【推荐1】Culture can affect not just language and customs, but also how people experience the world on surprisingly basic levels.

Researchers, with the help of brain scans, have uncovered shocking differences in perception（感知）between Westerners and Asians, what they see when they look at a city street, for example, or even how they perceive a simple line in a square, according to findings published in a leading science journal.

In western countries, culture makes people think of themselves as highly independent individuals. When looking at scenes, Westerners tend to focus more on central objects than on their surroundings. East Asian cultures, however, emphasize inter-dependence. When Easterners look at a scene, they tend to focus on surroundings as well as the object.

Using an experiment involving two tasks, Dr Hedden asked subjects to look at a line simply to estimate its length, a task that is played to American strengths. In another, they estimated the line’s length relative to the size of a square, an easier task for the Asians.

The level of brain activity, by tracking blood flow, was then measured by Brain Scanners. The experiment found that although there was no difference in performance, and the tasks were very easy, the levels of activity in the subjects’ brains were different. For the Americans, areas linked to attention lit up more, when they worked on the task they tended to find more difficult—estimating the line’s size relative to the square. For the Asians, the attention areas lit up more during the harder task also—estimating the line’s length without comparing it to the square. The findings are a reflection of more than ten years of previous experimental research into East-West differences.

In one study, for instance, researchers offered people a choice among five pens; four red and one green, Easterners were more likely to choose a red pen while Westerners were more likely to choose the green one.

Culture is not affecting how you see the world, but how you choose to understand and internalize（使内化）it.

But such habits can be changed. Some psychological studies suggest that when an Easterner goes to the West or vice versa, habits of thought and perception also begin to change. Such research gives us clues on how our brain works and is hopeful for us to develop programs to improve our memory, memory techniques and enhance and accelerate our learning skills.

1. According to the passage, Chinese people are most likely to ________.

A．more emphasize independent thinking

B．always focus more on their surroundings

C．focus on the context as well as the object

D．think of Westerners as highly independent units

2. We know from the passage that people’s brains will be more active when ________.

A．the task is much easier	B．the blood flow is tracked
C．people begin to choose colors	D．the task is more difficult

3. What does Dr Hedden’s experiment in Paragraph 4-5 indicate?

A．Culture has a great impact on the way people talk and behave.

B．Easterners and Westerners perceive the world differently.

C．People’s perception of the world can be changed.

D．Americans are better at calculating than the Asians.

【推荐2】If you had to pick one, who do you think is greater in terms of their contributions to the Western world: British physicist Isaac Newton or Greek philosopher (哲学家) Aristotle?

Chances are that you’d find it hard to make a decision, at least right away.     1     Science majors — the likes of technology, engineering and math — are the “wiser” choice because they’re considered to be useful, while studying liberal arts (文科) majors — language, music and philosophy — is believed to take you nowhere.

    2     In the BBC’s new documentary Civilizations, for example, presenters (主持人) take us to 31 countries on six continents to appreciate human creativity — the likes of Angkor Wat (吴哥窟) in Cambodia, and the Suleymaniye mosque (苏莱曼清真寺) in Turkey.

In fact, by comparing science and liberal arts, we’re drawing “an artificial (人造的) line” between the two, wrote Loretta Jackson-Hayes, an associate professor of chemistry at Rhodes College in Memphis, on the Washington Post website. And to some of the greatest innovators (革新者) in history, this line never existed in the first place.     3     He was so interested in biology and anatomy (解剖学) that he drew the famous Vitruvian Man, part of his study of the proportions of the human body. Then there’s Steve Jobs, who, despite being an engineer, was also an artist on the inside. What he said when introducing the iPad 2 back in 2011 probably best summarizes (总结) the relationship between science and liberal arts:

“    4     It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our heart sing.”

A．But somehow, when it comes to picking a major at college, the decision couldn’t be easier.

B．This gap has now become so wide that the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the US is actually considering dropping 13 majors.

C．Leonardo da Vinci, for example, was just as successful a scientist as he was a painter.

D．It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough.

E．Human civilization isn’t just about technological inventions.

F．But if we take our eyes away from job skills for one second and look at liberal arts from a different perspective (视角), we can see how important they are.

【推荐3】Conversation begins almost the moment we come into contact with another and continues throughout the day with the aid of cell phones and computers. However, we are so often absorbed in conversation that we lose sight of its true purpose and value.

One important aspect of a good conversation is the words used to express thoughts and feelings. We are full of deep thoughts and strong emotions, yet our vocabularies are not enough for this expression, and many make little effort to expand that. Perhaps you see a movie that touches you deeply, yet you have the following conversation: “So, what did you think of the film?” “Oh, my God, it was so sad. I swear, I went through using up a box of tissues. I was in tears.”This dialogue is hardly an effective way of expressing feelings. It gives no sign of how or why the movie truly affected you. Such commonly-used phrases are certainly not enough to describe a deeply moving experience. However, not only must you try to avoid overused words, you must also be careful in your selection. The purpose of expanding vocabulary is not to use the largest or most impressive words, but to find those best suited.

What is lacking in many conversations is the ability to talk to another rather than just talking with that person. A thoughtful person will find that even in the most ordinary of conversations, there are a thousand questions waiting to be asked if you have courage and a desire for change, in order to seek out the person behind the mask. Good conversations should not be made up of nonsense, but of a meeting of two sharing the human condition. It should bring a purer understanding of others and offer a release of emotions more than drive away unpleasant thoughts or kill time. If we want, we can reach beyond the superficiality(肤浅) of talking into the vast kingdom of wisdom.

1. The author used a movie as an example to show that ____________.

A．overused words can’t fully express feelings of a speaker

B．how and why a moving movie can deeply affect a speaker

C．only expanding vocabulary can describe moving experiences

D．the largest or most impressive words should he used by speakers

2. “Seek out the person behind the mask” in the last paragraph means___________.

A．remove the mask of others	B．distrust the others’ appearance
C．feel doubtful about the others	D．get the hidden truth beyond words

3. According to the author, a good conversation is ___________.

A．a way to free the unpleasant or pass time	B．a desire to raise more questions
C．an exchange of emotions and experiences	D．a route to the kingdom of wisdom

4. The best title of the passage could be ___________.

A．Vocabulary in Conversations	B．Art of Conversations
C．Ability in Conversations	D．Importance of Conversations

【推荐2】Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn’t enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.

Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support. When students feel ignored or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to taper off. Professor Goel decided to do something to improve this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson.

Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn’t too great. But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students’ questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn’t know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn’t tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didn’t inform them about Jill’s true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.

The goal of Professor Goel’s virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence.

1. What problem did Professor Goel meet with?

A．Students’ questions were too many to deal with.

B．Teaching assistants were not professional at all.

C．Many students were lack of interest in his class.

D．He felt confused about how to teach online.

2. Which of the following best explains the underlined phrase in Paragraph 2?

A．grow dramatically	B．increase sharply
C．decrease gradually	D．decline unreasonably

3. What do we learn about Jill Watson?

A．She could answer all questions without mistakes.

B．She turned out to be a great success.

C．Her performance was remarkable all the way.

D．Her true identity was still a secret to students.

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．A robot gives an online course.

B．Virtual assistant is getting popular in school.

C．Robots will replace humans in online classes.

D．One Georgia Tech’s teaching assistant isn’t human.