2019-2020年英语中高考热点话题文章阅读

1、北權星it r文辑Is paper money going away?纸币已经过时了吗？（词数 450）With in a few mon ths , were going to have a new set of bankno tes 纸币）.The People sBank of Chin a（PBOC） the cen tral bankhas upgraded the fifth editi onof the renminbi（RMB）and will issue them from Aug 30. These bills will have brighter colorsand ne

2、w security features 防伪特征）, which will make printing fake（ 假的） money eve nharder. Weve bee n using bankno tes for around 1 000years. Back in the Northern SongDynasty,Chinese people made the world s earliest paper money toreplace metal coins 金属硬币） .These bank notes were called jiaozi. Obviously paper

3、money ischeaper to make and easier to carry -these adva ntages made it more popular than otherforms of money. But now,in the digital（数码的）age,paper moneyseems to be disappeari ng for the same reas on-whats more conven 方 n 便的）tha n not having to carry any money at all?China seems to be heading toward

4、becoming a cashless society. From supermarketstostreet stalls（小摊）,people pay by using the WeChat Wallet andAlipay apps on their mobile pho nes. Swede n is eve n closer to a future without paper mon ey.Many Swedish banks no Ion ger eve n have cash on hand. But there are worries aboutcreating cashless

5、.Some say it is unfair to the poor and people without much education. Its noteasy for them to open bank accounts 账户） or deal with mobile phones. And if all of your moneyis digital you may lose your money if your accounts are hacked（黑客攻击）Although papermoney is in a losing battle with electronic payme

6、nt in some countries,its still a big thing inmost parts of the world. It maytake a little Ion ger tha n you thi nk to see it go away.北權星it r文辑Liste n to your books耳朵 阅读”时代来了？（词数 260, 7 分钟）With the developme nt of tech no logy and the in ternet there is a new trend in read ingaudio books. More people

7、 are choos ing to liste n to audio books these day, accord ing to thisyears n ati onal readi ng report.The report was released by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publicati on（ CAPP）.ltshows that audio books have become quite popular among most readers. One in three adultliste n to audio books. They

8、 mainly use popular audio shari ng platf0mmS （平台）like Ximalaya.Kids have also bee n a main driver in the developme nt of audio books. Ximalaya no tedthat the value of audio book purchases made by those aged 13 to 18 in 2018 in creased by 330perce nt over that of 2017 the Beiji ng Eve ning News repor

9、ted.In additi on, around 26.8 perce nt of childre n un der 8 years old liste n to audio books.Most of them listen at least once a week .Their favorite categories（分类）are stories for kids”and poetry reading”One of the reasons audio books have taken off is that people want to get more use out oftheir f

10、ree time. Chi na News Service reported. Whether theyre at the gym on a bus or in bed,people can enjoy read ing without a heavy paper book ore-reader. Faster internet speedsmean one can download a whole book in just seconds accord ing to Wei Yusha n, director ofCAPP.Audio app content designers have i

11、nvited broadcasters 播音员）and product ion（制作）groups to join in content producti on. Both the quality and nu mber of audio books being offeredhave greatly improved. More people can find the audio books they like the most, the reportsays.北權星it r文辑Follow the subway rules在地铁上吃喝将影响个人信用（词数 270, 7 分钟）Traveli

12、ng by subway can sometimes be quite an adventure, especially duri ng rushhour. You have to fight your way into the carriage 车厢）And there are the times whe n youhave to avoid cups of coffee that could spill on you. The smells some passe ngers food arevery strong too.Since April , the local government

13、 of Beijing has been collecting public opinions on therevised （修订的） Beijing Metro Passenger Rules The rules say that if passengers behave in anuncivilizec 不文明的）manner while on the subway， they will end up with bad credit（信用）scores or eve n being banne（禁止）from the subway， Beijing Youth Daily reported

14、.Four kinds of behaviors were added to the revised rules. They in clude steali ng othersseats eating or drinking,riding without paying the fare（车票）and handingout advertiseme nts.Whats worth men ti oning is that people have differe nt opinions regarding eati ng and drinking on the subway Guangming Da

15、ily reported. The rules state that allpassengersexcept babies and people with certain health issues are not allowed to eat or drinkon the subway. People have poin ted out that the smell of food and drink can annoy otherpasse ngers.However， others questi on this rule say ing that drinking water shoul

16、d be allowed，as people can get thirsty after long rides on the crowded subway. o They also think it is tooharsh（严厉的）to lower some ones social credit score Just for eating or drinkin g.What problems will it cause if I just quietly eat some food that does nt have any smelland old on to the packaging 包

17、装）when rm done?” hauser named DONGCHENY wrote onSi na Weibo.北權星it r文辑Hippos move silic on河马一一自然界硅元素的搬运工（词数 280,7 分钟）Hippos look a little bit silly , dont you think? They have huge bodies but small eyesand ears. This con trast（比）always makes hippos look funny and cute.As it turns out, they play an im

18、portant role in Africa s ecosystem 生态系统） as well.Hippos have bee n keep ing silicon, a nu trie nt for pla nts and ani mals, on the movethroughout East Africa Scie nee News reported.Each day,a hippo eats about 36 kg of pla nts. Most of these pla nts are rich insilic on. The silic on cycles through th

19、eir body and fin ally comes out in their poop. Their poopbrings 0.4 tons of silic on in to the Mara River, where hippos ofte n poop, accord ing to scientists from the Un iversity of An twerp in Belgium. Thats about 76 perce nt of the rivers en tiredow nstream silica 硅 石）flow.Silicon is mostly found

20、in sand. Its role in nature is important. The element feeds thegrowth of a plant called the diator 硅藻）, which lives in oceans. fresh water and other wet envir onmen ts. Together, these pla nts take in carb on dioxide（二氧化碳）from the air andchange it into oxygen （ 氧气.It is estimated that diatoms make a

21、t least 20 percent of the oxygenon Earth according to Live Scienee.Diatoms also form the base of the food cha in. They are eate n by small ani mals likecrabs and sn ails which in turn feed bigger an imals like otters 冰獭）,turtles ,and eve n huma ns Without diatoms many ecosystems would face a food sh

22、ortage.But hippos are threatened 受到威胁）by hunting and habitat（栖息地）loss. Theirpopulati on decreased by up to 20 perce nt from 1996 to 2004, Scie nee News reported. Ifthese animals disappear from the Mara River , the diatom population could decreaseremarkably.Did you know? Silic on is the sec on d-most

23、 abun da 丰富的）eleme nt on Earth. Onlyoxygen beats it. It makes up slightly more than27 percent of the Earths crust（地壳）n ature ,silic on usually exists as either an oxide （氧化物）like sand or a silicate （硅酸盐）北權星it r文辑Lighti ngup black holes黑洞:探索一小步,人类一大步。（词数 321 ,北權星it r文辑6 分钟）There are mome nts in our l

24、ives whe n were just left in awe 敬 畏地）For me, thesemome nts in elude whe n I found out that Jupiter is 121.9 times bigger tha n Earth and thatQomolangma,Earths highest mountain if thrown into the ocean upsidedow n-would nt be large eno ugh to fill the Maria na tren ch（马里亚纟内海沟）, the deepestplace on E

25、arth. But none of these moments compares to this one: when scie ntists revealed公 布）the first-ever picture of a black hole on April 10What you see in the picture might bemerely an orange ring a blurry 模 糊的）bit of orange ring eve n but it is in fact a black hole andis 55 million light-years from Earth

26、. And its bigger than any thing we know of: The sun does nteve n beg in to compare with it, since its mass 质量）is6.5 billion times that of our star. It gotme wondering: How many more black holes are there? What lies another 100million , or 1,000 million ,light-years away? And what does the size of th

27、e uni verse mean to us tiny beings on atiny planet? But don t get me wro The news isnt supposed to be discouraging at all: After all,it is in con trast 对比）to the size of the uni verse that huma n beings can see how much theyveachieved Just think about it: We refresh-and-blood creatures and yet we ma

28、n aged to exte nd延伸）our sight by buildi ng telescopes hat“ see ”light years away. These telescopes are located in eight places around the world. and scientists from 20co un tries worked together for two years to process all the data before fin allybringing the image to us. Its true that we tend to f

29、eel awe in the face of forces that are muchbigger tha n us.0But perhaps we should hold ourselves in awe as well for all that we tiny human beings have lear ned about the uni lions of北權星it r文辑Japan is working hard to improve its English signs.日本致力于纠正 日式英语” 迎接东京Youve probably seen some pretty

30、 interesting English translations. For example, it iscom mon to see Chin glish” on restaura nt menusand on sig ns in public areas in Chin a.Japan is now worki ng to improve its En glish sig ns so that tourists will have an easier time gettingaround during the 2020 Olympics.Impro ving public tran spo

31、rtati on sig ns is especially importa nt, as touristswill take trains and buses to get around. The Japa n Tourism Age ncy rece ntly carried out atwo-month inv estigati on （at） into the websites of 85 train and bus compa nies around thecountry Accord ing to Germa n broadcaster Deutsche Welle.The age

32、ncy found some rather odd（古 怪的）tra nslati ons. For example, onetransportation company refers to children as “dwarf 侏儒）.Other translation errors includeForgotten Center”for lost and found”,and release place”forficket machi ne”But does Japa n have eno ugh time to correct its En glish? One expert thi n

33、ks its toolate.Gregory Haley, a professor at Niigata Un iversity th inks it cant be done. He pointed outthat many companies simply wont be able to afford to hire translators and repri nt the materials.In additi on, the people who orig in ally tran slated the materials probably wont want to loseface

34、by admitti ng to tran slati ng them in correctly he added.Whether it can fix its sig ns or not,Japan is braci ng for 为做准备）a waveof tourism. About 30 million people visited the country last year and the number will hit 40 million n ext year,whe n the 2020 Olympics officially kick off.Flowers and flam

35、es2020 年东京奥运会火炬样式揭晓北權星it r文辑Japan turns into one of the most beautiful places in the world when spring comes Itsthe time for cherry blossoms （樱花）to bloom! Japa n un veiled（公布）thet0rcb（火炬）forthe2020 Tokyo Olympic Games this spri ng. It looks just like a cherry blossom, the Japa nTimes reported.Japane

36、seartist Tokujin Yoshioka designed the torch. It is 71 cm long and weighs 1.2kilograms. It has a pin kish-gold color. The torchs flower ” has five petals （花瓣） ” . Yoshiokasaid the five“ petals ” stand for the five Olympic rings.To Japa nese people cherry blossoms represe n 象征）a bright future. The th

37、eme ofthe2020 torch relay 传递）is Hope lights our way”.What do emojis say?关于表情包You might ofte n use smiley faces or hand gestures 手 势）.But did you know thatpeople make many new emojis every year?This year,there are 230 newemojis.These new emojis can tell us thi ngs about the world around us.For exampl

38、e emojis cantell us about differe nt groups of people. Some of this years new emojis show disabled（残疾的）people.There are emojis of wheelchairs 轮椅）and guide dogs as well as bli nd（盲的）people. Emojis also keep up with pop culture. This years new set has several animals,such as flamingos（火烈鸟）and sloths（树

39、懒）.These animalsare not com mon. But they have become popular rece ntly. We can see flam in gos in manyfashi on desig ns. And many people like sloths becauseofhe2016 movie Zootopia（疯狂动物城）What do people care about and what do they like? You may find the answer withemojis.北權星it r文辑Elephants are endang

40、ered because of poaching.象牙被砍掉还能再长出来吗？（词数 280,6 分钟）With their long tusks（象牙）, elepha nts look strong. However, it is this feature thatmakes the animal endangered.Many of them are killed for their tusks. People make elephanttusks into crafts（工艺品）and jewelry and sell them to rich people.But can these

41、priceless body parts grow back? The answer is no, Live Science said.The elephants tusks are actually part of heir teeth. Nearly all African elepha nts and most maleAsia n elepha nts have these long teeth. about on e-third of the tusk is in the animais skull （头骨）The tusk has a nerve 神经）running down i

42、ts center. This makes it similar to your teeth.Once you lose a tooth， you will never grow a new one.Elephants use their tusks to protect themselves lift things， dig water and gather food.But los ing the tusk will not kill them. The way in which they lose the tusk is what matterselephants. Usually，pe

43、ople get tusks by culling（限量捕杀）which means killing old and weakelephants.They also take tusks from the elephants that have died n aturally.However，these sources aree no ugh to keep up with the dema nd forivory. Therefore， some poachers 偷猎者）kill healthy elepha nts and cut their facesopen to remove th

44、e tusks. About 27 000 elephants are killed by poachers each year accord ingto Natio nal Geographic. As a result of poachi ngsome Africa n elepha ntsgradually evolved（进化）without tusks,which has allowed them to survive. InMozambique，about 90 perce nt of Africa n elepha nts were killed for their ivory

45、and meat from1975 to 1992 Natio nal Geographic reported Scien tists found that about a third of youn gerfemales-the gen eratio n born after1992-n ever developed tusks.Our moon is shak ing月球正在缩小，可能是因为热胀冷缩You probably know what an earthquake is. But what about a moonq uake? A recentstudy by NASA shows

46、 that the moons producing moonquakes becauseit is hrinking（缩小）.北權星it r文辑Don t panic. As pla netary scie ntisthomas Watters reassured u,this isntanything toworry about The moon maybe shri nking but not by much. Its not going any where. ” SowheXactly is going on? After exam ining thousa nds of high-re

47、soluti on photographs taken by aNASA orbiter （轨道飞行器） , US scientists discovered fault. （断层） on the moons surface thatwere formed by rece nt moveme nt on the moon.Formed out of pieces of rock with a hot core 核），the moon expa nded 膨胀）when it was born. Later as it lost energy， it gradually cooled down

48、and began to shrink. As itshrinks，it produces faults. These faults can be several meters long anddoze ns of meters tall. They are similar to the wrin kles in raisin 葡萄干）. But un like the softskin of the raisin，the moons crust（外壳）is hard and stiff， and thereforecauses moonq uakes whe n it shri nks.Pe

49、ople believed for a long time that the moon had already stopped shri nking billionsof years ago. However， these new findings prove that is not true.These faults are still activeand likely producing moonquakes today as the moon continues to gradually cool and shrink, Watters said.Looking up at the ni

50、ght sky， you might feel a bit differently about the moon now. Afterall it is not a cold dead lump（团）but an active neighbor of Earth that is still cha nging now.Prayers for beloved Paris iconIts not ofte n sunny in Paris,but people still love to walk along the banks ofthe Seine 塞纳河）.They love the vie

51、w of the citys old buildings ， especially NotreDame Cathedral 巴黎圣母院）, with its iconic spire（尖顶）.Unfortun ately, that view has bee n forever cha nged. On April 16, a fire destroyed thespire of the 850-yearold cathedral and two-thirds of the roof.The fire shocked and sadde nedParisia ns. Citize ns gathered around the gia nt church s inging hymn s 圣诗）and pray ing forthe hun dreds of firefighters who fought the flames.The significance of Notre Dame. n