How might you drag a good writer’s work down to a bad one? Try the spell-check button. A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may shorten the gap between people with different levels of language skills, hampering (妨碍) the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software.
In the study, 33 undergraduate students were asked to correct a one-page business letter, half of them using Microsoft Word with red and green lines underlining potential errors. The other half did it the old-fashioned way, using only their heads. Without grammar or spelling software, students with higher SAT verbal scores made, on average, five errors, compared with 12.3 errors for students with lower scores. Using the software, students with higher verbal scores reading the same page made, on average, 16 errors, compared with 17 errors for students with lower scores.
Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the Katz Business School, said spell-checking software is so sophisticated that some have come to trust it too thoroughly. “It’s not a software problem, it’s a person behavior problem,” he said. Microsoft technical specialist Tim Pash said grammar and spelling technology is meant to help writers and editors, not to solve all their problems. The study found the software helped students find and correct errors in the letter, but in some cases they also changed phrases or sentences underlined by the software as grammatically suspicious, even though they were correct.
1. On whom might spell-check software have a bad influence?| A．Authors who have age gaps. | B．People with lower language levels. |
| C．Writers having too much faith in it. | D．Editors seldom taking advantage of it. |
| A．Using spell-check software helps reduce the mistakes. |
| B．Spell-check software causes students to make more mistakes. |
| C．There is no obvious difference after using spell-check software. |
| D．Spell-check software has advantages over the old-fashioned way. |
| A．Advanced. | B．Complicated. | C．Difficult. | D．Cheap. |
| A．Spell-check restricts writers’ creativity. |
| B．Spell-check software can make writing worse. |
| C．The advantages and disadvantages of softwares. |
| D．The reasons for people’s abandoning spell-check software. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】The days of glancing at a map or the screen of your smart phone when you’re lost will soon be over, thanks to new shoes that tell you which way to turn to. The shoes use a Bluetooth link to communicate with your mobile’s mapping system. The mobile works out which route you should be following and the shoes then produce a slight shaking in either foot telling you when and where to change direction.
The shoes will also count the number of steps you’ve taken and the calories you’ve burned, and they’ll even buzz to warn you you’ve left your phone behind, or to tell you when you’re travelling past an interesting landmark.
“They are as easy to use as a tap on the shoulder,” said Krispian Lawrence, 30, who developed the shoes with partner Anirudh Sharma, 28, in Hyderabad, India. “You can even communicate with them using hand gestures and finger snaps because the shoes have sensors that can pick up movement and sound.”
The Lechal shoes go on sale worldwide in June but Lawrence and Sharma’s company, Ducere Technologies, has already taken more than 3,000 pre-orders. Lawrence believes the shoes will also improve road safety. “If I’m on my bike or motorbike, I don’t want to stare at my phone ---it’s dangerous,” he says. “I’d rather be guided by my footwear.” He believes his invention will prove invaluable for the visually impaired and has promised that every mainstream pair sold by Ducere will subsidize(资助) a cheaper pair for a visually damaged person.
Footnav technology does not impress explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, however. “What’s wrong with a good old-fashioned map?” said the 70-year-old when told of the shoes. “If you rely too heavily on technology, you’re heading for trouble. Too many people have forgotten the basics: how to read a map and a compass.”
1. According to the passage, which of the following can smart shoes NOT do?
| A．Guiding your road. |
| B．Warning of the loss of your wallet. |
| C．Counting your steps and calories. |
| D．Reminding you of landmarks. |
| A．they can talk to people |
| B．they can produce a slight shaking |
| C．they are guided by a remote control |
| D．they are linked to mobiles’ mapping system |
| A．Discouraged. | B．Disabled. |
| C．Disappointed. | D．Disliked. |
| A．Positive | B．Negative. |
| C．Disturbing. | D．Confused. |
【推荐2】AI software can already identify people by their voices or handwriting. Now, an AI has shown it can label people based on their chess-playing behavior, an advance in the field of “stylometrics” that could help computers be better chess teachers or more humanlike in their game play. Alarmingly, the system could also be used to help identify and track people who think their online behavior is anonymous (匿名的).
Chess-playing software, such as Deep Blue and AlphaZero, has long been Superhuman. But Ashton Anderson, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto, says the chess engines play almost an “alien (外星人的) style” that isn’t very instructive for those seeking to learn or improve their skills. They’d do better to tailor their advice to individual players. But first they’d need to acquire a player’s unique form.
To design and train their AI, the researchers collected more than 50 million human games and fed them into a network. The researchers tested the system by seeing how well it distinguished one player from another. They gave the system 100 games from each of about 3,000 known players, and 100 fresh games from an unknown player. The system looked for the best match and identified the unknown player 86% of the time, the researchers reported last month at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurlPS). “We didn’t quite believe the results,” says Reid Mcllroy-Young, a student in Anderson’s lab and the paper’s primary author. A non-AI method was only 28% accurate.
“The work is really cool,” says Noam Brown, a research scientist at Meta. “Style-aware AI could transform other computer interactions.”
The researchers are aware of the privacy risks posed by the system, which could be used to expose anonymous chess players online. And in theory, they say, given the right data sets, such systems could identify people based on the habits of their driving or the timing and location of their cellphone use.
NeuriPS organizers found the study technically impressive but ethically (道德上) questionable, and accepted it on condition that the researchers detail the privacy risks. Anderson says they’ve decided, for now, not to release the software.
1. What advance in AI technology is described?| A．It can recognize different human chess players. |
| B．It can behave like humans when playing chess. |
| C．It can identify different people’s handwriting. |
| D．It can track people’s unacceptable online behavior. |
| A．They have remarkable but unhelpful ability. |
| B．They instruct players in an extremely unique style. |
| C．They have an advantage over individual players in skill learning. |
| D．They are outstanding in acquiring a player’s unique form. |
| A．Its significance to players. | B．Its development process. |
| C．Its wide application. | D．Its primary aim. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Disappointed. | C．Careful. | D．Uninterested. |
【推荐3】You must have heard the predictions from some of the brightest minds about AI’s influence. Tesla and SpaceX’s chief Elon Musk worries that AI is far more dangerous than nuclear weapons. The late scientist Stephen Hawking warned that AI could serve as the “worst event in the history of our civilization” unless humanity is prepared for its possible risks.
But many experts, even those who are aware of such risks, have a more positive attitude, especially in health care and possibly in education. That is one of the results from a new AI study released on Monday by the Pew Research Centre.
Pew investigated the opinions of 979 experts over the summer, a group that included famous technologists, developers, innovators, business and policy leaders. The experts interviewed, some of whom chose to remain anonymous (匿名的), were asked to join in the discussion of a serious and important question: “By 2030, do you think it is most likely that advancing AI and related technology systems will improve human capacities and control them?”
Nearly two-thirds of experts predicted most of us will be mostly better off. But a third thought otherwise, and a majority of the experts expressed at least some concerns over the long-term impact of AI on the “essential elements (要素) of being human”. Among those concerns were data abuse (滥用), loss of jobs and loss of control brought by cybercrime (网络犯罪). Above all, by taking data in and spitting answers out, those “black box” tools make decisions in digital systems. It is the gradual removal of our ability to think for ourselves.
1. Why is Stephen Hawking mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．To prove great scientists care much about the future of AI. |
| B．To inform readers that a new AI age has come into view. |
| C．To warn humans to give up AI as soon as possible. |
| D．To introduce the main idea of the text that AI benefits the future |
| A．Most experts are certain that AI will be out of control. |
| B．Pew asked experts from different fields for opinions. |
| C．Pew concludes that humans will suffer from AI. |
| D．33% of experts think AI will have little impact on humans. |
| A．Because they make decisions in digital systems. |
| B．Because they can take data in and spit answers out. |
| C．Because they may weaken our ability to think independently. |
| D．Because they may decrease humans’ welfare in the long term. |
| A．To stop human developing AI. |
| B．To show readers how AI develops. |
| C．To tell readers the result of a study. |
| D．To encourage a public discussion. |
Women, it is obvious, are freer than in the past. Freer not only to perform the social functions reserved to the male, but also freer to exercise the right of being more attractive. They have the right, if not to be less virtuous(有品德的) than their grandmothers, at any rate to look less virtuous. The British housewife, a creature of severe and even terrifying aspect not long since, now does her best to achieve and preserve the appearance, which was strongly opposed to in the previous time. For we have now come to admit that the body has its rights. It has, for example, a right to do the best it can for itself in the way of strength and beauty. We demand justice for the body as well for the soul.
What are the practical results of this modern cult of beauty? Are women more beautiful than they were? Do they get something for the enormous amount of energy, time and money demanded of them by the beauty-cult? These are questions which are difficult to answer, for the facts seem to be in conflict. The campaign for more physical beauty seems to be both a great success and a terrifying failure. It depends on how you look at the results.
It is a success as more women keep their youthful appearance to a greater age than in the past. This desirable consummation will be due in part to skin foods, facial surgery, and paints, in part to improved health, due in its turn to a more reasonable way of life. Ugliness is one of the symptoms of disease, beauty of health. In so far as the campaign for more beauty is also a campaign for more health, it is, up to a point, really successful. When that happy moment comes, will every woman beautiful—as beautiful as the natural shape of her futures, with or without surgical and chemical aid, permits?
The answer is definitely: No. The beauty of a porcelain(陶瓷) jar is a matter of shape, of color of surface texturing. The jar may be empty or tenanted by spiders, full of honey or stinking slime—it makes no different to its beauty or ugliness. But a woman is alive, and her beauty is therefore not skin keep. For real beauty is as much an affair of the inner as of the outer self. The women’s beauty is therefore more than skin deep. The surface of a human is affected by the nature of its spiritual contents. I have seen women who were truly lovely. Their shape, their color, their surface were perfect. And yet they were not beautiful for spiritual emptiness or ugliness shows through. But on the contrary, there is an inside light that can change forms that are regarded imperfect or ugly. Most importantly, the cult of beauty is supposed to touch the deepest source of beauty --- the experiencing soul. It is not by improving skin goods, by cheapening health equipment and electrical hair-removers, that the human race will be made beautiful; it is not even by improving health. All men and women will be beautiful only when the social arrangements give to every one of them an opportunity to live completely and harmoniously.
1. The most significant reason for women’s cult of beauty is _____________.
| A．the changes in their status and attitude to physical beauty |
| B．the build-up of wealth in the economic field |
| C．the decrease of other fields influenced by the general depression |
| D．the new privilege in fulfilling social functions |
| A．the beauty industry deserves energy and money |
| B．the surgical and chemical aid free women from aging |
| C．the healthier way of life leads to women’s staying young |
| D．the beauty campaign has achieved great success |
| A．the importance of shape and surface |
| B．the gap between appearance and contents |
| C．the connection between inner and outer self |
| D．the ugliness of appearance and spirits |
| A．giving people a good knowledge of health and disease |
| B．increasing people’s awareness of health problems |
| C．promoting the development of the body and the soul |
| D．encouraging people to live in harmony with nature |
| A．The promising future of beauty industry |
| B．The praise of beauty-cult as a success |
| C．The understanding of physical beauty |
| D．The importance of inner qualities |
【推荐2】“The Life of Pi” is about a teenage boy from India, called Pi, who travels across the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat. His companion (同伴) in the lifeboat is an enormous tiger. It was written by the Canadian author Yann Martel, and has sold seven million copies worldwide.
At the start of the book, we learn about Pi's childhood in India. His father is a zookeeper and the family live in a house in the zoo. Pi and his brother help their father in the zoo and learn to look after the animals. When Pi is sixteen, his family decide to close the zoo and move to Canada. They sell some of the animals to zoos in North America and the family take the animals with them on a ship to Canada. On the way, there is a terrible storm and the ship sinks. Sadly, Pi's family and the ship's sailors die in the storm. Pi finds himself in a lifeboat with a hyena, zebra, orangutan and a tiger. When he sees the animals, Pi is scared and he jumps into the ocean. Then he remembers there are sharks in the ocean and he climbs back into the lifeboat. One by one, the animals in the lifeboat kill and eat each other, till only Pi and the tiger are left alive. Luckily for Pi, there is some food and water on the lifeboat, but he soon needs to start catching fish. He feeds the fish to the tiger to stop it killing and eating him. He also uses a whistle and his knowledge of animals from the zoo to control the tiger.
Pi and the tiger spend 227 days in the lifeboat. They live through terrible storms and are burnt by the Pacific sun. They are often hungry and ill. Sometimes, Pi is happy and hopeful, but sometimes he feels sad and lonely. Finally, they arrive at the coast of Mexico, but you will have to read the book to find out what happens in the end!
1. What is the purpose of the text?| A．To tell us a story. | B．To introduce a book. |
| C．To make an advertisement. | D．To introduce a film. |
| A．They don't want to leave them in India. |
| B．They want to make them a home on the ship. |
| C．They don't want to sell the animals to others. |
| D．They take them along to their new owner. |
| A．They meet a storm and only Pi survives. |
| B．The tiger kills Pi's family and the sailors. |
| C．Pi finds a lifeboat and saves all the animals. |
| D．Pi lives peacefully with the animals. |
| A．Kind, honest and helpful. | B．Weak, selfish and careless. |
| C．Playful, naughty and energetic. | D．Clever, brave and strong minded. |
Recent reports have indicated an additional 1, 400 Marines（海军陆战队）are being sent to Afghanistan in the coming weeks. This means it costs over $1 million annually on the ground over there. I do place a higher level of blame on the policymakers who send soldiers off to kill and be killed in the field. I think the human race needs to think more about killing.
One needs to do the introspection: “Are these wars JUST?” I believe that all of our wars since 1945 have been illegal, under international law as well. I suggest that all your readers examine their conscience as it relates to the matter of making war. The fact that many soldiers are motivated by a strong sense of duty does not give them some unqualified(绝对的) moral right to support these wars or any other. It’s responsible forall the troops, and the entire population, to determine whether the Afghan or Iraq wars are in accordance with(符合) the development of the state.
I wish someone would give me one or more logical reasons why we are still fighting in Afghanistan and what our goals are. I certainly don’t understand it and neither do many who are more knowledgeable than I.
Outsiders have tried unsuccessfully for centuries to conquer Afghanistan, and we seem to be no more successful. We are trying to develop a stable central government, but the country is badly divided into ethnic and tribal groups, and the current government is corrupt（腐败的）. Moreover, we are apparently regarded as undesirable occupiers by many of its people, most notably(尤其) the Taliban(塔利班).
If we are to continue spending billions every year in Afghanistan and killing hundreds of our people and many of theirs, our government must provide us with a reasonable explanation of why we are doing so and what we can expect to accomplish.
George Myers
1. What caused the author to write the letter?
| A．His conscience of being a citizen. |
| B．His relatives being killed in the war. |
| C．Reports about sending soldiers to Afghanistan. |
| D．Getting no reasonable explanation. |
| A．self-awareness | B．self-examination |
| C．self-confidence | D．self-defence |
| A．they can contribute to the development of America |
| B．they have the moral right to do so |
| C．they want to become heroes in the war |
| D．they are performing their duty as a resident |
| A．The U.S.A has developed a stable central government. |
| B．Most people can’t understand why the States makes wars. |
| C．The Afghan considered Americans as undesirable occupiers |
| D．American government should make an explanation to the public. |
José lgnacio, Uruguay
Only about 300 people actually live here, but in winter, Latin famous stars like Shakira gather here. A new luxury hotel named Bahia Vik is in the process of opening, and JoséIgnacio is preparing to host an international art festival. You can enjoy art atmosphere here and eat steaks at La Huella restaurant.
Koh Rong, Cambodia
Visiting this Cambodian island is like stepping into a screen saver. With only a few houses and some fishing villages, many people say it’s like Thailand 20 years ago when tourists landed the untouched beaches. Ferries started regularly shuttling tourists to Koh Rong only a few years ago, but things are still pretty quiet until someone plans to build an airport.
Riga, Latvia
Latvia is Europe’s best kept secret, but all has changed now since Riga was named the European Capital of Culture in 2014. The city also ranked as Europe’s cheapest destination for backpackers this year, with an average cost of just $33 per day for food, lodging, transportation and entertainment. Hurry up and peruse (研读) Old Riga and St. Peter’s tower, and get fancy at the Latvian National Opera.
Puglia, Italy
With food travel on the rise, Puglia is becoming a household name. Under the Italian cultural influences, the Mediterranean diet takes one of its purest and most delicious forms: food is locally purchased and restaurants are quaint (精致的) and are of high quality, which have good reputations.
1. The first paragraph is used to .
| A．complain about tourist traps |
| B．introduce the topic of the text |
| C．warn readers to avoid crowded people |
| D．show how tired travelers feel after holidays |
| A．take a boat to get there |
| B．eat steaks at La Huella restaurant |
| C．find there is a large beautiful airport |
| D．find it’s as developed as Thailand |
| A．José Ignacio, Uruguay. |
| B．Koh Rong, Cambodia. |
| C．Riga, Latvia. |
| D．Puglia, Italy. |
| A．Its diet enjoys wide popularity. |
| B．Its food price is rising rapidly. |
| C．It has the most delicious food in Italy. |
| D．It has a luxury hotel named Bahia Vik. |
People who are near-sighted can only see things that are very close to their eyes, and everything else seems blurry(="unclear)." Many people who do a lot of work, such as writing, reading and sewing become near—sighted.
People who are far-sighted suffer from just the opposite problem. They can see things that are far away, but they have difficulty in reading a book unless they hold it at arm’s length. If they want to do much reading ,they must get glasses, too.
Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. They have what is called astigmatism (散光). This, too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people’s eyes become cloudy because of cataracts (白内障). Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to operate on the cataracts and remove them.
Having two good eyes is important for judging distances. Each eye sees things from a slightly different angle (角度). To prove this to yourself, look at an object out of one eye; then look at the same object out of your other eye. You will find the object’s relation to the background and other things around it has changed. The difference between these two different eye views helps us to judge how far away an object is. People who have only one eye cannot judge distance as people with two eyes.
1. When things far away seem indistinct(模糊不清) , one is probably____.
| A．near-sighted | B．far-sighted |
| C．astigmatic | D．suffering from cataracts |
| A．experience | B．imagine |
| C．feel pain | D．are affected with |
| A．seeing at night | B．seeing objects far away |
| C．looking over a wide area | D．judging distances |
| A．one eye bigger than the other |
| B．eyes that are not exactly the right shape |
| C．a difficulty that can be corrected by an operation |
| D．an eye difficulty that cannot be corrected by glasses |
【推荐3】Journalists are the major group of people who make their living from writing. Many young people who see themselves as future novelists choose journalism as a way of earning a living while developing their writing skills. Although writing for newspapers and writing for books require different qualities, the aspiration （志向）to be a great writer is not one to be discouraged in a would-be journalist.
Most people want their work to be recognized by others. This helps to give it value. Some people also want themselves to be recognized, so that they have status in the eyes of society. It is not a bad motive to wish to be famous, but this must never become your main reason for being a journalist. You will not be a good journalist if you care more for impressing your audience than for serving their needs.
Knowing the power of the printed or spoken word or image, some people enter journalism for the power it will give them to influence people. There is a strong belief that journalists control the mass media but the best journalists recognize their role as servants of the people. There is a difference between the desire to influence events for your own sake, and the desire to do it for other people. You should never use journalism for selfish ends, but you can use it to improve the life of other people.
Curiosity is a natural part of most people's characters and an important ingredient for any journalist. Lots of young men and women enter the profession with the desire to know more about the world without needing to specialize in limited fields of study. Most journalists tend to know a little bit about a lot of things, rather than a lot about one subject. Knowledge has many uses. It can simply help to make you a fuller and more interesting person. It can also give you power over people, especially people who do not have that particular knowledge. Always bear in mind that power can be used in a positive way to improve people's lives,
1. What can we know from the first paragraph?| A．Journalism can be used as a means to improve writing. |
| B．Writing for newspapers is similar to writing for novels. |
| C．Most of the journalists make a living by writing books. |
| D．Journalists are most likely to become great writers. |
| A．To learn rich knowledge. | B．To get great power. |
| C．To earn much wealth. | D．To gain high position. |
| A．Being specialized in a certain field. |
| B．Being able to speak a foreign language well. |
| C．Being good at making friends with others. |
| D．Having a wide range of knowledge. |
| A．The development of journalism. |
| B．Why people choose a career in journalism. |
| C．How to become a qualified journalist. |
| D．The challenges journalists face now. |
