In April last year, I saw a post on the PNP (Pilots N Paws) website from a family in Topeka. They had to move to Virginia but they were on a very tight
It just
When I met Tiffy’s owners, they seemed very
After some goodbyes, I asked George and his wife to help me
The flight was
| A．link | B．turn | C．budget | D．schedule |
| A．transportation | B．feed | C．accommodation | D．treat |
| A．casually | B．originally | C．privately | D．extremely |
| A．seemed | B．showed | C．proved | D．happened |
| A．waited | B．offered | C．hurried | D．failed |
| A．pick up | B．look after | C．send off | D．turn over |
| A．moved | B．annoyed | C．nervous | D．amazed |
| A．difficult | B．beneficial | C．normal | D．fortunate |
| A．colleague | B．stranger | C．neighbor | D．passenger |
| A．take off | B．speed up | C．come back | D．work out |
| A．change | B．throw | C．load | D．feed |
| A．contact | B．join | C．leave | D．serve |
| A．uneventful | B．unexpected | C．unnecessary | D．unavoidable |
| A．returned | B．agreed | C．fought | D．flew |
| A．honored | B．generous | C．grateful | D．sympathetic |
Chinese culture is becoming more popular in young Namibians as they are pursuing the Chinese language. Rena Stephanus,
“Chinese is one of the most widely
Although a
According to Stephanus, Chinese art, music and literature have now become an
As a young boy, I was carefree. Every vacation I looked forward to two things—seeing my grandpa and hearing his wonderful stories. My grandpa was a very good storyteller. He had worked various odd jobs when he was young and wove his adventures and misadventures into fantastic tales. These wonderful tales colored my childhood.
As I grew up, I had to admit that Grandpa’s stories went on a little long, even a little boring and gradually lost their magic. However, not wanting to upset him, my brother and I would sometimes take turns sitting in the living room, listening to grandpa tell his stories.
When my grandpa was approaching 91, he suffered from serious memory-loss. It was kind of what doctors called dementia (痴呆), probably the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Following the doctor’s directions, we moved him into a Sunrise Assisted Living Community, where he could get a better care. After that, grandpa hardly came to our house.
One weekend before my grandpa’s birthday, I came to visit him. Seeing grandpa sitting in his armchair, dull-looking, I was consumed with mixed feelings. I wheeled grandpa to the sunshine in the courtyard, talking to him. He couldn’t express himself clearly and spoke in short bursts, but I listened to him patiently and carefully just as I used to be a little boy.
It was then that I noticed a shadow box with some old and yellowish photos in it. I picked one up, in which my brother, several boys in our neighborhood, and I were playing basketball with grandpa cheering us on twenty years before. My mind flashed back to those beautiful memories. Back then, Grandpa was in good physical condition and we were all wearing basketball jerseys, playing and laughing with abandon. I presented the photo to my grandpa, pointing at each member and reminding him of their names. Incredibly, grandpa could speak out the name of every player. I even caught a soft light in grandpa’s eyes and a smile on his lips.
A bright idea for grandpa’s birthday came to my mind.
Seeing “the same players” playing there, grandpa seemed to have thought of something.
Steve was the most amazing person in all of Minneapolis, and he was my cousin. By the age of 19, Steve was a star baseball player at the University of Minnesota. I wanted to be exactly like him. So when Steve asked me to go with him on a spring fishing trip in northern Minnesota, I was excited!
After planning the trip, we gathered clothes and supplies, and began our great adventure. We reached the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota by early evening. On our way to the campsite, Steve pointed to a small house faraway in one of the mountains, saying that it was the ranger station (护林站) where the forester worked.
Finally, after a long walk, we reached the campsite and set up the camp as the sun was setting. Steve knew all the tricks of an experienced wilderness camper. After we gathered enough wood from the forest, he started the campfire using only stone and steel — no matches. For supper we feasted on freeze-dried beef, wild rice and pea soup. I ate greedily after all that work.
Tired enough, we climbed into our sleeping bags early and talked about our plans for fishing the next day. We were still talking quietly when a sudden north wind picked up; the temperature dropped and it began to snow. Steve found a way to increase the temperature inside the tent. He dragged a log (原木) from the forest to the opposite side of the campfire. Then he wrapped (包裹) aluminum foil (铝箔) around the log. The heat from the fire reflected off the foil and into the tent. Soon images of lake fish were filling my dreams.
The snow had stopped, but sometime later a powerful wind must have kicked up the flames of our dying fire. I was abruptly awakened by Steve. Our tent was on fire. Frightened, I ran out of the tent immediately. The tent collapsed (倒塌) with Steve inside. Without any thought of endangering myself, I reached into the burning tent and pulled him to the icy lake. Fortunately, we were not seriously hurt.
Later, as we stood by the burning tent to keep warm, we considered our difficult situation.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Suddenly, we heard a noise in the forest.
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Grandpa’s Old Chair
It was the annual cleaning day for the family. John and his mom were busy cleaning the house. They cleaned upstairs, downstairs, inside and outside until everything was spotless. Exhausted, they sank into the couch. Just then, John’s mom noticed an old chair that was faded and worn. That chair was for John’s grandpa, who had lived with them since John’s grandma had died.
“John, come and help me.” John’s mom sprang to her feet. “We’ll take the chair to the curb (路边). The garbage truck is picking up on our block tomorrow.”
As they attempted to move the chair, John’s grandpa made his way through the door. Seeing what was happening, he quickly tried to stop them. “No!” he protested. “You can’t take my chair.”
“But it’s so old...” John’s mom argued. “We’ll buy you a new one.”
“No,” he persisted, trying to push his chair back into place.
John’s mom finally let go of the chair and left the room. With a sigh of relief, the old man sank into his chair and closed his eyes.
“Grandpa, why won’t you let us get rid of the chair?” John asked.
“You don’t understand, John.” His grandpa shook his head and said, “I sat in this chair with your grandma right here when I asked her to marry me. And I sat in this chair the night your father was born. Many years later,” Grandpa’s voice broke, “I sat in this chair when the doctor called and told me that your grandma was ill. I was lost without her, but the chair gave me comfort and warmth.” The old man’s sadness seemed to grow as he recalled that fateful day.
“I understand now.” John looked at his grandpa and said, “This is not just any old chair. It is more like a friend.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “We’ve gone through a lot together.”
However, that night, when John and his grandpa were asleep, John’s mom and dad carried the chair outside. It was a starless night. Snow fell silently from the black sky and covered Grandpa’s chair in a blanket of white.
The next morning, John was woken by the garbage truck pulling up to the house.
Hearing this, John’s mom looked at his grandpa and slowly walked towards him.
Video calls are a common occurrence, but have you imagined being able to touch the person on the other end of the line? Scientists are making this a reality.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales Australia, have invented a soft skin stretch device (SSD), a haptic device that can recreate the sense of touch. Haptic technology imitates the experience of touch by stimulating localized areas of the skin in ways that are similar to what is felt in the real worlds through force, vibration or motion.
Vibration is the most common haptic technology today and has been built into many electronic devices, such as one attached to the back of a trackpad in laptops, which simulates a button clicking. However, haptic feedback with vibration becomes less sensitive when used continuously. The existing technology also has great difficulty recreating the sense of touch with objects in virtual environments or located remotely according to Mai Thanh Thai, lead author of the study.
The new technology overcomes issues with existing haptic devices. The research team introduced a novel method to recreate the sense of touch through soft, artificial “muscles”.
“Our three-way directional skin stretch device, built into the fingertips of the wearable haptic glove we also created, is like wearing a second skin—it’s soil, stretchable and mimics the sense of touch—and will enable new forms of haptic communication to enhance everyday activities, ” said Thanh Nho Do, senior author of the study.
It works like this: Imagine you are at home and you call your friend who is in Australia. You wear a haptic glove with the SSDs and your friend also wears a glove with integrated 3D force sensors. If your friend picks up an object, it will physically press against your friend’s lingers. And the glove with 3D force sensors will measure these interactions. The force signals can be sent to your glove so your device will generate the same 3D forces, making you experience the same sense of touch as your friend.
The haptic devices could be applied in various scenes, allowing users to feel objects inside a virtual world or at a distance. This could be especially beneficial during such times like the COVID-19 pandemic when people rely on video calls to stay connected with loved ones. Or it could be used in medical practices. Doctors can feel a patient’s organ tissues with surgical（手术的）tools without touching them.
1．What can we learn about the SSD?| A．It imitates the sense of touch through animal skin. |
| B．It mainly uses vibration technology. |
| C．It makes virtual haptic communication possible. |
| D．It takes the shape of a glove. |
| A．The advantages of the new haptic glove. |
| B．An explanation of how the haptic device works. |
| C．The applications of the new haptic technology. |
| D．A personal experience of using SSDs during a video call. |
| A．Interviewing someone face to face. |
| B．Recreating organ tissues. |
| C．Evaluating surgeries from a distance. |
| D．Feeling a silk scarf being sold online. |
| A．To encourage the use of a new product. |
| B．To introduce the development of haptic technology. |
| C．To compare different haptic devices. |
| D．To inform readers of a new invention. |
Viewed from dry land, the river looked beautiful. The fast-flowing waters of the Snake River were crisp and clear as they crashed over the rocks below. I was 16 and my parents had hired a car to drive us children around North America and Canada in the summer holidays.
Upon our arrival, lost in the beautiful scenery, we couldn't wait to start our tour. Dad got a dinghy（橡皮艇）from somewhere. It looked a bit small for the six of us, and we didn't have safety helmets, and were wearing adult-sized life jackets. I don't think any of us had even seen rapids（急流）until we went down them that day, otherwise we'd have realized how foolhardy（莽撞的）our plan was.
The first part of the ride was pretty hair-raising and it was apparent that we had no idea what we were doing. After 20 minutes we hit a rapid and got stuck: there was a huge rock under the surface and our boat was letting in water. The bottom got stuck and we were trapped in the middle of a wide, fast-moving river. Wall after wall of freezing water hit me and the iciness took my breath away. My brother, sisters and I were screaming, Dad was shouting at us that it would all be OK, while Mum yelled at us to hold on. We had no time to come up with any plan other than to hold tight.
It felt as if we were stuck for hours, unable to think or breathe, but it was probably only a few minutes. Then, suddenly I was swept out of the dinghy. I felt a sense of horror, which was replaced by an even greater terror when I realized I was going down the rapids without a boat. I was spun around, bounced off rocks and fell into water: it's what I imagine being trapped in a washing machine is like. There's no sense of up or down; you just gasp（喘气）for air when you can. I remember thinking, "This is it. I am going to die."
But suddenly I felt a determination to live.
When my family eventually found me, I was hugely emotional to realize that we'd all survived.
Plant-based products have been breaking into the foodie mainstream in the United States, after years in which vegan (素食的) burgers and milk alternatives knocked on the market’s door. That is partly because more companies are targeting people who seek to reduce the amount of meat they eat, rather than forswear it altogether.
Now, as fish alternatives begin to attract investment and land at restaurants in the United States and beyond, people who track the fishless fish sector say that it could achieve significant growth.
One reason, they say, is that consumers in rich countries are becoming more aware of the seafood industry’s environmental problems, including overfishing and the health risks of some seafood. Another is that today’s plant-based companies do a better job of approaching fish flavor than earlier ones did—an important consideration for non-vegetarians (非素食者).
“There are a number of people already looking at alternative hamburgers,” said Joshua Katz, an analyst at the consulting firm McKinsey who has studied the alt-protein (替代蛋白) industry. “You might actually say, ‘I should work on something else.’ And seafood is still a massive market with convincing reasons to work on.” People who reduce their consumption of animal proteins for environmental reasons often stop eating red meat, which requires enormous amounts of land and water to farm.
But alt-fish advocates say that seafood also comes with environmental problems. Unsustainable fishing practices have destroyed fisheries (鱼汤) in recent decades, a problem both for biodiversity and the millions of people who depend on the sea for income and food.
“It’s simply a smarter way to make seafood,” says Mirte Gosker, the acting managing director of the Good Food Institute Asia-Pacific, a nonprofit advocacy group that promotes alternative proteins. “Full stop.”
So far plant-based seafood products in the United States account for only 0.1 percent of the country’s seafood sales, less than 1.4 percent of the U.S. meat market occupied by plant-based meat alternatives. But alt-seafood enterprises worldwide received at least $83 million from investors in 2020, compared with $1 million three years earlier. As of this June, 83 companies were producing alt-seafood products around the world, a nearly threefold rise since 2017. All but 18 of those 83 companies focus on plant-based products. A dozen others are developing lab-grown seafood, which is not yet commercially available in any country.
1．What does the underlined word “forswear” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Sample. | B．Consume. | C．Produce. | D．Abandon. |
| A．The health risks. | B．The protein intake. |
| C．The taste and mouthfeel. | D．The overfishing problem. |
| A．Determined. | B．Concerned. | C．Humorous. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．Seafood companies are struggling. |
| B．Plant-based meat products will be a trend. |
| C．Alt-seafood products have a promising future. |
| D．Seafood will be commercially available soon. |
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