【推荐1】Fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales remain in the wild, and not even 100 of them are breeding females. Their biggest survival threats are boat strikes and getting caught in fishing gear. Protecting these whales, such as by turning boats from dangerous encounters, requires positioning them more reliably -- and new technology, described in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, could help make that possible.

To listen for marine life, researchers often install underwater microphones called hydrophones on buoys (浮标) and robotic gliders (滑翔机). The recorded audio is changed into spectrograms -- visual representations of sound used to precisely recognize, for instance, specific whale species’ calls. But those distinctive sounds are often drowned out by other noise. In recent years researchers have used a machine-learning technique called deep learning to automate this analysis, but background sounds still block reliability.

Now researchers have trained two deep-learning models specifically to cut through the noise. They started by giving the models thousands of “clean” spectrograms with only North Atlantic right whale calls. Then they slowly added in thousands of spectrograms mixed with typical background sounds, such as tanker engines. The program can successfully turn noisy spectrograms into clean ones, reducing false alarms and helping spot whales before they reach dangerous areas, the scientists say.

Shyam Madhusudhana, a Cornell University data engineer, who was not involved in the study, says he would want to see if such models could be used to locate other marine mammals (哺乳动物), too. “Humpback whales and dolphins have much more complex speech pathways than the right whale,” he notes. And University of East Anglia machine-learning researcher Ben Milner, one of the study’s authors, wants to take this technology above water as well -- to Ukrainian forests, where he hopes to identify animals near the site of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

University of St. Andrews behavioral ecologist Peter Tyack, who was not involved in the study, says this new system should be used to figure out where whales are throughout the year, so that these areas can be protected. “In terms of estimating the density and the number of these whales in places where it’s hard to see them,” Peter says, “this technology could be fantastic.”

But he warns that it should not be the only approach to preventing ship strikes. In his work, Tyack has found that North Atlantic right whales can be silent for hours at a time -- so passive sound monitoring could easily miss one. And killing just a few, he adds, “could lead to extinction of the population.”

1. What does the new technology do to help protect the North Atlantic right whales?

A．Locating the right whales precisely.

B．Turning boats to encounter the right whales.

C．Guiding the right whales away from fishing boats.

D．Positioning fishing boats reliably and thus deadly strikes.

2. What is a major contribution of deep-learning models to reducing background noises?

A．They turn off the nearby alarms that may create background noises.

B．They can eliminate disturbances shown on a spectrogram sheet.

C．They add thousands of mixed sounds such as vehicle engines.

D．They can prevent whales from reaching dangerous areas.

3. It can be learned from the passage that________.

A．Shyam and Ben are both scientists at different universities who know each other well

B．all of the three scientists consider the extended use of the technology could face challenges

C．Shyam and Ben both hope that the deep learning model can go beyond its current application

D．Peter thinks the technology should have been used to figure out where it’s hard to see the whales

4. Which one of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Latest Techs on Marine Lifesaving

B．Save the Right Whale by Noise-cutting

C．See Whales’ Noise through Human’s Eyes

D．Non-professional Scientists’ Role in Saving Whales

【推荐2】Across India, summers can be extreme. Temperatures outdoors can soar to 124°F (51℃), high enough to melt the surface of the streets.

Millions of urban lower-income families live in tiny, one-room houses crammed together. Such shacks have tin and asbestos (石棉的) roofs. These materials absorb the sun’s heat, rather than reflect it back into the atmosphere. Additionally, only a few trees grow between the jam-packed houses. Making matters worse is the residents’ poverty. Most households cannot afford to run air conditioners and coolers. All these factors make the inside of these tiny houses extremely hot. Under such conditions, residents find it difficult to live, let alone work. Productivity declines.

Social workers and scientists have realized that the quickest way to cool such houses is to change their roofs. That’s because the roof receives the most direct sunlight. Climate researchers came up with many strategies to produce cool roofs. One easy way was with paint. Light-colored surfaces reflect more heat than darker ones, so roofs painted white would be cooler than those painted in any other color. This wasn’t a new idea. In fact, Indians have traditionally whitewashed homes with chuna. The annual Monsoon rains, though, wash the chuna away. Climate experts hoped that the white paints would last longer. Research findings revealed that painting alone could bring down the heat by up to 9℉(5℃).

Problems persist, though. While the paint is fairly cheap, poor people cannot afford it without financial help. In addition, the sunlight bouncing off white-topped roofs makes them too bright to look at. Residents usually use the roofs for drying wet clothes and vegetables, like chilies. But the glare from the whitened surfaces makes it tough for them to do these tasks. A third problem is that white-roofedbuildings reflect the sun’s rays throughout the year. Ironically, this makes roofs too cool in regions where winters get extremely cold. And keeping warm is costly, too.

Despite these drawbacks, many households are supporters of cool roof initiatives. For most, the benefits of the roofs outweigh their flaws. Indeed, the white paint has given their lives a newlight.

1. What is a factor contributing to Indian houses’ extreme heat?

A．The building materials of the roofs.	B．Residents’ lack of green awareness.
C．The influence of the global economy.	D．There being no trees in the community.

2. Why is white paint a good choice according to paragraph 3?

A．It is effective.

B．It is innovative.

C．It is replaceable.

D．It is long-lasting.

3. What problem comes with white paint roofs?

A．Their brightness will lead to color blindness.

B．The paint will become too expensive to afford.

C．It will be inconvenient to dry stuff on the roofs.

D．Residents’ living cost will be higher in summer.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Light-colored paints.	B．A house-cooling strategy.
C．White-roofed buildings.	D．An energy-saving initiative.

【推荐2】Liu Shuqi broke up with her boyfriend two months ago and has now found a new companion.

The handsome “man” is dressed in a white suit with a stylish haircut. He understands her emotions and feelings perfectly and gives her comfort, encouragement and support. “He is very humorous and offers some comfort when I am in a bad mood,” the 26-year-old bank employee said. The only problem is he is a virtual being and not a real boyfriend.

Liu is not alone in her choice of companion. In a digital era where people are heavily reliant on their smart devices, many of those who live alone increasingly turn to the virtual field to seek companions.

The artificial intelligence-powered digital humans, who are similar to real humans in appearance and behavior, are capable of providing 24-hour online companionship, humanlike conversation and emotional support.

They will likely become an essential part of people’s daily lives, industry experts said. Lin Kaikai and Ye Youyou, two companion-oriented virtual beings, were recently launched by Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc. Powered by Baidu’s Plato, an AI model for dialogue generation that is trained on over 10 billion parameters collected from social media conversations in both English and Chinese, the two digital humans have a smooth, more humanlike interaction.

For instance, they can participate in conversations through various forms such as texts, voice and emojis. They offer customized wake-up call services and learn about the preferences of their users, mainly through increased frequency of chats and interactions, Baidu said.

Other tech companies have also jumped on the companion-oriented virtual being trend.

Xiaoice is an AI-powered chatbot that seems to redefine the conceptions of romance and relationships among young Chinese. It has helped to comfort lonely hearts through more than 17 million virtual “girlfriends” and “boyfriends” in China.

“The rise of digital humans that serve as emotional companions is a result of technological innovation, such as the improvement in appearance, functions and interactive experience of digital humans, fueled by the enhanced deep-learning capacities based on massive user data,” said Chen Duan, director of the Digital Economy Integration Innovation Development Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

A set of problems though have also emerged. They include ethics, morals, data security and personal privacy protection in the industry, Chen said, while calling for efforts to formulate relevant laws and regulations on the ownership of digital characters and standardizing their behaviors.

1. What is Liu’ new companion like according to Liu Shuqi herself?

A．Handsome and stylish	B．Humorous and helpful
C．Perfect and supportive	D．Clever and understanding

2. Why are many solitary people turning to virtual companions now?

A．Because virtual companions look very like real humans.

B．Because virtual companions can offer a whole-day online companionship.

C．Because these people rely on their digital devices heavily.

D．Because these people need emotional support very much.

3. Which of the following may not be a way for virtual companions to take part in a conversation?

A．Texts

B．emojis

C．voice

D．eye-contact

4. What measures should be taken to solve the problems along with the booming of virtual companions according to Chen Duan?

A．Making relative rules and laws.	B．Regularize the behaviors of virtual companions.
C．Stop producing virtual companions.	D．Both A and B.