We’ve been covering standing desks for a long time now because experts agree that sitting all day is killing us. We want to be productive while also keeping our bodies healthy. Over the years, there have been several solutions to this from fixed standing desks to adjustable ones, portable desks to ones that change into shelves.

However, the most high tech and elegant solution has to be this new smart desk called The Stir Kinetic Desk. The desk learns your daily behaviors and moves between a sitting and standing height regularly throughout the day to keep you moving without interrupting your work flow.

You can program specific sitting and standing intervals or let the desk set the schedule. If you tend to sit while returning emails in the morning, but always want to stand during that afternoon conference call, the desk will learn those regular habits and adjust the schedule to fit them. Of course, the desk can always be manually lowered or raised by using the touch screen on the lower left comer of the desk.

When switching positions, the desk gently dips and rises to let you know that a change is coming up. If you’re not ready to switch positions at that time, you can tap the touchscreen to stay sitting or standing for a while longer.

The built-in touchscreen also keeps track of your daily sitting and standing times and tells you how many calories you’ve burned. You can even set goals for how long or often you want to stand. The desk also works with fitness devices like the FitBit to track your movements.

All of that smart tech doesn’t come cheap though. The M1 desk, which is the everyday model, runs a steep $2,990, while the more executive model with added features, the F1, goes for$4,190.

While expensive, it’s worth thinking of how much time we spend at our desks. Much like a good mattress(床垫), a good desk that works with you is worth the investment. Hopefully in a few years these smart, integrated desks will be more common and less expensive.

1.The Stir Kinetic Desk has been designed to_______.

A. help users with their work

B. keep users moving all the time

C. get users to exercise while working

D. remind users of their working schedule

2.Which is the feature of the touchscreen of the desk?

A. It can tell users when to change positions.

B. It can track users’ changes of positions.

C. It can keep users in a fixed position.

D. It can detect users’ health condition.

3.Which of the following can best describe the desk?

A. Productive but challenging.

B. Convenient but unaffordable.

C. Complex and impractical.

D. Multi-functional and intelligent.

4.What does the author intend to tell us in the last paragraph?

A. To spend money on such a desk is rewarding.

B. We should get such a desk as soon as possible.

C. It won’t be long before the desk is widely used.

D. Desks play a very important role in our daily life.

Experiments aboard the spaceship Columbia have disproved a theory on the human nervous system which won an Austrian professor a Nobel prize 79 years ago.

West German astronaut Ulf Merbold disproved the theory during tests aboard the spaceship yesterday. His discovery is connected with the workings of the inner ear, the body’s balance mechanism(机制).

In l914 Professor Robert Barany won the Nobel prize for Physiology(生理学) and Medicine when he announced that temperature differences affected the inner ear and caused the eyes to blink(眨眼). His theory was accepted by scientists.

But Merbold carried out tests to find if the theory was correct and shocked himself and space officials when he proved it wrong.

According to Barany’s theory the eyes would blink when cold air was blown into one ear and hot air blown into the other.

But if this theory was correct such a movement would be impossible in zero gravity(重力).

Both Merbold’s eyes continually blinked when the test was carried out.

1.Tests were carried out in outer space in order to _______.

A. find what causes the eyes to blink

B. shock the world

C. win the prize

D. prove the theory

2.Barany’s theory declared to prove _______.

A. how our hearing mechanism works

B. why we constantly move our eyes

C. that eye movement is affected by temperature

D. how hearing reacts(反应)

3.Barany’s theory was proved incorrect in space by the effects of _______.

A. having no weight B. having no air

C. the pull of gravity D. hot and cold air streams

CANYOUIMAGINEHOWHARDITWOULDBETOREADSENTENCESLIKETHIS? Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought.Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way.The lack of punctuation marks probably didn’t bother good readers, though.As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best.Also at this time, sentences switched directions.A sentence read from left to right.The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc. The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They put something that can separate words in a sentence.The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a dot.

When the 5th century arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points.The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading.Then in the 13th century, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation.He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence.He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause.Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma (逗号).

Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family.The exclamation mark (感叹号) comes from the Latin word io.It means “exclamation of joy.” The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question.Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.

Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays.New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways.Take for example the “interrobang”.This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both.For example, “She did what?” or “How much did you pay for that dress?” Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.

1.From the first paragraph, we can know that _______.

A. good readers had trouble reading without punctuation marks

B. a sentence always read from left to right in ancient Greece

C. ancient Greeks switched the direction of punctuation marks

D. the use of punctuation marks can date back to ancient times

2.The passage is developed _______.

A. by time B. by space

C. by comparison D. by importance

3.We can learn from the passage that _______.

A. ancient Romans didn’t use any punctuation marks

B. exclamation and question marks came from Latin

C. spaces and slashes were already used before the 5th century

D. Aldus Manutius first started to use commas

4.What can be concluded from the last paragraph?

A. The combination of two marks will not work.

B. It takes time for people to accept new punctuation marks.

C. Old punctuation marks need to be standardized.

D. Punctuation marks are still changing today.

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Simplify Your Life

Less is more.This is why we say: reduce things by half instead of doubling them,get rid of junk instead of piling it up,relax instead of stressing,slow down instead of speeding up.Apply these principles in your everyday life in a conscious way.You will then find yourself well along on your journey to simplification.

1.__________

When you concentrate on one task,you find you have energy that you didn't even know you had. Just imagine: you are at a fair and you have to carry two heavy pigs over 100 yards.If you keep grabbing one and then the other,it will take forever,because one of them will keep slipping out from under your arm and running off.But if you tie one pig in a place,pick up the other,gather all your strength and make a dash for the finish line,pause for a moment,run back and get the other one,and with great determination,carry the second pig to the finish line,then you can be sure of success.

2._________

The pressure at work is on the increase in all occupations.In the modern nuclear family,the expectations that formerly would have been shared among all the relatives are now concentrated on the individual partner.

If you have the feeling that 24 hours per day are not enough for all the things you need to do,then it's not because the day has too few hours,but because you have too many activities.A simple fact that overloaded people often tend to forget.The solution is equally simple: refuse to accept so many work assignments in your private life or your working life.

3.____________

"I can handle stress" is regarded as a positive statement in the world of work.People who can handle stress are given more and more to cope with -- until one day they break.

Pay careful attention to the signs that tell you that you are under more stress than you can cope with.These

If you have any of these symptoms,change your life goals and decrease your tolerance of stress.Say quite openly,"I can't manage that."

4.__________

“If only I were slimmer,more beautiful,richer,more clever,then I would be happier." This is a dream that makes a lot of people ill,depressed,and unhappy.Life has its flaws,defects,corners,and edges.Only those who accept this reality can lead a really full life.

Of course there are activities in which errors are dangerous: driving a car; crossing the road. But life doesn't consist entirely of these things.In among them there is a lot of room for small and large mistakes.

5._________

Successful people all have their own places where they can withdraw in order to work.Find out which places improve your creativity.For me it's the train.When I know that I'm going to be traveling for four hours without phone calls and people knocking on my door,I find nay mind is free and I can read or write complex articles.There can be problems working on the train,of course : if the person sitting opposite you keeps talking away,or if train traps make you tired ( some people fall asleep after a few miles).

A. Escape Now and Then

B. Slow Down Your Life

C. Separate Your Actions

D. Allow Yourself to Be Weak

E. Relieve Pressure by Firmly Saying "No"

F. Imagine you are the best

G. Stop Expecting Everything to Be Perfect

Indoor Plants

As with any house guests,indoor plants require a certain amount of basic,regular attention if they are going to feel at home. The first consideration when purchasing plants is to make reasonably sure that they are suitable for the condition in which they are going to be housed.

A general rule for most plans being brought indoors for the first time is to ensure that they have reasonable temperature of not less than 60 degrees Fahrenheit,a position out of cold air,safe from pets and not exposed to strong sunlight.

Plants love company. When plants are growing together,they create an atmosphere of damp around themselves which is far more beneficial than hot dry conditions. A group of plants will also present a more pleasing picture and provide an opportunity for a creative arrangement. There is no secret to this. Just rely on your natural feeling for harmony.

Watering and feeding plants are probably the two areas of care that are the least well understood,but,again,if you follow a few simple rules,your plants should do well. Cold Slightly warm water is therefore the answer. It is usually better to pour water on to the soil on the surface of the pot rather than put the water into the pot holder at the bottom. Avoid giving small amount of water at regular intervals- it is much better to wet the soil right through the pot in one go and then to allow it to dry noticeably before giving it a further watering.

The majority of indoor plants will be in active growth from March until October,and during this time,the established ones will benefit from regular feeding. This may mean feeding with a weak liquid fertilizer(肥料) at each watering or at intervals of a week or ten days with fertilizer at a standard strength. It is important,however,to ensure that plants are not fed when growth is inactive,when the soil in the pot is dry,or too soon after the plants has been potted up.

1.In Paragraph 2,the author mainly tells us to___________.

A. but plants that help clean indoor air

B. create a new environment with plants

C. put plants on the sunny side of the room

D. make sure of suitable conditions for plants

2.What’s the benefit of plants growing together?

A. It provides owners good company.

B. It helps the air around them slightly wet.

C. It makes it convenient to look after them.

D. It allows owners to draw a pleasant picture.

3.While watering the plants,what should we remember to do?

A. Use water that is a little warm.

B. Pour the water into the pot holder.

C. Give small amount of water at one time.

D. Consider further watering in dry weather.

4.What is the best time to feed the plants?

A. When the soil is dry.

B. When their growth is active.

C. When the temperature is high.

D. When they have just been planted.

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网