【推荐1】Imagine that one day you live in a highly immersive (身临其境) virtual world. You can go to a virtual concert, take a trip online, view or create artworks and try on or buy digital clothing. Amid a pandemic like COVID-19, instead of seeing teachers and classmates on a video call screen, you could join them in a virtual classroom. This may help you understand the concept, metaverse.

The term metaverse refers to a shared virtual 3D world in which people can access via the Internet. Currently, most virtual spaces look more like the inside of a video game than real life. However, metaverse’s made the digital spaces more realistic by the use of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR, 增强现实).

Metaverse was first used in Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash in 1992. The novel is about Hiro, a pizza delivery man by day and a VR superhero by night who lives in an online universe called The Metaverse. “He is in a computer-generated universe that his computer is drawing onto his glasses and pulling into his earphones,” the novel says of the city that everyone pops into in VR. The idea rings in many other works, for example, in Ready Player One directed by Steven Spielberg.

In recent years, metaverse has become the latest popular word to capture the tech industry’s imagination so much that one of the best-known Internet platforms is renamed to embrace the futuristic idea-Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he changed his company’s name to Meta.

Tech companies are also dedicated to exploring metaverse-related products. Facebook has launched meeting software for companies, called Horizon Workrooms, to use with VR headsets. The headsets cost $300 or more, putting the metaverse’s most cutting-edge (尖端的) experiences out of reach for many. For users who can afford it, they can enter the virtual worlds created by different companies. Fans of metaverse see it as the next stage in the development of the Internet.

So, do you expect the coming of metaverse?

1. What can be inferred about metaverse?

A．It is a video game like real life.

B．It is a parallel universe imagined by scientists.

C．It gives us a real life in a virtual world.

D．It can protect yourself from a pandemic.

2. Why did Facebook CEO use Meta as his company’s name?

A．Metaverse has become more popular.

B．He lives in a virtual world every day.

C．Facebook is the best-known Internet platform.

D．He has accepted the idea of metaverse.

【推荐2】It’s often said that the rise of social media has revolutionized (彻底改变) communication. With smartphones and social networking apps, we can write to our family and friends whenever we like. But while social media has brought us convenience, it also has its problems, such as misunderstandings in communication.

Quite often, people misunderstand what’s written on social media. According to a story published on The Conversation on March 8, sarcasm (讽刺), in particular, can be very difficult to notice in a written message.

Sarcasm is a kind of irony (反语): It’s when we say something, but really mean the opposite. For example, a message from a friend the day before a math exam that says “I’m so looking forward to tomorrow!” is obviously sarcasm.

Sarcasm before the rise of social media and mobile phones was mostly used in speech and face to face. That made sarcasm easier, because you could accompany your words with a facial gesture and a tone (语气) of voice that would help others get your message. You had a good chance of being understood and receiving a laugh or an understanding glance.

And yet when we text or write something online, a lot of that information goes missing. “There are no facial hints, no tones or maybe even a delayed response if a person can’t text you back immediately,” wrote The Conversation. “And if you don’t know the person all that well, there goes your last possible hint: history.”

To help avoid misunderstandings, people who use platforms such as Twitter often include the hashtag ﹟sarcasm – although this is like having to explain a joke when people don’t laugh at it, which destroys the point of sarcasm in the first place.

And it isn’t only sarcasm that can get lost in electronic communications. It’s also hard to notice things such as indifference (冷漠).

“One of the problems with digital communication, when it relies purely on text, is that this sucks (抽离) the empathy (情感共鸣) out of the communication. So it can lead to miscommunication,” linguist Vyv Evans, author of The Emoji Code, told USA Today. “This is where emojis come into their own. They put the body language back, so people can better read emotional intent (目的).”

However, even though there are hundreds of different emojis(表情符号) to choose from, there’s still no replacement for good old-fashioned face-to-face communication.

1. What does the underlined sentence in the third paragraph mean according to the context?

A．They can’t wait to take the exam.

B．They are well-prepared for the exam.

C．They’re not looking forward to taking the exam at all.

D．The exam might be too difficult for them.

2. What might lead to the words we write online being misunderstood, according to the Conversation?

A．The use of new internet words and phrases.

B．The complicated relationship between people.

C．The absence of facial expressions and tones.

D．Responding to other people too quickly.

3. What does Vyv Evans think is a possible way to avoid miscommunication online?

A．Using emojis, as they can display body language.

B．Expressing fewer personal feelings.

C．Sending voice messages instead of text messages.

D．Using a hashtag before making jokes.

4. What is the article mainly about?

A．The convenience of online communication.

B．Some misunderstandings that come with digital communication.

C．A good replacement for face-to-face communication.

D．Some reasons for the popularity of emojis.

【推荐3】The recent world chess championship saw Magnus Carlsen defend his title against Fabiano Caruana. But it was not a contest between the two strongest chess players on the planet, only the strongest humans. Soon after Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, lost his re-match against IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997, the short window of human-machine chess competition was shut forever. Unlike humans, machines keep getting faster, and today a smartphone chess app can be stronger than Deep Blue.

In the late 19th century, Alfred Binet hoped that understanding why certain people stood out at chess would unlock secrets of human thought. Sixty years later, Alan Turing wondered whether this sort of ability represents an essential difference between the potentialities of the machine and the mind. Much as airplanes don’t flap their wings like birds, machines don’t generate chess moves like humans do. Early programs that attempted it were weak.

But now things are different. Based on a common game-playing algorithm(算法), AlphaZero incorporates deep learning and other AI techniques to play against itself to generate its own chess knowledge.   AlphaZerostarts   out   knowing   only   the   rules   of   chess,   with   no   inserted   human strategies(策略). In just a few hours, it plays more games against itself than have been recorded in human chess history. It teaches itself the best way to play, reevaluating such fundamental concepts as the relative values of the pieces.It quickly becomes strong enough to defeat the best chess-players in the world, winning 28, drawing 72, and losing none in a victory over Stockfish, one of the strongest chess engines.

The conventional wisdom is that machines would approach perfection with endlessstrategies, usually leading to drawn games. But AlphaZero prefers positions that look risky and aggressive, and it programs itself, which allows it to outclass the world’s top traditional program despite calculating far fewer positions per second. It’s the example of the cliché, “work smarter, not harder.”

AlphaZero shows us that machines can be the experts, not merely expert tools. It’s not going to put chess coaches out of business just yet. But the knowledge it generates is information we can all learn from. AlphaZero is surpassing us in a profound and useful way.

Machine learning systems aren’t perfect, even at a closed system like chess. There will be cases where an AI will fail to detect exceptions to their rules. Therefore, we must work together, to combine our strengths. Instead of being angry against them, it’s better if we’re all on the same side.

1. According to the passage, Alan Turing might agree that     .

A．airplanes can be as good as birds.

B．the unlocked secrets of human thought are powerful.

C．machines are better than human in generating chess moves.

D．the potentialities of the human mind are better than that of the machine.

2. How is AlphaZero different from other machines?

A．AlphaZero have AI techniques.

B．AlphaZero can defeat the best chess players.

C．AlphaZero can play more games more quickly.

D．AlphaZero can generate its own chess knowledge.

3. What does the underlined word “outclass” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Become

B．Beat

C．Leave

D．Distinguish

4. The author argues in the last two paragraphs that        .

A．machine learning in chess is perfect.

B．human chess coaches are not needed yet.

C．AI will be learning to challenge their rules.

D．humans and AI can work together to advance.

【推荐1】Every year migratory（迁徙的） bats travel from Mexico to Bracken Cave, where they spend the summer consuming insects that would otherwise hungrily eat common food crops. But the bats have been showing up far earlier than they did two decades ago.

In a study, scientists at Rothamsted Research, used radar data from 160 U.S. weather stations to analyze activity in the Texas bat colony from 1995 through 2017. They discovered the creatures were leaving their winter quarters in Mexico earlier and reproducing sooner. They were also astonished to find increasing numbers of bats overwintering（过冬）at Bracken Cave instead of heading back to their cold weather quarters in Mexico. Overwintering is a sign that warmer temperatures change the bats' annual rhythms, Rothamsted biologist Phillip Stepanian says.

A separate study of migratory bats in Indiana, published last year, found that temperature variations affected arrival and departure times-likewise hinting at the potential influence of climate change. Joy O'Keefe, a biology professor and co-author of that study, says early arrival at their summer habitats could expose these bats to cold snaps（寒流）, and they could freeze to death.

Joy O’Keefe and her colleagues also found that changing bat migration times can also clash with rainfall patterns. Many insects that bats eat breed in seasonal lakes and puddles. If the bats arrive too early to benefit from summer rainfall and the resulting abundance of insects, they may struggle to feed their pups（幼崽） or skip reproduction altogether, O’Keefe says. She fears this shift could cause Midwestern bats to decrease toward extinction, which would be bad news for humans. “Declines in bat populations could have severe effects for crop success,” she says, adding that bats also “control significant disease vectors, such as mosquitoes.”

However, scientists are not certain that climate change alone is causing the Bracken Cave bat colony to migrate earlier. They have found a direct link between seasonal temperatures and bird migration, but bats are also influenced by factors such as changes in wind speed and direction. And there are other complications. “Bats are mysterious little animals that move mostly at night and are difficult to observe and track ,”   Stepanian says. “We have this conceptual picture of what might be happening, but really tying it to the cause is the next step.”

1. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Bats’ habitants	B．Endangered bats
C．Bats’ migration	D．Bats, our good friends

2. Scientists at Rothamsted Research found that ______.

A．bats prefer heading back to Mexico	B．bats delay their reproduction
C．warming affects bat migration	D．radar can be used to observe bats

3. Joy O’Keefe discovered that ______.

A．bats are used to living in rainfall seasons

B．bats’ earlier migration might harm farming

C．insects' reproduction helps to spread disease

D．insects shortage makes bats reproduce earlier

4. What does the underlined word they refer to?

A．Insects.	B．migration times.
C．Bats.	D．lakes and puddles.

5. What does the last paragraph want to tell us?

A．Wind speed and direction affect bats.

B．It is difficult to observe and track bats.

C．Climate change makes bats migrate earlier.

D．Further research on the cause is necessary.

【推荐2】Villa d’Este, Tivoli (Italy) --- Official Site Useful Information

Call Center 199766166

Number to dial from all of Italy for pre-sales and reservations for: tickets, guided tours, school groups, instructional visits.

Bookings from abroad:

email: villadestetivoli@teleart.org fax: 0039 0412770747

Visiting Hours:

Opening 8.30 – closed one hour before sunset.

The ticket office closes one hour before the closing of the monument.

The hydraulic organ of the Organ Fountain is active daily, from 10.30 am, every two hours.

The Fontana della Civetta functions daily, from 10.00 am, every two hours.

Ticket Prices:

(from May 17 to October 20, 2015)

Full ticket (exhibition + villa and gardens, not divisible): €11.

Reduced ticket: €7.

These prices will be valid during the daytime openings of the Villa until the closure of the exhibition, due on the 20^th of October, 2015 (From the 22^nd of October, 2015)

Full ticket: €8 Reduced ticket €4

These fares may vary in conjunction with exhibitions set inside the Villa. The right to purchase reduced price tickets belongs to all citizens of the European Union between the ages of 18 and 24 as well as permanent teachers of state schools (upon presentation of identity documents).

School Visits:

Reservations are required. The management of Villa d’Este, in the aim of preserving the monument and better distributing the flow of students, has limited the number of students allowed into the Villa to 100 students per hour. Should any school group arrive at the Villa without having made a reservation, it will be admitted to the Villa according to space availability at a particular time and asked to wait until such space becomes available. Right of reservation cost: €1,00.

Notices:

Certain areas of the villa may be closed for restoration: for information inquire at the ticket office. Please pay particular attention to the areas marked with signs indicating danger (in Italian: pericolo).

1. How can a visiting Chinese professor of architecture in Rome make a booking?

A．By dialing 199766166.

B．By writing an email to villadestetivili@teleart.org.

C．By calling 0039 04127 19036.

D．By sending a fax to 0039 0412 770747

2. The receptionist at the ticket office may recommend you to see ______first, if you arrive at 10.25 am.

A．the exhibition inside the villa	B．the Organ Fountain
C．the gardens	D．the Fontana della Civetta

3. Why are reservations essential for school visits?

A．Reservations are more economical.

B．Reservations enable as many students as possible to visit the monument.

C．Reservations ensure a pleasant visit for students and a manageable one of the Villa.

D．Reservation fees can help preserve the site.

【推荐3】Just how much does the Constitution （宪法）protect your digital data? The Supreme Court will now consider whether police can search the contents of a mobile phone without a warrant （(授权令) if the phone is on or around a person during an arrest.

California has asked the justices to restore the practice that the police may search through the contents of suspects' smartphones at the time of their arrest. It is hard, the state says, for judges to assess the implications of new and rapidly changing technologies .

The justices would be careless if they followed California's advice. They should start by rejecting California's weak argument that exploring the contents of a smart phone is similar to say, going through a suspect's wallet. The court has ruled that police don't offend against the Fourth Amendment（修正案） when they go through the wallet, of an arrestee without a warrant. In fact, exploring one's smartphone is more like entering his or her home. A smartphone may contain an arrestee's reading history, financial history, medical history and comprehensive records of recent correspondence.

Americans should take steps to protect their own digital privacy and should avoid putting important information in smartphones. But keeping sensitive information on these devices is increasingly a requirement of normal life. Citizens still have a right to expect private documents to remain private and protected by the Constitution's prohibition on unreasonable searches.

In many cases, it would not be very difficult for authorities to obtain a warrant to search through phone contents. They could still trump （打出王牌）the Fourth Amendment protections when facing severe and dangerous circumstances, such as the threat of immediate harm, and they could take reasonable measures to ensure that phone data are not deleted or altered while a warrant is on the way. The justices, though, may want to allow room for police to cite situations where they are entitled to more flexibility.

But the justices should not swallow California's argument whole. New technology sometimes demands fresh applications of the Constitution's protections. Orin Kerr, a law professor, compares the explosion and accessibility of digital information in the 21st century with the establishment of automobile use as a digital necessity of life in the 20th. At that time, the justices had to explain new rules for the new personal domain （领域）of cars. Similarly, the justices must sort out how the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution applies to digital information now.

1. The author's attitude toward California's argument is one of ________

A．disapproval.	B．tolerance.
C．indifference.	D．cautiousness.

2. The author believes that exploring one's phone content is comparable to

A．scanning one's correspondences.	B．handing one's historical records.
C．getting into one's residence.	D．going through one's wallet.

3. In paragraph 4 and 5, the author shows his concern that

A．citizens' privacy is not effectively protected.

B．principles are hard to be clearly expressed.

C．phones are used to store sensitive information.

D．the court is giving police less room for action.

4. Orin Kerr's comparison is quoted to indicate that

A．the Constitution should be implemented flexibly.

B．Principles of the Constitution should never be changed.

C．California's argument violates principles of the Constitution.

D．New technology requires reinterpretation of the Constitution

【推荐1】Many people believe that there is one form of their language that is more correct than others.They may believe for example that British English is more correct than other varieties; or that written English is more correct than spoken English; or that standard spoken forms are more correct than dialect forms. Often this belief is supported by reference books to grammars, usage guides or dictionaries: if something goes against a rule in a grammar, or if the word isn’t in the dictionary, it “must be wrong”. Since the reference books are most often based on observation of the standard written language (and not by a grammar book in the sky) , the argument is really circular: these books will naturally describe standard usage, because that is what they are for; but this does not mean that there is anything wrong with other kinds of usage that are less often described.

A better way of looking at things is to say that usage is “correct in its place”. Standard American English is correct in America, British English is correct in Britain, spoken grammar is accepted in casual speech, and formal written grammar is employed in formal writing. The only forms that are wrong in all contexts(语境) are learners’ errors. For example: I have forgetting the your address, or One of your chairs are broken. This means there is no answer to the question: “What kind of English should learners study?” It depends on their purposes. For many learners, the best model is one or other of the two main standard varieties : British or American English. Neither of these is “better” than the other, and they are both used and understood worldwide.

People are also worried by language change. If younger people “break” the rules that older people have learnt, or use language in new ways, older people often feel disturbed: they are concerned that younger people no longer know their grammar, and that the language is going downhill. This is a needless worry: change is natural and inevitable, it cannot be stopped, and it does not generally affect a language’s efficiency as a communicative tool. A great deal of modem English grammar would have been wrong three hundred years ago, and will perhaps be wrong again three hundred years from now.

1. Why does the author think “the argument is really circular” (Pa.1) ?

A．Learners are always confused by the reference books.

B．Usages not mentioned in the reference books are not necessarily wrong.

C．Nobody can challenge the authority of the reference books.

D．Some wrong usages can be found in the reference books.

2. What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?

A．There is no “standard English”.

B．American English is better than British English.

C．A learner should master all the distinctions of different English.

D．The differences between British English and American English.

3. The underlined word (Pa.3) can be most probably replaced with________ .

A．unbelievable	B．uncountable
C．unacceptable	D．unavoidable

4. What is the author’s attitude towards the changes of English?

A．Disturbed.	B．Cautious.
C．Optimistic.	D．Aggressive.

【推荐2】Since App Store was set up, it has been selling consumers one simple thing — choice. Whether you wanted to play games, read the news, or do a thousand other things, there was something for whatever you desired.

Then something funny happened. Logging into the App Store today is like going into a shopping mall with only a coupon (优惠券) for one thing: There's so much choice; it might be easier to give up than to choose.

It isn't consumers who are burdened, though. Too much content of all kinds also has economic effects. When countless choices are available, it causes pressure, pushing prices down and driving us a bit crazy.

So what is the way forward? It may well be to turn less choice itself to the marketing strategy. There are already signs that this is happening. Firstly content companies are looking to prevent their offerings from getting lost in the tons of stuff. Most obvious is Disney, which is planning to open its own streaming service next year. The point is to narrow the focus so that those seeking Disney cartoons will have one place to go, rather than being around various services.

Yet if that represents a careful first step, there are more extreme options too. Consider the idea of a wine club: from tens of thousands of bottles each year, subscribers (用户) pay someone to select the most interesting ones. Perhaps what comes next for digital content is similar — carefully selected offerings from trusted sources that put choices in the hands of someone else in order to get rid of the anxiety of choosing.

Up to now, too much choice in digital media has only one solution: the algorithm (运算法则). But we've seen the trouble with algorithms on You Tube. They feed you only what you've already said you like, not things you may not know you're into. Worse, they have a tendency to serve up disturbing content. The way forward can't simply be more or better algorithms.

Instead, it's time for digital companies to start thinking about how to put limits on things: on how much we can use a device, or what we are available to choose from.

As we move further into the digital revolution, what people ask for is clear: Less.

1. What will too much choice of content on the market result in?

A．The shutdown of companies.	B．Anxiety of consumers.
C．Poor quality of products.	D．Negative influence on economy.

2. Why is Disney planning to open its own streaming service?

A．To improve its marketing strategy.

B．To help people focus on less choice.

C．To encourage more people to visit Disney.

D．To provide consumers with various services

3. In what way may a wine club and digital content in the near future be similar?

A．Someone else will be employed to make a choice for consumers.

B．Both of them will offer only a few options.

C．Consumers will refuse to choose from too many options.

D．Both of them will make a change about their products.

4. What do we know about the algorithm?

A．It manages to offer what consumers will possibly like.

B．It helps to remove disturbing content from digital media.

C．it offers consumers things based on what they've said they like.

D．It'll solve the problem of having too much choice.

【推荐3】Body language varies significantly across cultures. But what remains consistent across all known cultures are microexpressions. Microexpressions occur in everyone in a second, often without their knowledge. These facial expressions including surprise, anger, fear, disgust, happiness, and so on can reveal our true feelings about another person or situation.

People might try to hide or obscure （模糊）them in different ways informed by culture, but to a practiced reader the true emotions are always visible. In the Philippines, showing both positive and negative emotion is a sign of openness and honesty. But visible negative emotion is seen as rude or aggressive while expressing too much positive feeling is considered embarrassing in Japan. However, when we evaluate people from both countries for their microexpressions, we find that they actually experience emotions at more or less the same level of frequency.

A few years ago, my husband and I traveled to Qatar to lead a body language discussion for 200 HR （人 力资源）leaders. Women's bodies were completely covered, so we couldn't see the posture or gestures. When standing on stage, all the men looked only at my husband and all the women merely at me. Luckily, we knew from the videos we'd previously made of Qataris that the flashes of emotion in their faces reflected the same feelings we might find from audience members anywhere else in the world. And so we could adjust what we want to show accordingly, and felt just as comfortable as we would have at home.

To recognize and understand miroexpressions, you should first study the common microexpressions to know the typical feature of each. And then educate yourself on the local body language 一 including masking techniques before visiting or interacting with another culture. Third, when you're in the moment, pay much more attention. You can't interpret microexpressions if you don't notice them. Fourth, listen to your intuition （直觉）.When you notice a tiny facial movement, ask yourself, "What could that mean?” Besides, you might also try to imitate the movement.

1. What is special about microexpressions?

A．They are brief and unaware.	B．They are hidden and unusual.
C．They are natural but unnecessary.	D．They are flexible but unavailable.

2. What is most useful for the body language discussion according to the author?

A．Getting well prepared.	B．Being well organized.
C．Reacting with others actively.	D．Using body language accordingly.

3. Which stage will you be in if you keep your focus on others^，face?

A．Step One.	B．Step Two.
C．Step Three.	D．Step Four.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Developing Greater Social Skills

B．Getting Better at Reading People

C．Behaving More Differently in Public

D．Learning More about Microexpressions