阅读理解A篇

Source:  安大略省政府网站
https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-help-finding-youth-or-student-job

the original：

 

 

 

 

 

 

阅读理解B篇

Source:  圣地亚哥电台网站(原文来自NPR美国国家公共电台)
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/jun/18/one-teachers-quest-to-build-language-skills-and/

 

the original：

It's election season at Canaan Elementary's second grade, in Patchogue, N.Y., and tensions are running high. Today is speech day, and right now it's Chris Palaez's turn.

The 8-year-old is the joker of the class. With a mischievous glimmer in his dark eyes and a thick mohawk, he seems like the kind of kid who would be unfazed by public speaking.

But he's nervous.

"I'm here to tell you today why you should ... should ... " Palaez trips on the ld, a pronunciation landmine for many non-native English speakers. His teacher, Thomas Whaley, is next to him, whispering support. " ... vote for ... me ... "

Despite some stumbles, Pelaez is doing amazingly well.

A son of Ecuadoran immigrants who was born and raised in the U.S., he started learning English a little over three years ago. Whaley recalls how at the beginning of the year, when called upon to read, Pelaez would excuse himself to go to the bathroom.

Being an ESL student can be a painful experience. Many of us who have been ESL students know what it's like to get pulled out of class in front of everyone, so you can learn to master the verbs and retrain you tongue to twist differently from what your parents taught you.

What you need is a great teacher who lets you make mistakes.

"It takes a lot for any student," Whaley explains, "especially for a student who is learning English as their new language, to feel confident enough to say, 'I don't know, but I want to know.' "

Palaez wraps up his speech and Whaley invites the rest of the class, which is made up of both ESL students and native speakers, to praise him. "Say 'thank you,' " he prods Palaez gently, who smiles sheepishly on the podium.

"Thank you," Palaez gleams.

Impeccably dressed, with a gravelly Long Island accent that turns one vowel into many, Thomas Whaley does not look like the kind of guy that dabbles in magic markers. Before he was a second-grade teacher, he worked at a public relations company in New York City.

He says he started thinking about doing something else while riding to and from work on the Long Island Rail Road. "I would talk with people on the train at 6 a.m., and 8 p.m. on the way home," he recalls. "They were people who had a complete disconnect from the young people of the world. They were all so focused on adults and the rat race. And I realized that this was not for me."

That was 16 years ago. He's been teaching ever since.

In addition, Whaley has found time to write a novel called Leaving Montana and he's starting to write children's books. Last year, he won the New York State teacher of the year award.

This second-grade presidential campaign is an example of why. He tells me he got the idea when he asked the children one day to raise their hands if they thought they could never be a U.S. president.

The answer broke his heart.

"Almost every single child who is an English language learner believed that they couldn't be," Whaley recalls. They'd say things like, " 'I can't run for president because my parents are from a different country.' That was a biggie. 'Because I'm poor, and you need a lot of money to be the president. Because I don't like to read, or I can't read.' "

Whaley says the presidential speech project is about more than just learning to read and speak in public. He wants these kids to learn to boast about themselves.

"Bragging about yourself, and your best qualities," Whaley says, "is very difficult for a child who came into the classroom not feeling any confidence whatsoever to read three or four words."

Robert Epstein, the principal of Canaan Elementary, says this is the essence of what makes Whaley such a great teacher.

"There's a sense of community that's really unsurpassed," and the students will take risks as a result, Epstein says. He adds that Whaley goes above and beyond what is expected of him as a teacher. "If one needs sneakers, I've seen him go out and buy sneakers. He's gone to homes. He's constantly on the phone, constantly emailing parents."

It's not an easy job, juggling native speakers needs with those of the ESL students. There are a lot of late afternoons and coming in early.

阅读理解C篇

Title:  Smart keyboard cleans and powers itself—and can tell who you are
Source:  美国化学协会
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2015/acs-presspac-january-21-2015/smart-keyboard-cleans-and-powers-itself-and-can-tell-who-you-are.html
Source:  世界科技新闻门户网
https://phys.org/news/2015-01-smart-keyboard-powers-itselfand.html

 

By analyzing such parameters as the force applied by key presses and the time interval between them, a new self-powered non-mechanical intelligent keyboard could provide a stronger layer of security for computer users. The self-powered device generates electricity when a user's fingertips contact the multi-layer plastic materials that make up the device.

"This intelligent keyboard changes the traditional way in which a keyboard is used for information input," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Every punch of the keys produces a complex electrical signal that can be recorded and analyzed."

Conventional keyboards record when a keystroke makes a mechanical contact, indicating the press of a specific key. The intelligent keyboard records each letter touched, but also captures information about the amount of force applied to the key and the length of time between one keystroke and the next. Such typing style is unique to individuals, and so could provide a new biometric for securing computers from unauthorized use.

In addition to providing a small electrical current for registering the key presses, the new keyboard could also generate enough electricity to charge a small portable electronic device or power a transmitter to make the keyboard wireless.

An effect known as contact electrification generates current when the user's fingertips touch a plastic material on which a layer of electrode material has been coated. Voltage is generated through the triboelectric and electrostatic induction effects. Using the triboelectric effect, a small charge can be produced whenever materials are brought into contact and then moved apart.

"Our skin is dielectric and we have electrostatic charges in our fingers," Wang noted. "Anything we touch can become charged."

While the self-powered feature could provide a convenience benefit and potentially eliminate the need for batteries in wireless keyboards, Wang believes the major impact of the device may be in helping to secure computers by using individual typing patterns or habits as a biometric.

 

"This has the potential to be a new means for identifying users," he said. "With this system, a compromised password would not allow a cyber-criminal onto the computer. The way each person types even a few words is individual and unique."

To evaluate the authentication potential of the keyboard, the research team asked 104 persons to type the word "touch" four times, and recorded the electrical patterns produced. Using signal analysis techniques, they were able to differentiate individual typing patterns with low error rates, Wang said.

 

Instead of individual mechanical keys as in traditional keyboards, Wang's intelligent keyboard is made up of vertically-stacked transparent film materials. Researchers begin with a layer of polyethylene terephthalate between two layers of indium tin oxide (ITO) that form top and bottom electrodes.

Next, a layer of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) is applied onto the ITO surface to serve as an electrification layer that generates triboelectric charges when touched by fingertips. FEP nanowire arrays are formed on the exposed FEP surface through reactive ion etching.

The keyboard's operation is based on coupling between contact electrification and electrostatic induction, rather than the traditional mechanical switching. When a finger contacts the FEP, charge is transferred at the contact interface, injecting electrons from the skin into the material and creating a positive charge.

 

When the finger moves away, the negative charges on the FEP side induces positive charges on the top electrode, and equal amounts of negative charges on the bottom electrode. Consecutive keystrokes produce a periodic electrical field that drives reciprocating flows of electrons between the electrodes. Though eventually dissipating, the charges remain on the FEP surface for an extended period of time.

Wang believes the new smart keyboard will be competitive with existing keyboards, in both cost and durability. The new device is based on inexpensive materials that are widely used in the electronics industry.

As part of the study, his research group evaluated the keyboard under challenging conditions, including application of moisture, dirt and oil. "You could pour coffee on the keyboard, and it would not be damaged," said Wang. "Because it is based on a sheet of plastic, liquids will not hurt it."

阅读理解D篇

Title:  Be Nice — You Won’t Finish Last
Source:  纽约时报
http://schoolpress.cshgreenwich.org/cshmsparents/2017/04/16/nice-wont-finish-last/

the original：

 

During the rosy years of elementary school, my inclination to share my dolls and my knack with knock-knock jokes (“Who’s there?” “Tank.” “Tank who?” “You’re welcome!”) were enough to elevate my social status. I was the belle of the playground. Then came my tweens and teens, and mean girls and cool kids. They rose in the ranks not by being amiable but by puffing cigarettes, breaking curfew and pulling pranks on unsuspecting nerds, among whom I soon found myself.

Popularity is a well-explored subject in social psychology. The latest thinking is parsed by Mitch Prinstein, a professor and director of clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in his forthcoming book, “Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-Obsessed World,” and in his currently running MOOC. (Some 58,000 have taken the online course, via Coursera.)

Dr. Prinstein sorts the popular into two categories: the likable and the status seekers. The likables’ plays-well-with-others qualities cement schoolyard friendships, jump-start interpersonal skills and, when cultivated early, are employed ever after in business and even romance. Then there’s the kind of popularity that emerges in adolescence: status born of power and even notorious behavior.

Enviable as the cool kids may have seemed, Dr. Prinstein’s studies show negative consequences. Those who were highest in status in high school, as well as those least liked in elementary school, are “most likely to engage in dangerous and risky behavior,” like smoking cigarettes and using drugs.

In one study, Dr. Prinstein examined the two types of popularity in 235 adolescents, scoring the least liked, the most liked and the highest in status based on student surveys. “We found that the least well-liked teens had become more aggressive over time toward their classmates. But so had those who were high in status. It was a nice demonstration that while likability can lead to healthy adjustment, high status has just the opposite effect on us.”

Dr. Prinstein has also found that the qualities that made the neighbors want you on a play date — sharing, kindness, openness — carry over to later years and make you better able to relate and connect with others.

In analyzing his and other research, Dr. Prinstein came to another conclusion: Not only does likability correlate to positive life outcomes, but it is also responsible, he said, for those outcomes, too. “Being liked creates opportunities for learning and for new kinds of life experiences that help somebody gain an advantage,” he told me.

The findings were music to my nerdy ears: Those halcyon early days of popularity really did matter.

The meek — or rather, the genuinely nice — shall inherit the earth after all.

完形填空

 

 

 

语法填空
Source:  英语学术词典和百科全书
https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/14935/