As an adult, I realized that I had no skills. I wanted to develop one, so I went to trade school. I entered a cabinetmaking（家具制造）program. I didn’t think I would be good at building furniture. I’m not handy. Nobody in my family is.
I had great teachers, but making furniture is hard. There are so many steps and something can go wrong at each one. I couldn’t even get organized. My toolbox always looked like a hurricane had gone through it.
I didn’t fully know what I was devoting myself to at the beginning, but I kept going to class. I tried to wrap my brain around the math. The projects forced me to solve new kinds of problems. My brain started to build new connections. Working in this new physical manner and giving it 100 percent of my effort had huge benefits for my mental health. I get over my fear of embarrassment and asked for help at every opportunity.
I spent that year truly learning. True learning is a humbling（令人谦卑的）experience, especially for those of us who are learning a new set of skills. I could understand exactly what was wrong with the furniture I made, but I couldn’t fix my mistakes. And yet, I kept trying. And failing again. Until I learned to fail better.
You’re going to be bad at anything when you start out, but I was pretty bad right to the end. Even so, I finished the program—with honors, no less! My grades were helped by my good written work. Having to constantly push beyond my comfort zone has made me a more well-rounded person. Maybe most importantly, trade school gave me a more realistic idea of my strengths and limitations. I’m stronger than I thought!
1. Which words can best describe the author during the one-year learning?| A．Hard-working and determined. | B．Intelligent and creative. |
| C．Single-minded and confident. | D．Modest and flexible. |
| A．The author once got tired of difficult lessons. |
| B．The author feared to socialize with strangers. |
| C．The author was skilled in solving math problems. |
| D．The author got a poor grade on hand work. |
| A．Practice makes perfect. | B．Failure teaches success |
| C．Learning is more than a skill. | D．Skills will never be a burden. |
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【推荐1】Video has become an increasingly popular educational tool. As a storytelling medium, video is in many ways superior to text or lecture-based instruction, but it is not without disadvantages. It can be difficult to search or find already seen content for review. And note-taking is especially laborious (费力的).
Hari Subramonyam, a research professor in the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and two workmates, have used computer vision and natural language processing tools to develop VideoSticker a note-taking application specifically for video-based learning.
VideoSticker combines video, transcripts (文本), and a powerful visual and textual note-taking application. Better yet using AI, VideoSticker can automatically identify and trim (修剪) objects out of the video and place them in the note-taking area. VideoSticker then deals with the transcripts using tools like those behind popular voice recognition and chatbots to pull key text into the note-taking area, combining it with the relevant imagery.
It all adds up to a big head start on manual (手工的) note-taking and allows students to focus on the important content to improve comprehension and recall.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the VideoSticker approach, the researchers conducted a test with 10 undergraduate students. Each completed a 75-to-90-minute note-taking session. They then reported their experiences. All participants noted VideoSticker’s flexibility in note-taking. “Trimming the objects and controlling them in the video viewing panel is cool,” notes one participant.
“Overall, I think VideoSticker is a great example of AI making a good combination with the learning context to balance manual note-taking with the experience of learning that is so important to real comprehension”, Subramonyam says. “As video becomes more commonplace in the classroom, as it is sure to in coming years, a tool like this will be very much needed. Going forward, my team plans to partner with educators to evaluate VideoSticker in real-world learning contexts and make the tool commercially available.”
1. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?| A．What VideoSticker is about. |
| B．Where VideoSticker can be applied. |
| C．Why VideoSticker was developed. |
| D．How VideoSticker works. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Doubtful. | C．Disapproving. | D．Favorable. |
| A．Create more learning tools. |
| B．Put VideoSticker on the market. |
| C．Improve real-world learning contexts. |
| D．Allow AI to change manual note-taking. |
| A．Video-based learning gains popularity due to VideoSticker. |
| B．Note-taking applications begin to attract more AI developers. |
| C．VideoSticker helps students take notes from video lessons. |
| D．Educators consider VideoSticker as an essential teaching tool. |
【推荐2】Since our earliest school days, we have generally accepted the idea that some people learn faster than others. However, according to a new study, we actually learn at very similar rates given the same opportunities.
Researchers looked at 1.3 million “student interactions” across a variety of learning software tools used by 6,946 learners, ranging from late elementary students to college students. The gathered statistics covered a variety of learning tasks.
The data showed that academic performance gaps come from differences in the starting point of learning, the learning opportunity and access to such opportunity, rather than any learning rate. “This further confirms that educational technologies can provide favorable learning conditions that make it easier to learn something new, like a second language,” says Ken Koedinger, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
“We have all seen cases where somebody gets to a learning outcome sooner than a peer,” says Koedinger. “But what we don’t usually track is where they started. Our results are not contradicting that people end up in different places, but accounting for the fact that where students are starting from can tell us a lot about where they will end up.”
The team suggests that our brains can take different “mental routes” to learn something, which means our learning rates aren’t too different. Given the same opportunities, we can all get to the same point in the way that best suits our experiences and knowledge.
This is useful in figuring out the best ways to pass on knowledge. Though many factors work together when it comes to learning, the researchers want to emphasize that we’re all capable of learning.
“No matter who you are, you can make it,” says scientist Paulo Carvalho from Carnegie Mellon University. “You might have had fewer prior opportunities in your life, so it may be harder at first than it is for other people. But you will make just as much progress as anyone else as long as you hold on to your learning.”
1. How did the researchers carry out their study?| A．By doing online surveys. | B．By introducing a concept. |
| C．By collecting data on learners. | D．By conducting experiments. |
| A．The learning rate. | B．The learning outcome. |
| C．The learning task. | D．The learning opportunity. |
| A．Stick to our learning goals wherever we start. |
| B．Take different routes to learn something new. |
| C．Try every means to increase our learning rate. |
| D．Seek learning opportunities at a very young age. |
| A．How can you learn something faster? | B．What is behind your academic success? |
| C．Why is the achievement gap growing? | D．Where is our starting point of learning? |
【推荐3】College and high-school teachers are expressing concern about ChatGPT, an AI program that allows people with limited writing skills to create high-quality texts. It calls into question how and why we teach writing at all. If AI can do a fairly good job at most writing tasks, why spend so much time learning writing in school?
In fact, learning to write goes beyond just mastering grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. It involves much more. For one thing, it’s about learning to turn a loose set of thoughts into a clear line of reasoning — a skill that is useful for everyone, not just those who enjoy writing or need to do a lot of it for work.
Learning to write also trains your imagination to construct the person who will read your words. It puts you in relation to someone you may not know, someone who may even not exist. When you learn to write, you learn to meet their needs in an unfamiliar context. Even ordinary assignments teach students to predict what another person knows and expects.
Writing is never simply self-expression. It’s expression to a specific audience for a specific purpose. In some cases, like a love letter, a writer knows their audience very well. In others, the audience is every bit a work of the imagination as a novel’s characters are. Writers, then, should give up trying to address the public at large, but should imagine that a friend, though not the closest friend, is listening to our talk.
When this act of imagination is done well, a reader can feel deeply understood, as if a stranger has told them some previously unknown truth about themselves. That’s how I felt reading “Difference Maker” — an essay about parenthood. While our situations were unique, naming the problem provided a deeper understanding.
It seems unavoidable that large-language models of AI will allow us to offload some of the writing tasks that students learn in school. But we can’t allow ourselves to lose the capacity to empathize (共情) with distant strangers at just the moment when we’re more able than ever to communicate with them.
1. What is teachers’ concern about ChatGPT?| A．It’s a challenge to apply it to teaching. | B．It’s hard to grade a paper written by it. |
| C．It limits students’ imagination and creativity. | D．It questions the necessity of teaching writing. |
| A．It helps with logical thinking. | B．It is a basic skill for everyone. |
| C．It focuses on correct expression. | D．It is closely related to social skills. |
| A．Expressing oneself. | B．Targeting intended readers. |
| C．Conveying imaginative ideas. | D．Creating attractive characters. |
| A．What AI Can’t Teach the Writing Students | B．ChatGPT Writing VS Traditional Writing |
| C．Never Lose the Capacity for Empathy | D．What Is the Future for AI Writing |
【推荐1】It was Thanksgiving Day, and I was trying to focus on preparing the dinner. However, in my mind, I was counting dollars more than my blessings. With the commercials for the latest toys to the market—just in time for Christmas—I wondered what my girls would be wishing for. As their mom, I just wanted to see the joy on their faces as they opened at least one gift from under the tree.
Oh, the tree. That was another expense. My thoughts quickly shifted back to the task at hand—finalizing the cooking and getting packed up to make the trip to my sister’s house in a neighboring town.
On the way, we passed a wooden country church. A truck fully loaded with Christmas trees approached in the opposite direction. The truck seemed to be faster than the speed limit on that rural path. “Look at that! A tree fell off!” my husband shouted. Sure enough, a beautiful, perfectly shaped Christmas tree lay in the road.
My husband pulled our truck aside and got out to remove the tree for the safety of other drivers. From the back seat, the kids begged to keep it. I explained to them that the man may have worked hard to cut the trees, and perhaps the money he got was to be used to buy Christmas presents for his family. My husband, on the other hand, was willing to compromise (折中). If the tree was still there when we returned, it was meant to be ours.
We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. As the sun was setting, we headed home. The kids were tired but not too tired to remember the deal they had made with their dad. I truly didn’t believe the tree would still be there. But I secretly prayed it would still be there. And it was! It was meant to be our tree!
Some people would say it was a series of coincidences. But I choose to believe it was a special gift that was shared with us from above. It was the perfect size for us, and free, but the way it came to us during a season when we believe in miracles is what we’ll treasure above all else.
1. What was on the author’s mind while preparing dinner?| A．What to buy for Thanksgiving Day. |
| B．What to choose from the latest toys. |
| C．How to avoid the influence of commercials. |
| D．How to celebrate Christmas on a tight budget. |
| A．It suited the kids fine. |
| B．It was a gift from above. |
| C．It should be removed to the road side. |
| D．It shouldn’t be kept in their possession. |
| A．Greedy. | B．Grateful | C．Sensitive. | D．Generous. |
| A．The Miracle Tree | B．The Thanksgiving Dinner |
| C．A Careless Driver | D．A Loving Family |
【推荐2】A warm smile，a quick hello，an offer of directions or perhaps maybe a place to stay. The kindness of strangers is one of my fondest experiences and memories from my travels.
When arriving in Slovenia from Croatia just before dark，I made a line to my hotel on the map，thinking I could easily find it. After walking around in circles for what felt like hours，I approached(靠近) a bus driver and tried to explain where I was heading. After a few failed tries because of our different languages，he signaled to me to get on the bus and took me to my hotel free of charge.
Once again，I got lost in Turkey. After almost running my rental car empty，luck would have it that I found a gas station and another kind person. The young cashier did not speak a word of English，but pulled his phone out and opened a translation app(应用软件). We managed to have a whole conversation of broken English/Turkish. I even wrote “tesekkür ederim”(thank you)and if his kindness hadn’t already melted(软化)my heart，his smile certainly did!
And finally，my favorite act of kindness：My husband and I had just boarded a bus heading from Nice to Menton in France. A lady sitting across from us noted our accents and upon finding out that we had traveled all the way from New Zealand，stood up and offered us her window seat. We kindly refused. But she insisted，“There is nothing quite like watching the sunset over the ocean on the French Riviera”. Not only did her kindness take me by surprise，we got to see one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world.
Strangers owe(欠) you nothing. Their acts of kindness show you that the world is an amazing place. So，enjoy the kindness of strangers and the unexpected human connections they bring.
1. Why did the author ask the driver for help?| A．To get a free ride. |
| B．To borrow some money. |
| C．To help her find a place to live. |
| D．To find out how to get to her hotel. |
| A．Painful. | B．Boring. |
| C．Pleasant. | D．Serious. |
| A．She noticed they felt unwell. |
| B．She found they were too tired. |
| C．She would get off to watch the sunset. |
| D．She wanted them to enjoy the window view. |
| A．She enjoys helping strangers. |
| B．She has toured some foreign places. |
| C．She speaks many foreign languages. |
| D．She likes making friends with strangers. |
【推荐3】After a serious disease Raghu Makwana lost his legs. He had to walk with the support of his hands. A long time back, a few friends took a walk on the street with the inspiration to do a small act of kindness. One of his kind behavior is the Tulsi Project. Whenever he learns of a family with some arguments or even violent abuse（辱骂）, Raghu courageously walks in to spread good cheer and gifts them a tulsi plant. Most of these are complete strangers. Sometimes he’ll recite prayer; sometimes he’ll share stories. Meanwhile, Ragbu gave birth to one of his dreams. When he “walked” on the streets, he often felt deeply moved by others on the streets who had even less than him.
He made a promise to himself that he would return to serve them one day, and that day had arrived for him. He put together a team of five （one of whom is blind）, who would make small sacrifices（牺牲） in their own lives to support delivery of hand-cooked meals for some of the absolutely ignored people on the streets. They named it “Tyaag Nu Tiffin（Food of Sacrifice）”.
Every day at 12:30 pm and at 7:30 pm, Raghu starts off on his hand tricycle to deliver the food. It’s the same food he himself eats, but he won’t eat until he has finished his round of offerings.
In a recent feature in The Times of India, Raghu notes, “I’m not doing anything great. I’m not on a mission（使命） to change the world. People around me have been very kind to me in my struggle to survive. Now it is my turn to repay the kindness by helping other needy human beings.”
1. Raghu often does the following if he knows a family has arguments EXCEPT ______| A．reciting a prayer | B．telling them stories |
| C．giving them some gifts | D．singing special songs |
| A．delivered three meals one day |
| B．delivered food only to the disabled |
| C．ate food himself after delivering all the food |
| D．delivered food different from what he ate |
| A．he is not satisfied with the society at present |
| B．he sees himself as a hero to change the world |
| C．he wants to be a great person in the future |
| D．he knows the meaning of repaying and appreciation |
