I remember my mother as a strong woman. She came to America when she was 12—old enough to remember her language, she achieved scores and grades high enough to be admitted to Duke University. With a degree in computer science, she finally became the manager of a company in New York. My mother could give fluent speeches, say “wolves” correctly.

    It was my mother who always stressed the importance of language. From the time I was born, I was read to. I would fall asleep to the sounds of my parents' voices, whether it was my dad's softly accented, or my mother's clear English. The flow of language was unbroken, and whether in Chinese or English, the stream of communication flowed through our house.

    One October morning in sixth grade, after my mother had left to catch the train to the city, I left the house for the bus stop. I was surprised when I saw our car, the door hanging open. As I drew closer, I saw my mother lying on the ground.

    In the hospital, it was hard to believe that the lady who lay before me was my mom. My mother could not remember my name. As the leaves changed colors, it became clear that the stroke had created a wall between my mothers mind and mouth: her mind was not any less dear, but the words she spoke were not what she meant.

    The battle my mother faced taught me the importance of language. Without it, identity does not exist; relationships cannot be formed; stories cannot be told; directions cannot be given, and knowing anything about anyone is impossible. Without language, communication cannot take place. Without language, one cannot express the beauty of a sunset or the kindness of a stranger. The world would pass us by in silence.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    If you have spent any time living in or visiting a big city in China, you have most likely used the service that Didi provides. The convenient ride-sharing company, now known as Didi Chuxing, was praised last month by Fortune magazine. According to the magazine, it is changing the world with its environmentally friendly solution to getting around in major cities. As the magazine reported: “Didi concluded that last year its car-pooling services helped reduce total car trips in the country by 1 million a day, which saved 500 million liters of gas, cutting 13.5 million tons of carbon emissions (排放) per day.” The transport service was the only Chinese company to make the important magazine's list, and its influence can be felt in many parts of Chinese society.

    Didi is just one example of what is being called the “sharing economy”. The sharing economy is one in which regular people exchange goods and services, usually using an online marketplace. Other similar companies include companies that allow people to rent out their homes to strangers like Airbnb and Couchsurfing, and similar ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

    All of these services are possible partly because many people are realizing that they have underused assets in their lives. Millions of people around the world have started renting them out online to earn extra money. They rent their apartments while they are away for the weekend, lend people their cars for money and even sell their spare time.

    The sharing economy is the latest example of the Internet's value to customers. This model is now big enough for regulators and companies to have woken up to it. That is a sign of its great potential. It is time to start caring about sharing.

阅读短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    My parents were in a huge argument, and I was really upset about it. I didn't know who I should talk with about how I was feeling. So I asked Mom to allow me to stay the night at my best friend's house. Though I knew I wouldn't tell her about my parents' situation, I was looking forward to getting out of the house. I was in the middle of packing up my things when suddenly the power went out in the neighborhood. Mom came to tell me that I should stay with my grandpa until the power came back on.

    I was really disappointed because I felt that we did not have much to talk about. But I knew he would be frightened alone in the dark. I went to his room and told him that I'd stay with him until the power was restored. He was quite happy and said, “Great opportunity.”

    “What is it?” I asked.

    “To talk, you and I” he said. “To hold a private little meeting about what we're going to do with your mom and dad, and what we're going to do with ourselves now that we're in the situation we are in.”

    “But we can't do anything about it. Grandpa,” I said, surprised that here was someone with whom I could share my feelings and someone who was in the same “boat” as I was.

    And that's how the most unbelievable friendship between my grandfather and me started. Sitting in the dark, we talked about our feelings and fears of life — from how fast things change to how they sometimes don't change fast enough. That night, because the power went out, I found a new friend, with whom I could safely talk about all my fears and pains, whatever they may be. Suddenly, the lights all came back on. “Well,” he said, “I guess that means you'll want to go now. I really like our talk. I hope the power will go out every few nights!”

    Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition & Tour is a unique international resource to explore Shakespeare's work. Open all year round, it gives you an opportunity to learn more about the most famous playwright, Shakespeare, and helps you seek to further the experience and international understanding of him.

    Group Visits to the Exhibition & Tour Opening Hours

    Theatre Tours:

    Monday to Sunday 9:30 am – 5:00 pm

    Exhibition:

    Monday to Sunday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

    Groups of 15 people or more are required to pre-book their visit, and each group will have its own tour guide. To make a reservation, please fill in a Group Request Form and return it to us via email.

    Exhibition and Tour Prices

    Exhibition & Globe Theatre Tour

    Adult: £15.00

    Senior (60+): £13.50

    Student (with valid ID):  £11.50

    Children (5–15): £8.00

    Complimentary: Every 16th person free

    Getting Here

    Shakespeare's Globe 21 New Globe Walk, London SE1 9DT, UK

    We currently have enhanced security, with all bags being checked. Please arrive in good time, do not bring any large bags and check the Calendar before your visit or call +44 (0)20 7902 1500 to find out about our latest opening times.

    By car and taxi

    Where possible, visitors are advised to arrive by public transport or by taxi.

    There is a car park on Thames Exchange on the north side of Southwark Bridge (open 24 hours, seven days a week).

    Black cabs may be found all year round on Southwark Bridge. It may also be possible to pick one up from outside the main foyer(大厅) on New Globe Walk.

Where to eat

    Swan at Shakespeare's Globe serves modern British seasonal food for dinner, afternoon tea or drinks in our beautiful bar and restaurant set over two floors. Available for pre and post-theatre dining.

    Swan Restaurant

    Monday – Friday:12 noon – 2:30 pm & 6:00 pm – 10:30 pm

    Saturday:12 noon – 3:30 pm & 6:00 pm – 10:30 pm.

    Sunday:12 noon – 9:00 pm

    There's a good chance something you've bought online has been in the hands of a "picker" first. These are the workers in warehouses(仓库)who pick, pack and ship all those things we're ordering.

    At Amazon and other companies, they're working side by side with robots. Experts say while the robots are replacing some human workers, the machines aren't quite ready to take over completely.

    When a robot finds its storage unit, it slides underneath, lifts it up and then delivers it to a worker 一 they're called pickers. On a recent day, the computer told a picker to grab what looked like a fantasy board (棋盘)game. The picker found it, canned it and placed it on the conveyor belt.

    ^"In a traditional fulfillment center where the associate would walk to the different items, it can take hours to fulfill a customer order." Robinson says.

    Now, with the help of robots, that task takes minutes 一 and fewer humans.

So is this a sign we're entering a new industrial revolution?

    "It's definitely going to take over a lot of jobs." says Karen Myers, a scientist at SRI, one of Silicon Valley's oldest research centers.

    At the same time, she says, we're running against the limits of technology. Take "the picker" at the Amazon fulfillment center. Myers says those skills are proving to be uniquely human.

    "Our fingers are incredibly flexible and the current generation of robotic operators, they're getting much_, much better," she says. "But they're just not quite there yet."

    There's also the robot's brain.

    Remember that board game the Amazon worker was looking for? She could barely see the box filled into the storage bin — but she could tell it was a board game. Robots can't do that.

    Technologists say that, increasingly, humans will work side by side with robots — instead of robots working alone.

    Amazon says robots and humans enabled the Tracy warehouse to fulfill customer orders faster. That means more customers and more human workers.

The ancient Herculaneum scrolls (卷轴)are thought to contain works of important thinkers in ancient Greece. But the scrolls can't be unrolled (打开). Even a light wind threatens to reduce them to dust. The reason is that they were turned into carbon by a natural disaster in A.D. 79.

But now researchers from the University of Kentucky have found a way to look inside the scrolls without having to touch them. They first create a light that is 10 billion times brighter than the sun by taking advantage of a machine. Then they will use the light to go through the Herculaneum scrolls to study and finally read the words recorded on the scrolls. Researchers think it might take them six months to read the scrolls.

This isn't the first time researchers have tried to read the Herculaneum scrolls. Several years ago, scientists from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) worked on uncovering the mystery using an X-ray beam 100 billion times brighter than anything used in a hospital, This didn't allow scientists to actually read the scrolls, but it allowed them to make one surprising discovery. The scrolls were written in metallic (金属的) ink, a writing technology that scientists didn't know existed at the time the scrolls were penned.

"For a long time, we thought our studies have let us know everything about the ancient ink used to write on scrolls. Now we find it's not the case. This shows that we should tell ourselves it may not be true when thinking we fully know something once some research is done," said Daniel Delattre, one of the study's authors.

The finding wasn't just a historical curiosity. To learn just how special these scrolls are, consider that the thinker Chrysippus in ancient Greece is said to have written over 700 works; but all are lost, with the exception of a few works found in the Herculaneum scrolls. In other words, it's possible that these scrolls represent the only existing complete works left by this great thinker. And who knows what other great works could exist in the scrolls?