James T. Green thought he was having a panic attack.

He took a break from work to walk around the block during a stressful day, and noticed he felt out of breath climbing up a small hill. That wasn’t normal, Green thought. He had become a regular biker in recent months and wasn’t exactly out of shape. He sat down at his desk, and looked at the Apple Watch on his wrist. His heart rate was through the roof, and the Heart Watch app he was using to check his pulse was flashing warnings. Maybe it was something more serious, he thought.

Although he had blood clots（血栓）in his lungs a few years back, he had been taking medication, and doctors said that it was an unusual condition for someone in their mid-20s. Still, the symptoms this time were much less severe, and he was feeling stressed, so his mind didn’t automatically jump to blood clots. Green’s doctor told him it sounded like anxiety. But then he showed her his heart rate recorded by the Apple Watch.

“This is my normal heart rate,” Green told her, pointing to the graph in the app. “This is where my heart is now. There’s something wrong.”

The doctor ordered a CT scan. The blood clots in his left lung had returned. An ambulance rushed Green to the emergency room, where he was pumped full of blood thinners（血液稀释剂）. He didn’t need surgery this time, but doctors told him that if he had waited, a clot could have killed him.

Green isn’t the only person who has discovered a serious health condition after seeing heart-rate data on a smartwatch. And he won’t be the last. Currently, smartwatches from Apple and others can tell you your heart rate and track your workouts. But these companies want to go beyond the basics by developing ways to tell you when something is wrong. In fact, it’s already happening.

【小题1】What is abnormal for Green this time?

A．He was hurt badly.

B．He breathed heavily.

C．He was out of shape.

D．He decreased physical activity.

【小题2】What really caused the severe symptoms of Green this time?

A．Tiredness.	B．Anxiety.
C．Work stress.	D．Blood clots.

【小题3】Which of the following confirmed his extremely serious problem?

A．He himself.	B．His doctor.
C．The Apple Watch.	D．The CT scan.

【小题4】What is the following paragraph going to talk about?

A．Smartwatches can help people in all aspects of life.

B．Smartwatches will replace doctors.

C．Other uses in health of smartwatches.

D．Other cases in saving lives by smartwatches.

   Self-driving cars are so popular that the University of Michigan has even established a town called Mcity to allow car manufacturers to safely test their autonomous cars.

While Mcity can be used to simulate（模拟）many real-life road conditions，it can't help test gestures drivers use to communicate their intention（意图）to other drivers，pedestrians or cyclists. To find a solution，US car manufacturer Ford，with researchers from Virginia Tech，at the beginning considered using text as a way to communicate the car's intention，but decided it would probably not work universally. The option of using symbols was also rejected，because research shows that a majority of people do not have a good understanding of what they mean.

Finally, the researchers settled on light signals. A white light warned that there were no humans in the car. A slow blinking one indicated that the car was coming to a stop, while a rapidly flashing light cautioned passersby that the car was about to speed up.

Then came the big challenge—testing the signals on real roads. "We needed to try out this new lighting to communicate the intention of the vehicle, but if you've got a driver behind the seat, you still have natural communication between humans," said Andy Shaudt, who led the research team. "So we needed to make it look like a driverless car."

The team designed a car seat costume（戏装）that the driver would wear to cover his or her face and upper body. Of course，the drivers could see very clearly. The researchers then equipped the car with cameras to capture human reactions to a light bar，which flashed one of the three signals when appropriate. Six drivers，all keeping their hands low on the wheel so as not to be noticed，took turns to test driving the car through the busy streets.

The overall reaction to the flashing lights was very encouraging. Who knew costumes could be useful for more than Halloween？

【小题1】What did the team first consider using as a way to communicate the car's intention?

A．Light.	B．Language.
C．Symbols.	D．Sound.

【小题2】The underlined word "they" in the second paragraph refers to ________.

A．symbols	B．drivers
C．researchers	D．flashes

【小题3】What does a rapidly flashing light mean?

A．The car was coming to a stop.

B．There was no driver in the car.

C．The car was about to speed up.

D．The car was about to slow down.

【小题4】The car seat costume was intended to ________.

A．amuse the driver	B．attract the pedestrians
C．warn the cyclists	D．confuse the people

   A new keyboard can tell whether you are its owner. The keyboard records information about the typing pattern（模式）and sends it to a computer program. The program then checks to see if the pattern matches the right user. If not, an alarm sounds, and the computer locks the typist out. It locks out everyone else, even if the person knows the password. What's more, this equipment needs no batteries. It collects all the energy it needs from your actions of typing. Besides, the keyboard is also self-cleaning and the keys are free of damage from water, oil and dirt.

The keys of the new keyboard are made of the same inexpensive plastic that might be found on any other standard keyboard. But instead of being smooth, the keys have millions of tiny plastic nanowires（纳米线）on their surface area, increasing the effective contact areas between the plastics and fingers. This guarantees that there's enough power to run the keyboard as someone types.

Liming Dai, a scientist, did not work on the new keyboard, but he thinks the design could be important in getting better performance from a variety of equipment. "It could also be applied to a touch screen, for example, "Dai says. " Then smart phones and notepads could collect energy from someone's actions of typing or drawing. "

"Future work might make the keyboard even more useful, "Dai adds. " A later design might build tiny capacitors onto the nanowires, "he suggests. Capacitors are little devices that temporarily store electric charge. Those might then be LEDs to light a keyboard in the dark.

Zhonglin Wang is a co-designer of the new keyboard. His team has built a working model of the keyboard. "If a company decides to fund（资助）its production, this keyboard could be in stores in as few as two years, "says Wang.

【小题1】How does the new keyboard tell whether you are its owner？

A．By matching the typing pattern to the right user.

B．By sending alarms to a computer program.

C．By checking the right user's passwords.

D．By just recording information about the typing pattern.

【小题2】Why are there many nanowires on the surfaces of the keys？

A．To keep the keyboard free of damage.

B．To improve the speed of typing.

C．To make the keys smooth.

D．To help produce power.

【小题3】What's Dai's attitude to the new keyboard？

A．Unconcerned.	B．Doubtful.
C．Positive.	D．Critical.

【小题4】What is the best title for the text？

A．A New Keyboard Made of Nanowires

B．A New Keyboard Entirely Owned by You

C．A New Keyboard's Future

D．A New Keyboard Powered by Typing

   Blind people can read. They do so by running their fingers along a line of raised points or dots on paper. Of course, they first have to learn the code（代码）. Here are some examples of it. One dot stands for the letter “A”. Two dots side by side mean “C”. Four dots arranged to look like a box（：：） stand for the letter “G”. By placing the dots in special patterns, all the letters of the alphabet can be formed.

This code was made up by a Frenchman called Louis Braille. Though he could see at birth, he became sightless when he was only three. Braille was cutting leather in his father’s shop. His knife slipped and cut his eye. Infection（感染）spread to both eyes, and he became blind.

At 10, he was placed in a home for the blind. But young Braille had great talent. He became a skilled musician and soon got a job as a church organist（风琴弹奏者）in Paris.

Because he had talent and was quick, he became a teacher at a school for the blind. While there, he heard that a captain had sent messages to his soldiers that they could read at night without light. His messages were in the simple form of raised dots and dashes. This was the clue Braille needed. At the age of 15, he worked out his own six-dot code. Each group of dots is called a cell. The cells are three dots high and two dots wide. For the rest of his life, Braille taught his young flock to read both written and musical works using his code.

For the last 17 years of his life, Braille was ill with tuberculosis. He died at the age of 43.

【小题1】What is the text mainly about?

A．Different reading methods.	B．Blind people around the world.
C．How blind people communicate.	D．Louis Braille and his six-dot code.

【小题2】Louis Braille developed an alphabet for blind people after he __________.

A．worked as an organist	B．became blind as a young child
C．became a skilled musician in a church	D．was inspired by a captain’s messages

【小题3】The underlined word “flock” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to “____________”.

A．soldiers	B．blind students
C．famous teachers	D．skilled musicians

【小题4】The text is developed ______________.

A．in time order	B．in space order
C．by listing examples	D．by making comparisons

Safety is a huge concern whenever I run with my earphones in. But I need music to run. Otherwise all I hear is the sound of my own breathing. So I’ve found a compromise: I run with only one earphone in. The music sounds off. It’s an imperfect solution.
An updated pair of headphones, called AfterShokz, aim to do better. AfterShokz bills itself as using bone conducting technology to conduct music from the front of the ear, delivering sound through your cheekbone and inner ear. This keeps your eardrum (鼓膜) free to hear everything else.
“Earbuds (耳塞式耳机) are typically designed to block out all sound, which is fine when you’re inside. But when you’re outside, you need all your senses. It would be like sending you out cycling with a blindfold on,” says Rod Annet, managing director of AfterShokz.
Here’s where AfterShokz comes in. The headphones hook over the back of your head with the main “bud” resting high up against your cheek. This keeps your ear free to delight in other sounds.
So do they work? In a word, yes. During a 45-minute jog, they didn’t bounce or shift. I heard far more of my environment than I normally do: a nearby bike there; a runner passing me again to my left; and so forth.
What about the downsides? If you’re a huge fan of high-quality sound, you might find the headphones a bit tinny. One friend expressed concerns about missing the ability to get lost in the music as you might be distracted by other noises, although I personally didn’t find that an issue.
Yet those are all minor details. For me, probably the biggest problem is the price. Ranging between £ 49.96 to £ 83.29, AfterShokz headphones aren’t exactly cheap.
With all that considered, would I recommend them? Yes. AfterShokz headphones are quite useful. While out jogging, they were light, painless, and easy to use. They made me feel safer.
【小题1】What is special about AfterShokz headphones?

A．They are a good choice for inside use.

B．They allow users to hear other sounds.

C．They can make music sound more beautiful.

D．They can deliver sound through your eardrum.

【小题2】What does the author’s friend think of AfterShokz headphones?

A．They prevent users getting lost.

B．They deliver high—quality sound.

C．They often move while users are running.

D．They fail to allow users to enjoy the music.

【小题3】The author thinks AfterShokz headphones .

A．are too expensive	B．seem quite useless
C．make users feel pain	D．are too complex to use

【小题4】What is the main purpose of the text?

A．To express worries.	B．To introduce a product.
C．To share a personal story.	D．To complain about a product.