【推荐3】AI could help us deconstruct the magic of music

We all know that music is a powerful influencer.     1     Fitness without a warm-blooded song would be boring. But is there a way to quantify these reactions? And if so, could they be reverse-engineered and put to use?

In a new paper, researchers at the University of Southern California mapped out how things like tone, rhythm, and harmony cause different types of brain activity, physiological reactions (heat, sweat, and changes in electrical response), and emotions(happiness or sadness), and how machine learning could use those relationships to predict how people might respond to a new piece of music. The results, presented at a conference on the intersections of computer science and art, show how we may one day be able to engineer targeted musical experiences for purposes ranging from therapy to movies.

    2     “Once we understand how media can affect our various emotions, then we can try to productively use it for actually supporting or enhancing human experiences,” says Shrikanth Narayanan, a professor at USC and the principal investigator in the lab.

The researchers first searched music streaming sites for songs with very few plays, tagged either “happy” or “sad.”     3     Two reliably caused sadness and one reliably caused happiness. One hundred participants who hadn’t heard the songs before split into two groups, listened to all three pieces, and either took a special scan or wore pulse, heat, and electricity sensors on their skin and rated the intensity of their emotions on a scale of 0 to 10. The researchers then fed the data, along with 74 features for each song, into several machine-learning mathematical steps and examined which features were the strongest predictors of responses. They found, for example, that the brightness of a song (the level of its medium and high frequencies) and the strength of its beat were both among the best predictors of how a song would affect a listener’s heart rate and brain activity.

The research is still in very early stages, and it will be a while before more powerful machine-learning models will be able to predict your mental and physical reactions to a song with any precision. But the researchers are excited about how such models could be applied: to design music for specific individuals, to create movie soundtracks easily arousing sympathy, or to help patients with mental health problems stimulate specific parts of their brain.     4     They want to start trying music-based therapies as well.

A．The research focuses on whether machine can learn to predict people’s preference of music.

B．The lab is already working with addiction treatment clinics to see how other forms of media could help patients.

C．A movie without a soundtrack doesn’t stimulate the same emotional journey.

D．Through a series of human testers, 60 pieces for each emotion were narrowed down to a final list of three.

E．The research is part of the lab’s broader goal to understand how different forms of media affect people’s bodies and brains.

F．The researchers are excited about how AI could be used to enhance the function of music in more fields.

【推荐1】Six “sacrificial pits(祭祀坑)”, dating back 3,200 to 4,000 yeas, were newly discovered in Sanxingdui Ruins site in Guanghan. Over 500 artifacts, including gold masks, bronze wares, ivories, jades and textiles were unearthed from the site. Sanxingdui site is located in Sanxingdui Town, Guanghan City, Sichuan Province, on the south bank of Qianjiang River (Yangtze River), a tributary of Tuojiang River in the north of Chengdu Plain. The site covers an area of about 12 square kilometers, and the core area is the ancient city of Sanxingdui, with an area of about 3.6 square kilometers. It is the largest and highest-grade central site found in Sichuan Basin during the Xia and Shang period.

Sanxingdui site, first found in 1929, is generally considered as one of the most important archaeological sites along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. However, the work of excavation on the site only began in 1986, when two pits — widely believed for sacrificial ceremonies — were accidentally discovered.

Investigation in the area around No.1 and 2 pits was relaunched in October 2019, and No.3 pit was found in December 2019, according to Lei Yu, a researcher of Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute who heads the ongoing excavation. Thirty four research universities and research institutes have cooperated in this project. He said the new discoveries will help to better understand many unexplained findings in 1986.

More excavation followed in March 2020, and five more pits were found last year. And detailed research began in October. Excavation capsules with hi-tech equipment were set up in the pits in order to prevent the site from further damage.

According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration, studies of Sanxingdui site will become a crucial project in an ongoing program Archaeology China, which tries to explain the origins of Chinese civilization and how diverse cultures communicate and come together.

1. What does the underlined word “excavation” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Check.

B．Dig.

C．Protection.

D．Extension.

2. How did archaeologists protect the Sanxingdui site?

A．By conducting more experiments around the site.

B．By dividing the task of excavation into several parts.

C．By cooperating with research universities and institutes.

D．By using excavation capsule armed with hi-tech equipment.

3. What can we infer about the pits from the text?

A．There are 6 sacrificial pits discovered in Sanxingdui site in all.

B．The size of the core zone is about 1/3 of Sanxingdui site.

C．The discovery of Sanxingdui site only began in 2019.

D．All sacrificial sites were discovered in the meantime.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Sanxingdui site needed protecting.

B．Hi-tech helped to explore Sanxingdui site.

C．Sanxingdui discoveries reveal ancient China.

D．Sacrificial pits were unearthed in Sanxingdui site.

【推荐2】The moon may shine white above us most nights of the year, but how much do we know about Earth’s neighbor and what lies beneath its surface? Scientists are aiming to find out.

On Jan 3, 2019, China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon – a first for humanity. It released a small probe (探测器), Yutu 2, or Jade Rabbit 2, which began to search beneath the moon’s surface using Lunar Penetrating Radar. These radio signals can reach 40 meters underground, three times the depth of the Chang’e 3 lunar probe launched in 2013 for the near side of the moon, China Daily reported.

In a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers found that the lunar soil’s top layer on the far side of the moon was much thicker than expected – about 40 meters. Other scientists only expected about 6 millimeters of soil based on NASA observations during the Apollo moon landings, according to The New York Times.

“It’s a fine, dusty, sandy environment,” said one of the authors of the study, Elena Pettinelli, a physics and mathematics professor at Rome Tre University, Rome.

Yutu 2 is specifically exploring the Von Karman crater (大坑), a large hole that’s 180 kilometers wide and also the landing site of Chang’e 4. It’s part of an even larger, older crater spanning more than 1,770 kilometers.

“The subsurface at the Chang’e 4 landing site is very complex,” said Li Chunlai, a research professor and deputy director-general of National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Observations suggest that the subsurface material is totally different than the previous landing site of Chang’e 3, she said.

Radar waves revealed various layers beneath the moon’s surface: grainy (颗粒状的) material, boulders (岩石), and further layers of fine and coarse (粗糙的) particles. This information is helping scientists to gain new understanding of the moon’s history and formation, as well as volcanic activity and lunar impacts.

Yutu 2 is the longest-working rover (巡视器) on the moon, but it won’t last forever. China plans to launch the Chang’e 5 probe later this year, Xinhua News Agency reported. The spacecraft is expected to bring pieces of the moon back to Earth for closer study.

1. What can we learn about the Chang’e 4 probe?

A．It was the first to land on the moon’s near side.

B．It explored areas as wide as 1,770 kilometers.

C．It is three times as large as the Chang’e 3 lunar probe.

D．Its signals could reach 40 meters beneath the moon’s surface.

2. What does the lunar soil’s top layer on the moon’s far side look like, according to the text?

A．It looks like a large hole.

B．It is about 6 millimeters thick.

C．It goes farther down than expected.

D．It is covered by boulders and fine and coarse particles.

3. What is the Chang’e 5 probe expected to do?

A．Bring lunar samples back to the Earth	B．Explore the Von Karman crater.
C．Replace Yutu 2 to explore the moon.	D．Identify the moon’s various layers.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．A history of Chinese lunar missions.

B．A report on the Chang’e 4 probe’s findings.

C．A comparison of the Chang’e 3 and 4 probes.

D．How Yutu 2 explored beneath the moon’s surface.

【推荐1】When you need comfort, what or who do you go to? For some people it’s a good friend or a familiar place. For me the most comforting thing in the world is music.

You may be thinking you can’t believe in music. This is true but you can believe in the feelings and emotions music gives you.

Every weekday is the same for me. I wake up at 6:00;I work from when I get there to 3:15 on Mondays and Wednesdays and 4:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The only thing that keeps me wise all day is music in any form. On days when either the radio got wet from the hose(水龙带)or got dropped or stolen, I have my iPad with me. In between my destinations in my truck I plug my iPad into the tape cassette adapter and play it. When I’m at school, none of my teachers care if we listen to music as long as we don’t let it become a distraction(分散注意力的事),so I have my iPad there too.

Slow songs usually tend to calm people down. When people listen to sad songs they are usually depressed. Sometimes when sport teams like hockey(曲棍球),football teams are getting ready for a game they will play metal or rock music to get them pumped for the game.

Some people say that loud or angry music is a horrible influence on teenagers today. Yes, it can be a bad influence but only if you let it influence you negatively. Generally I like to keep an open mind about all types of music. The reason for this is that music is the artist’s way of communicating their thoughts or feelings to anyone who will listen and I think they deserve the respect I can give by listening to their music.

1. When the author says he believes in music, he means he believes that ________.

A．music can change the world

B．music can influence one’s mood

C．music can make people comfortable

D．music can make people wise all day

2. The underlined word “pumped” in the fourth paragraph most probably means ________.

A．interested

B．enjoyable

C．courageous

D．clever

3. Which of the following description is right according to the passage?

A．On weekdays the author has the same working hours every day.

B．iPad is actually a kind of radio that can play music.

C．The author has an active attitude towards music.

D．The author’s teachers are not responsible.

4. The last paragraph tells us that ________.

A．we should make full use of the positive influence of music

B．everything has its two sides like a coin

C．music is an ideal tool for communication

D．no matter what music it is we should listen to it

5. Which is the best title for the passage?

A．A God Way to Communicate

B．A Comfortable Home—Music

C．The Advantage of Music

D．The Power of Music

【推荐3】Born in 1823 in Wales, Alfred Russel Wallace was a man of modest means, but he had a passion for nature and he chose to follow it. He started out collecting insects as a hobby, but eventually his longing for adventure led him to explore the world.

Luckily for Wallace, Victorian Britain was discovering an interest in weird and wonderful insects, so the demand from museums and private collections for these beasts was growing. Wallace was able to make a living doing what he loved: collecting beetles and other insects.

But his first trip of exploring the world ended in disaster. Wallace proceeded to the Amazon in South America. Its giant forests promised a wealth of new species, sure to put him on the scientific map. The trip took 6 weeks and involved every mode of transport in existence at the time. After four years Wallace set off for home, but his boat caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic. Everyone survived, but Wallace had to watch in despair as his samples went up in flames — including live animals he was bringing home that were trying to jump free of the flames. But he did not let it stop him.

In 1854, Wallace set off on another adventure, this time to the Malay Archipelago. Wallace found himself humbled by the new and exciting things he saw. He later recalled: “As I lie listening to these interesting sounds, I think how many besides myself have longed to see with their own eyes the many wonderful and beautiful things which I am daily encountering.”

In 1858, Wallace wrote what became known as the “Ternate essay”: a piece of writing that was to change our understanding of life forever. In his essay, Wallace argued that a species would only turn into another species if it was struggling for existence. Henry W. Bates was one of many scientists delighted by the idea of evolution by natural selection. In a letter to Wallace, he wrote: “The idea is like truth itself, so simple and obvious that those who read and understand it will be struck by its simplicity; and yet it is perfectly original.”

1. ________ finally caused Wallace to explore the world.

A．His strong affection for nature	B．His life-long devotion to beasts
C．His deep love for adventure	D．Increasing demand for insects

2. Which of the following is TRUE about Wallace’s first trip?

A．It took him six weeks to explore the Amazon with all kinds of transportation.

B．He made a scientific study of a fairly limited number of insects.

C．The fire cost him his four years’ collection of animals.

D．His passion cooled after the disaster.

3. Wallace felt ________on the Malay Archipelago.

A．fearless

B．lucky

C．challenged

D．risky

4. Wallace’s idea on evolution of natural selection ________.

A．made no sense at that time	B．built up a new concept of life
C．was too simple to be true	D．revealed the origin of nature

【推荐2】Alaska state officials are hosting Walmart executives in the state capital this week in an effort to resolve a months-old argument over Alaskan salmon fisheries’ sustainability qualifications.

The seeds of the quarrel were planted several years ago when several Alaskan fisheries decided to end their relationship with the Marine Stewardship Council—the famous global organization that states and proves the truthfulness of sustainable fishing—to seek out other means assuring customers of their sustainable practices. But last June, Walmart told Alaskan fisheries that it would not be buying salmon sourced from fisheries not certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Now Walmart is caught between two forces–Alaska fisheries and “buy American” enthusiasts who think the company’s first responsibility should be to American industry, and environmentalists who think Walmart should make as strong a commitment to environmentally sustainable industry as possible.

But from a broader perspective, this latest noise is an object lesson in why the concept of corporate (公司的) responsibility has shortcomings to begin with. Walmart—like most successful corporations—is pretty good at offering products their customers want at low prices. When it tries to promote broader public goods, like a clean environment, or lower unemployment for veterans, it’s nowhere near as successful. Here’s a few of Walmart’s more notable corporate-responsibility confusion:

The Buy-American Debacle: Walmart’s first major corporate responsibility push was an effort in the 1980s to promote American-made products. But the campaign ran aground (搁浅) after a NBC investigation revealed that the company was actually selling products manufactured in India as “Made American.”

The Going Green Campaign: Walmart launched on a sustainability campaign aimed at making the retail giants operations much more environmentally friendly. Though Walmart and the media have done much to raise visibility of these efforts, the actual results have been lacking. According to a recent report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR), Walmart’s sustainability campaign is much more focused on making its operations appear green to customers than stopping doing things that would actually help the environment, like reducing emissions.

In reality, these examples simply show that one can’t realistically expect corporations to behave in a way that is opposite to making profits. But that doesn’t mean that the goal of fishing sustainability isn’t achievable. It’s just that the corporate structure isn’t our best means of achieving them—the government is.

1. What is the function of the Marine Stewardship Council?

A．To advocate sustainable fishing practices.

B．To persuade supermarkets to buy its products.

C．To solve disagreements between fisheries and supermarkets.

D．To guarantee the safety of goods supplied by supermarkets.

2. According to the author, Walmart’s corporate responsibility is ________.

A．confusing	B．heavy
C．environmental-friendly	D．unsatisfying

3. From Paragraph 5, we know ________.

A．Walmart’s sustainability campaign worked well

B．Walmart might have profited at the cost of the environment

C．ILSR’s report was part of Walmart’s campaign plan

D．Walmart had no intention to protect the environment at all

4. Who should be mainly responsible for achieving the goals of fishing sustainability?

A．The company structure	B．Walmart
C．The government	D．The Marine Stewardship Council

【推荐3】Blue Planet II’s latest episode (剧集) focuses on how plastic is having a devastating effect on the ocean and slowly poisoning our sea creatures. Researchers recently also found that sea creatures living in the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, have plastic in their stomachs. Indeed, the oceans are drowning in plastics.

Though it seems now that the world couldn’t possibly function without plastics, consumer plastics are a remarkably recent invention. The first plastic bags were introduced in the 1950s, the same decade that plastic packaging began gaining in popularity in the United States. This growth has happened so fast that science is still catching up with the change. Plastics pollution research, for instance, is still a very early science.

We put all these plastics into the environment and we still don’t really know what the outcomes are going to be. What we do know, though, is disturbing. Ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine animals every year. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by it. One in three leatherback turtles, which often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, have been found with plastic in their bellies. Ninety percent of seabirds are now eating plastics on a regular basis. By 2050, that figure is expected to rise to 100 percent.

And it’s not just wildlife that is threatened by the plastics in our seas. Humans are consuming plastics through the seafood we eat. I could understand why some people see ocean plastic as a disaster, worth mentioning in the same breath as climate change. But ocean plastic is not as complicated as climate change. There are no ocean trash deniers (否认者), at least so far. To do something about it, we don’t have to remake our planet energy system.

This is not a problem where we don’t know what the solution is. We know how to pick up garbage. We know how to recycle. We can all start by thinking twice before we use single-use plastic products. Things that may seem ordinary, like using a reusable bottle or a reusable bag — taken collectively, really do make a difference.

1. Why is plastics pollution research still a very early science?

A．The plastics pollution research is too difficult.

B．Plastics have produced less pollution than coal.

C．The world couldn’t possibly function without plastics.

D．Plastics have gained in popularity too fast for science to catch up.

2. The writer gives many numbers in Paragraph 3 to ______.

A．prove the threat of plastic to marine life

B．explain reasons for plastic pollution

C．describe his own experiences and feelings

D．compare the differences between sea creatures

3. What can we infer about climate change?

A．Climate change is caused by human activities.

B．Some people cast some doubts about climate change.

C．Climate change is less important than ocean pollution.

D．Ocean plastic is more complicated than climate change.

4. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Plastic is a global issue arousing wide concern.

B．The oceans have been seriously polluted by plastic.

C．Blue Planet II has left viewers heartbroken.

D．Plastics gain in popularity all over the world.