On July 31, 1697, a French lawyer named Jacques Sennacques wrote a message to remind a cousin in the Netherlands to send him a relative’s death certificate. To prevent others from reading the message, the note was carefully folded, or “letter locked.” The technique was used before the invention of envelopes. However, for reasons unknown, the note never reached the recipient and was instead stored in a postmaster’s trunk, where it remained undetected for centuries. Now, a team of international researchers has deciphered (破译) the contents of the over 300-year-old sealed letter — without opening it!
The chain of events leading to this technology began in 2015 when MIT expert Jana Dambrogio got a call from Daniel Starza Smith, a researcher at King’s College London. “He asked me, ‘What would you do if I told you there was a trunk with 600 unopened letters?’”
The trunk had once belonged to 17th-century postmaster Simon de Brienne. Historians believe the post office stored the undelivered letters. That’s because, in the 17th century, it was the recipient, not the sender, who bore the postage cost. When Brienne died in 1707, he donated the trunk of letters to an orphanage. Somehow, the trunk eventually made its way to the postal museum, where it lay until recently.
Since opening the letters would destroy them, Dambrogio and her team decided to develop technology to unseal them virtually. They began by using a high-resolution X-ray scanner to create a detailed three-dimensional image of a sealed letter. While the writing inside showed up very clearly, the numerous layers of folded paper pressed close together caused the words to overlap (重叠).
To solve the issue, the researchers created sophisticated algorithm (算法) capable of deciphering the writing in the cleverly folded letter, crease by crease. The virtual opening allowed the team to read the contents “while preserving letter locking evidence.” The algorithm took almost five years to perfect. Once perfected, they used it to open four locked letters and fully decode(解码) the one from Sennacques.
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Quite a few people could write letters. | B．Envelopes were not invented in 1697. |
| C．Jacques Sennacques was a postmaster. | D．Researchers couldn’t figure out the letter. |
| A．To get paid. | B．To find the senders. |
| C．To save the cost. | D．To scan the letters. |
| A．were badly damaged | B．were all decoded |
| C．remained very fresh | D．were very fragile |
| A．Physically. | B．Chemically. | C．Occasionally. | D．Digitally. |
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【推荐1】The field of robotics is fast-growing. Robots can now perform complicated movements with elegance — back-flipping, practicing park our moves, even “carving” classical sculptures. Then there’s Sophia, a robot whose widespread appeal lies not in big, dramatic actions (her body is often fixed to a rolling base), but rather an unsettling human-like appearance, compounded with the complex ability to express emotions(情感).
“We’re not fully there yet, but Sophia can represent a number of emotional states, and she can also see emotional expressions on a human face as well,” explains David Hanson, the founder of Hanson Robotics. According to Hanson, Sophia now has simulations(仿真) of every major muscle in the human face, allowing her to generate expressions of joy, curiosity, confusion, reflection, sorrow, frustration, among other feelings. Besides deep learning and a pre-programmed set of expressions, Sophia’s face is constructed using the latest developments in material technology, meaning it appears softer, more flexible and therefore, more realistic. The lab also studies the neurobiology and biology of human facial expressions to help inform how mechanical ones can behave.
When Hanson first began sculpting Sophia, he wanted her form to resonate(共鸣) with people from around the world. To that end, he looked to old statues of Nefertiti (queen of Egypt), ancient Chinese paintings, Audrey Hepburn and even his wife as inspiration.
Since her activation in 2016, Sophia has since graced the covers of fashion publications and starred in a recent Moncler campaign. During an event at Shanghai Fashion Weekend, Sophia wore 3-D copper arm cuffs and sculptural garments designed by British artist Sadie Clayton. “The reason I was interested in working with Sophia is because being an artist, it mixes fashion, art and technology. This was the most natural, organic way of me developing my process,” says Clayton.
Besides modeling, she has made appeared on talk shows and spoken at conferences about issues ranging from artificial intelligence to the role of robots. Controversially, she was even granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot to have a nationality. “I don’t know what it is about Sophia, that speaks to people, but I hope that we can develop our AI and robots in a way that makes a deep emotional connection.”
1. What makes Sophia different from previous robots?| A．Carving fine artworks. |
| B．Being able to perform complex movements. |
| C．Generating many human-like facial expressions. |
| D．Reacting more quickly and produce her own thought. |
| A．What emotions can Sophia express vividly. |
| B．Why Sophia produces different emotions. |
| C．How researchers programmed the robotics. |
| D．What is the latest product of Hanson Robotics. |
| A．Sophia has starred in a recent movie. |
| B．Sophia launched many campaigns with Clayton. |
| C．Sophia is a mixture of fashion and entertainment. |
| D．Sophia is designed to have universal appeal to people. |
| A．Holding her own nationality. |
| B．Modeling for the fashion show. |
| C．Communicating with human beings. |
| D．Making a speech at significant conferences. |
【推荐2】It is a self-evident fact that music study boosts your artistic ability, but have you thought of that your academic performance is actually hugely benefited? Music study has been linked to academic achievements in many studies and serious music training is reported to be associated with success in many other fields. I hope you would not be too surprised to hear that many outstanding professionals in industries from tech to finance to media are found to be amateur musicians and playing music as their regular past-times.
The phenomenon extends beyond the widely-known math-music association. Strikingly, many high achievers told me music opened up the pathways to creative thinking. And their experiences suggest that music training sharpens other qualities: Collection-the ability to listen, a way of thinking that joins together separate ideas, and the power to focus on the present and the future at the same time.
It is in this context that the connection between math and music grabs the most attention. Both are at heart modes of expression. Bruce Kovner, the founder of the hedge fund (对冲基金) Caxton Associates, says he sees similarities between his piano playing and investing strategy; as he says, both “relate to pattern cognition, and some people extend these patterns across different senses”.
For Roger McNamee, whose Elevation Partners is perhaps best known for its early investment in Facebook, “music and technology have met and befriended,” he says. He became expert on Facebook by using it to promote his band, Moonalice, and now is focusing on video by live-streaming its concerts. He says musicians and top professionals share “the almost desperate need to dive deep”. This capacity of getting into something in a real way seems to unite top performers in music and other fields.
“I’ve always believed the reason I’ve gotten ahead is by outworking other people,” he says. It’s a skill learned by “playing that solo one more time, working on that one little section one more time,” and it translates into “working on something over and over again, or double-checking or triple-checking.” He adds, “there is nothing like music to teach you that eventually if you work hard enough, it does get better. You see the results.” That’s an observation worth remembering at a time when music as a serious pursuit is in decline in this country.
1. Based on the passage, music training can enhance all of the following abilities EXCEPT| A．handling the present with a long-range vision | B．thinking from other people’s perspective |
| C．listening to different opinions patiently | D．identifying connection between different ideas |
| A．Hedge fund. | B．Patterns. | C．Different senses. | D．Mathematics. |
| A．Musical techniques are directly used in managing business. |
| B．Advanced technology makes sound better than before. |
| C．Facebook has become a platform for promoting music albums. |
| D．Technology has increased the channels by which music is promoted. |
| A．The claim that music is the key to success. |
| B．The belief that results determine the value of music. |
| C．The idea that hard work keeps getting you ahead. |
| D．The proposal that one should pursue music seriously. |
【推荐3】Three Formats of Books
Printed books are mostly produced in three fundamental formats: Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and Mass Market Paperback.
A hardcover (also known as hardback or hardbound) is a type of book that is bound with hard and rigid protective covers and the pages are often strongly held together with stiches or staples (缝线或订书钉). They are the most expensive of the three formats.
A trade paperback (more commonly known as paperback) is a type of book characterized by a thick paper or paperboard cover. Their pages are often held with glue rather than stitches or staples. Trade paperbacks are cheaper than hardcovers but costlier than mass market paperbacks.
Mass market paperbacks are basically small sized books printed on a lower quality paper with an inexpensive binding. They are cheaper to produce and mostly sold in nontraditional bookselling locations such as drugstores, supermarkets, railway stations, and airports, as well as in traditional bookstores.
Mass market paperbacks are produced to target a bigger market. Due to their low production cost they can be made available to a large mass of people at cheaper and affordable rates. Mass market paperback books are smaller in size (usually about 4 inches wide and 7 inches tall) and their font (字体) size is also comparatively smaller. Besides, mass market paperbacks mostly do not have any illustrations (pictures, diagrams, and other decorative features) that may be present in the hardcover or the paperback formats of that same book.
Another very important feature of mass market paperbacks is that they are mostly strippable books. “Strippable” simply means that a book’s cover can be torn off (or stripped of) by the book retailers or distributor, and then sent back to the book publisher for a refund (退款；返还款). So, when the booksellers notice that some mass market paperback books have been in stock for a while and are not selling well, they can simply strip off the covers of those books and return them to the publishers for refund. The part of the book left after the cover is sipped off is illegal to sell and has to be recycled.
1. What’s special for hardcover books compared with the other two?| A．They’re not easily broken. |
| B．Their covers can be stripped off. |
| C．They have the largest number of consumers. |
| D．They are of excellent quality and bargain price. |
| A．Hardcover. | B．Trade paperback. |
| C．Mass market paperback. | D．Hardbound. |
| A．They have various decorative features. |
| B．Those without covers can be sold cheaply. |
| C．Brochures belong to mass market paperback books. |
| D．They can be returned to the publishers if not damaged. |
| A．By offering figures. | B．By telling a story. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By making a comparison. |
【推荐1】Fossils are well preserved remains, impressions, or traces (痕迹) of animals and plants that lived long ago. Paleontologists (古生物学家) divide fossils into two main groups. Some fossils, called body fossils, show the structure of the plant or the animal. They form directly from the remains of plants and animals. Other fossils, called trace fossils. They record signs of animal or plant activities, such as walking, feeding, scratching, or even resting.
Most animals and plants don’t become fossils after they die. They break down into little bits or may be eaten by other animals. But some remains get buried too fast, avoiding those things happening. An animal might die near a body of water and sink to the bottom, where its remains get covered in sediment (沉积物). As sediment builds up, mineral-rich water seeps into the remains, leaving minerals in the tiny spaces of the bones and even replacing the original bones. The new minerals react with those in the animal’s remains and then harden into fossils.
Most fossils are buried deep in the Earth. As the Earth’s surface changes, scientists can dig up new fossils and learn more about past life and the Earth’s history. In rock that formed before a certain time, roughly 2.8 million years ago, scientists will not find human fossils.
Fossils are our keys to understanding prehistoric life and the Earth’s history. By studying fossils, we learn about a great variety of plants and animals that lived in the past. We can know what they looked like, how and where they moved and what they ate. By comparing fossils from different time periods, we can track the evolution of a species, see how it adapted to changes in its environment, and understand more about the climate and environment where the fossils were buried.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?| A．Fossils are remains of plants and animals. |
| B．Trace fossils only tell us the activities of animals. |
| C．Trace fossils form directly from the remains of creatures. |
| D．Body fossils show almost the original structure of creatures. |
| A．Where we can find fossils. | B．How animals and plants become fossils. |
| C．Different fossils have different features. | D．Which methods are used to study fossils. |
| A．Engages in. | B．Succeeds in. | C．Delights in. | D．Sinks in. |
| A．Ridiculous. | B．Complex. | C．Significant. | D．Inspiring. |
【推荐2】A small group of paleontologists (古生物学家) recently discovered 10 species of ancient mammals previously unknown to science with the help of an enormous number of helpers at their dig site: ants.
The study of ancient mammals sheds new light on the diversity of mammals that existed in North America around 33 million to 35 million years ago, when the climate was changing drastically. It also pays attention to the harvester ants, with which re-searchers have long had a love-hate relationship. “The ants are not fantastic when they’re biting you,” said Samantha Hopkins, a professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oregon. “But I’ve got to appreciate them because they make my job a whole lot easier.”
Most species of harvester ants live in caves that sit beneath a small hill of dirt. They strengthen the dirt by cowering it with bits of rock and other tough materials. The ants have been known to travel over a hundred feet from their caves and to dig six feet deep in pursuit of materials that help secure their caves. The materials include fossils. Harvester ants can carry materials 10 times to 50 times the weight of their body, although they do not weigh very much, so the heaviest fossil they can collect weighs less than the average pill.
Given the size, harvester ant hills are hot spots for what scientists call fossils, which are animal fossils too small to see with-out a microscope. For over a century, scientists like Dr. Hopkins have found sediment (沉积物) off the sides of harvester ant hills in search of these fossils, making it easier to find large numbers of fossilized mammal teeth without spending hours in the field sifting through sand and dirt.
1. What is the purpose of the passage?| A．To compare two different species. |
| B．To provide evidence for discoveries. |
| C．To introduce a kind of ant as a helper. |
| D．To promote awareness of mammal protection. |
| A．Climate change. | B．Ant numbers. |
| C．Cave materials. | D．Dirt locations. |
| A．beside. | B．besides. | C．upper. | D．below. |
| A．Their caves are miles deep. |
| B．Materials with fossils are their food. |
| C．They can carry pills around. |
| D．Fossils may be found around their hills. |
【推荐3】Scientists have discovered a bit of hand-made string (线绳) that’s around 50,000 years old in Neanderthal remains. The first Neanderthal remains were found in the Neander Valley in Germany, which is where the name comes from. Neanderthals may have lived mainly in caves and made stone tools, but recent discoveries have given hints that Neanderthals developed some advanced skills that people used to think impossible. For example, Neanderthals knew how to make glue from the bark (树皮) of a tree.
Now, scientists report they’ve found a piece of string on a stone tool made by Neanderthals. Before this, the oldest known piece of string was one made by humans about 19,000 years ago. The string is about a quarter of an inch long. Almost all things made from plants during that time have broken down and disappeared, so it’s very special to find this bit of string.
The scientists don’t know whether the string was attached to the tool. But that doesn’t interest them as much as the fact that Neanderthals knew how to make string. Bruce Hardy, the lead scientist on the project, says that knowing how to make string was meaningful for humans. “We wouldn’t really be here today without that technology,” he says.
Making string is a very arduous process. This string was made from the inside bark of an evergreen tree. To make string that is strong enough, the string must be made of several smaller fibers twisted (缠绕) together in a special way. For the Neanderthal string, several fibers needed to be twisted together into something like yarn. Then three pieces of yam needed to be twisted together in the opposite direction to make the final string.
The scientists Aren’t sure what the string was used for, but they say that string like. the bit that was found could be used to make bags, baskets, traps, or other things. The researchers also suggest that because Neanderthals needed to make pairs and count fibers to make the string, the bit of string may also tell us something about the kinds of math that Neanderthals could do.
1. What can we know about Neanderthals?| A．They were named after a nation. |
| B．They didn’t know how to make tools. |
| C．They were not as smart as scientists thought. |
| D．They may master more skills than people realized. |
| A．It is surprisingly long. |
| B．It was made from wood. |
| C．It survives a long history. |
| D．It was attached to a stone tool. |
| A．Neanderthals strengthened stone tools with the string. |
| B．The scientists think the string is part of the stone tool. |
| C．The string-making skill is of great importance to humans. |
| D．Neanderthals had great difficulty in inventing the string. |
| A．Difficult. | B．Normal. |
| C．Creative. | D．Boring. |
