for this could be that women are putting off having children until they have established careers when they miss the best time to be a mother. But it could just as well be a matter of choice. Parents must consider the rising cost of living, combined with economic uncertainty and an increasingly difficult job market. And this trend may continue growing as having an only child becomes more normal, which seems to be the mood on the mothers’ online forum Mumsnet, where one member announced that she “just wanted to start a positive thread(t帖子) about how good it is to have an only child”.
She had received 231 replies, overwhelmingly in the same high spirits. Parents of only children insist there are plenty of benefits. Nicola Kelly, a writer and lecturer who grew up as an only child and is now a married mother of one, says her 15-year-old son seems more grown-up in many ways than his classmates.
Not all products of single-child families are as keen to repeat the experience. In a moving recent account journalist Janice Turner wrote about her own keenness to “squeeze out two sons just 22 months apart” as a reaction to her only-child upbringing(抚养).
She was placed on a high position by her doting(溺爱的) parents, whom she punished with an “impolite, willful” rejection of everything they stood for. Desperate for a close friend she was repeatedly hurt by rejection and refers to her childhood as being “misery”.
Writer and doctor Dr. Dorothy Rowe, a member of the British Psychological Society, says that we all interpret events in our own individual way and there are some children who no matter what their circumstances feel slighted, while other children see the advantages of their situation.
However, the one part of life that is unlikely to get any easier for only children is when they grow up and find themselves looking after their own parents as they become older.
1.According to the passage, how many families in the U.K. have an only child?
A. 7.7million B. 3.7 million
C.3 million D. 1.1 million
2.The passage is written with the purpose of ________.
A. illustrating the strength and weakness of having an only child
B. analyzing the reasons why having an only child becomes popular
C. presenting us with different opinions about having an only child
D. guiding people to look at the same issue from different perspectives
3.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 mean?
A. Nearly half of families intend to have just one child.
B. All people don’t stand for the idea of having an only child.
C. Some people fail to recognize the advantage of having an only child.
D. People brought up in an only child family resist downsizing the family.
4.From what Dr. Dorothy Rowe said, we know that ________.
A. journalist Janice Turner experienced a miserable childhood
B. she has a positive attitude towards Janice Turner’s reaction
C. it’s necessary for us to look at the event from our own angle
D. some children are unable to make an objective assessment of their conditions
5.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. It’s normal to see the imperfection in character in only children.
B. Mumsnet is an online forum which promotes having an only child.
C. Economic development plays a determining role in the family size.
D. Only children will have difficulty in attending to their parents.
Charlie Boswell has always been a great hero. He has inspired thousands of people to rise above circumstances and live out true meaning of life.
He was blinded during World War II while rescuing his friend from a tank that was under fire. He was a great athlete before the accident. In order to prove his talent and determination, he decided to try a brand new sport, a sport he never imagined playing, even with his eyesight – golf! Through determination and a deep love for the game he became the National Blind Golf Champion! He won that honor 13 times.
One of his heroes was the great golfer Ben Hogan, so it truly was an honor for Charlie to win the Ben Hogan Award in 1958.
Upon meeting Ben Hogan, Charlie was respectful and stated that he had one wish and it was to have one round of golf with the great Ben Hogan. Mr. Hogan agreed that playing a round together would be an honor for him as well, as he had heard about all of Charlie’s accomplishments and truly admired his skills.
“Would you like to play for money, Mr. Hogan?” asked out Charlie.
“I can’t play you for money, it wouldn’t be fair!” said Mr. Hogan.
“Aw, come on Mr. Hogan…$ 1,000 per hole!”
“I can’t, what would people think of me, taking advantage of you and your circumstance?” replied the sighted golfer.
“Chicken, Mr. Hogan?”
“Okay,” replied the embarrassed Hogan, “but I am going to play my best!”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else,” said the confident Boswell.
“Now that you’re on. Mr. Boswell, you name the time and the place!”
The very self – assured Boswell responded, “10 o’clock … tonight!”
1.Why didn’t Mr. Hogan want to play Charlie for money?
A．He was worried he would lose the match.
B．He thought it was unfair for Charlie.
C．He didn’t care about money.
D．He preferred chicken to money.
2.According to the text, what does the underlined word “self - assured” probably mean?
A．ignorant B．selfless C．confident D．sincere
3.It can be inferred from the text that_____.
A．Mr. Hogan was not good at playing golf.
B．Charlie did well in other sports before playing golf.
C．Mr. Hogan didn’t try his best to play.
D．Charlie Boswell was born blind.
4.What would be the result of the match?
A．Charlie won. B．Hogan won.
C．Neither of them won. D．Not mentioned.
5.Which of the following can best describe Charlie?
A．Competitive and generous.
B．Energetic and reliable.
C．Careful and considerate.
D．Confident and smart.
Will money make kids pass exams? A new report says promising children money does not help exam grades．It could be a waste of money using cash to get kids to study more．____1.____, taking kids on trip somewhere nice could encourage them to do better at school. ___2.___10,000 pupils surveyed in the research，there has been an improvement in class work and homework，but this does not result in better test scores．
Lead researcher Dr．Burgess suggestsi the research doesn’t look___3.___ the things __4.___really get kids to increase their effort．He adds that clearly some kids believe that education is a way to achieve their dreams, but there are other kids who think one’s efforts make __5.___difference. These kids ___6.__ think exam success is because of genes and their family background．Education expert Dr．Collins holds the view that___7.___ really matters is how students are taught．Good teachers are better _8._ rewards，especially for children from low-income families．
Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A. B. C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.
It’s been so long that I can’t remember the crime, but I’ll never forget the punishment: Dig up the fig tree (无花果) in the backyard and plant it at Mumsy’s place in the country. As I often did when appointed to do a hard job in the garden, I this was my parents’ way of getting me to do their dirty work.
It was a Sunday morning. With some tools, I went at the tree, dismantling (拆卸) it branch by branch and limb by limb, until all that remained of the once-proud specimen was a sorry-looking stump of a thing.
“What did that ever do to you?”, my father said, “You left some taproot (主根), at least. Go and load up the truck.” On any other day before, during the to mumsy’s, we would have pleasantly school as usual, but I fenced myself off that time.
Then, at Mumsy’s, instead of sitting back to watch me work, he me. As my father and I took turns to work, I could feel my anger , making room for the simple satisfaction of working at my father’s side towards a common goal.
“ Well,” my father said when we finished, “ we’ve done what we can do.” “Do you think there’s any that it can grow up?” I asked. “It’s rich dirt. They say you can plant toenails in it and grow little kids.” My father answered. I never tried the toenail trick, but I did watch as it settled in, took root, and began to prosper. I was amazed and when bowls of figs began to fill the fridge.
In a fair world, I don’t deserve the reward. I had hurt the tree for my own complaints. What right did I have to the fruit? Years later, I put this to my father. Watching him slide a bowl of figs from the fridge one morning, I felt a sudden stab of shame for my boyhood . My father took a fig from the bowl and let me think of the fruit as forgiveness. “You,” he said, “ some of that.”
1.A. Convinced B. informed C. suspected D. inspected
2.A. truck B. tool C. tree D. taproot
3.A. rest B. flight C. walk D. ride
4.A. thought over B. talked about C. broke into D. gave up
5.A. Forgave B. tricked C. entertained D. joined
6.A. Disappeared B. Concentrated C. approached D. exposed
7.A. Relationship B. value C. advantage D. chance
8.A. confused B. relieved C. regretful D. disappointed
9.A. perfectly B. partly C. mostly D. probably
10.A. task B. answer C. question D. strategy
11.A. Misery B. misfortune C. sorrow D. rudeness
12.A. Deserve B. receive C. protect D. suspect
