备战2024年中考英语阅读话题训练二 人与社会 主题12 科技发展

Songbirds are the birds with a beautiful voice. Different kinds of songbirds wake up at different times in the morning and begin to sing. This is because they have different waking clocks, according to the brightness of the sunlight.

We mostly hear bird concerts between spring and summer. This is the time when birds are looking for partners. Studies have shown that songs play an important role in attracting possible partners and may even show the health of the singer. Even after they have found a partner, male (雄性的) birds continue to sing, because it's a way of showing their babies how to sing.

Although baby birds know the songs they will sing as adults, true songbirds have to learn how to sing properly. Nestlings begin learning their songs by listening to adults around them. They go through several stages of learning, just like humans learning language. First, they practise voices and sounds, which is like the early stage in human language development. Then, during the second stage, the birds practise their songs for eight to nine months. The singing is improved a lot during the final stage with the help of their teachers.

Like humans, members of each kind of songbirds have their own dialects (方言). These are learnt from their parents when the birds are children.

China's first home-grown cruise ship was presented in Shanghai on June 6. It was the first time the cruise ship has sat in water.

What it looks like

Name: Adora Magic City

Length: 323.6 meters Width: 37.2 meters

Capacity: 6,500 people Floors: 14

It has a luxury hotel, cinemas and a water park on board. It has a large shopping center inside, covering about 2,000 square meters.

What it means to China

It is the first time China has built a large cruise ship on its own. China now becomes the fifth country in the world that can produce large cruise ships after Germany, France, Italy and Finland.

In the future, the cruise ship will leave Shanghai for Japan and Southeast Asia. It will travel along the Maritime Silk Road.

Science and technology will continue to develop fast in 2023.Nature andForbes have made their predictions (预测). Let's have a look.

Chinese athletes did a great job at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, winning 88 medals in total-But did you know that there are many cool technologies — even space technologies — behind their success?

Quan Hongchan, a 14-year-old diving darling who won the gold, said an Al training system helped her train. Developed by Baidu, the system analyzes （分析）a diver's body posture from the diving board until he or she enters the water. A dive can last less than two seconds. But the Al can catch many important details , such as the diver's starting height, entry speed and angle. These data are sent to coaches right away.

Before setting out for Tokyo, some Chinese athletes visited the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics （中国航天空气动力技术研究院），The technologies there are normally used to develop rockets and missiles. But they can also help rowers, swimmers and cyclists.

"For example, rowers in the women's quadruple sculls （四人双桨赛艇）came to my lab and used a wind tunnel to do experiments." said Jia Yi from the academy. The tunnel can make winds with different speeds. "They measured the air drag（空气阻力）on their bodies. The data helped them change their movement and redesign their sport suits."

But there's even more. The national table tennis team has a popular "coach" called Pongbot. It's a robot that can make difficult shots and never gets tired. Su Bingtian, the first Chinese sprinter to reach the Olympic 100-meter final, uses high-speed cameras to record his training. "The use of technology will help improve the nation's overall competitiveness in sports," said Huang Haiyan, a professor at the Shanghai University of Sport.

    In 2017, when the high speed train. Furing, leftBeijing for shanghai at a speed of 350 km/h, it amazed the world. It is China'snewest high-speed train and also the fastest train in the world.

    Therewere2, 959 high-speed trains running acrossChina by 2016. They make up60 percent of the worlds total high- speed trains. Chinesecompanies have also built more than 10 high-speed railways in Europe, SoutheastAsia and South America. And the high speed trains has become a new name card forChina.

    Besides the high-speed trains, many other innovations(创新)have also changed people's lives in China.

    For example, though bike sharing is not new itselfChina has made it much more convenient.

    And popular. When the Chinese bike sharing companiesreached Singapore and Britain months ago, users there excited and couldn't waitto post photos of themselves riding the bikes on social media(媒体).

    Cashless payment has become a lifestyle choice inChinaitis common that people in China go shopping with no cash(现金)in pockets. Many people just pay with their bile phones by scanninga quick respond code(QR, 二维码)from the seller. Even a personselling vegetables has a QR code.

    Many foreigners have experienced lives without carryingany cash in China. They say they can't do it when they are back home in Europe.

    China is now in a great time. It has made great achievementsin innovation. They are true pictures of national strength. It seems that Chinais really leading in some ways. And Chinese people have every reason to believein an even brighter future.

High-speed trains, Alipay (支付宝), shared bikes and online payment are seen as the new Four Great Achievements of China by young foreigners, according to a video survey by the Silk Road Research Institute of Beijing Foreign Studies University. In the video, young people from 20 countries along Belt and Road Routes were asked to name great inventions that had influenced their lives in China. The following is what they said from 4 young people of them.

"I'm Yala. I'm Nepal. I always go out by bike. Bicycle-sharing system allows people to borrow a bike from point "A" and return it at point "B". It's not only cheap but also a low-carbon and healthy way of life. I like it very much."

"I'm Justin. I'm from Romania. China is really a great country and it's high-speed railways are very fast, convenient and tidy. It takes me only about 6 hours from Beijing to Shanghai by train. It serves a lot of time and it's cheaper than airplane. I wish we would have high-speed railways in our country someday."

"I'm Archana. My life in Beijing is quite different from that in India. Here in China, I seldom take money with me when I go out. I can pay for almost everything by Zhi Fu Bao. Oh, it's amazing. However, in India, if you don't take a wallet with you, you'llbe in a tough spot."

"I am Bond. You can find many wonderful things that we don't have in Thailand. We don't have Alipay or other online payment Apps with which I can go shopping without stepping out of the doors. If only I could bring them back to my country."

The Angelfish Can Change From To Male 

In the ocean world, there is a kind of amazing fish called the angelfish. It can change from female to male. The change happens for an exact reason.

The angelfish live in groups. Each group has one male fish, which is blue in colour, and four female fish, which are yellow in colour. The male angelfish is the strongest and largest member of the group. He is the one who protects and looks after the females and acts like their "safety guard".

When the male dies, the group needs a "safety guard". This is when the largest female, fish in the group begins to change its appearance. She begins to grow larger. After a week, her body starts change from yellow to blue. Slowly, her behaviour towards the females changes. She begins behaving like a male. Two weeks later, black stripes (条纹) appear on her body. This shows that the change is complete. She is now completely male and ready to be the guard!

The angelfish are among the most brightly coloured fish of the sea. You can also see them in home aquaria. People prefer to keep them because of the interesting patterns on them. These patterns help them to hide from enemies. Often, the young ones are differently coloured than the adults.

They can be found in the fresh waters of South America and, in warm seas coral reefs (珊瑚礁) and can grow up to a length of 17 inches. Their diet are mainly sponge and algae (海绵动物和藻类).

Do you have trouble trying to create the next big idea?

Sometimes the answer isn't to just force an idea out of your mind.

Instead, you might want to try sitting back, relaxing and letting your mind wander（走神）. Yes, you heard that correctly. If you are in need of a new idea, try daydreaming.

Daydreams allow your mind to run freely and even increase productivity in some cases. Daydreaming develops creativity which is why you have an ah-ha moment and sudden insight（领悟） about a situation. Daydreaming allows you to uncover thoughts and ideas you did not realize you even had and get the thoughts hidden under the surface.

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found a connection between daydreaming and creative problem-solving. Their study includes making participants first do an "unusual-use task". They had to try to come up with as many different ways to use an object as they could.

Then, the participants choose to do one of the following four things before doing the "unusual-use task" again; complete a difficult task, complete an easy task, take a 12-minute break, or skip a 12-minute break and move right on to the task exercise again.

Surprisingly, the group that performed best was the one that completed the easy task. Many participants reported that they were daydreaming while performing the easy task. So the researchers believed that this daydreaming might have helped unlock their creativity.

But how could daydreaming help the brain come up with creative ways? The answer is something known as "unconscious thought". Even when you are not actively working to solve a problem, it is still in the back of your mind. Your brain is still thinking about the problem, but in a way that you are unaware of.

When you daydream, your mind is allowed to think in ways it normally would not. Because it is free of control, it can create completely new and out-of-the-box ideas.

Great ideas never come easily, but that does not mean you always have to work hard to get them. Feel free to do what you want and let your mind wander.

In recent years, a number of Chinese creations have been popular around the world. Among them, four creations are the most well-known. They are known as the "four new great inventions" of modern China.

Paper-making, printing techniques, gunpowder and the compass are known as ancient China's Four Great Inventions. Now China is developing very fast and some young foreigners are amazed at some new technologies. They call them Four New Great Achievements in a recent street interview. Here are some of what they said.