What may well be the oldest metal coins in the world have been identified at an ancient abandoned city known as Guanzhuang in China. Like many Bronze Age (青铜时代) coins from the region, they were cast in the shape of spades (铲) with finely carved handles. These ancient coins existed during an in-between period between barter (以物易物) and money, when coins were a novel concept, but everybody knew that agricultural tools were valuable.
Reading about this incredible discovery, I kept thinking about the way modern people represent computer networks by describing machines as having “addresses”, like a house. We also talk about one computer using a “port” to send information to another computer, as if the data were a floating boat with destination. It’s as if we are in the Bronze Age of information technology, grasping desperately for real-world reference to transform our civilization.
Now consider what happened to spade coins. Over centuries. metalworkers made these coins into more abstract shapes. Some became almost human figures. Others’ handles were reduced to small half-circles. As spade coins grew more abstract. people carved them with number values and the locations where they were made. They became more like modern coins, flat and covered in writing. Looking at one of these later pieces, you would have no idea that they were once intended to look like a spade.
This makes me wonder if we will develop an entirely new set of symbols that allow us to interact with our digital information more smoothly.
Taking spade coins as our guide, we can guess that far-future computer networks will no longer contain any recognizable references to houses. But they still might bring some of the ideas we associate with home to our mind. In fact, computer networks — if they still exist at all — are likely to be almost the indispensable part of our houses and cities, their sensors inset (嵌入) with walls and roads. Our network addresses might actually be the same as our street addresses. If climate change leads to floods, our mobile devices might look more like boats than phones, assisting us to land.
My point is that the metaphors (比喻) of the information age aren’t random. Mobile devices do offer us comfort after a long day at work. In some sense, our desire to settle on the shores of data lakes could change the way we understand home, as well as how we build computers. So as we cast our minds forward, we have to think about what new abstractions will go along with our information technology. Perhaps the one thing we count on is that humans will still appreciate the comforts of home.
1. Why were many Bronze Age coins made into the shape of a spade?| A．These coins also served as agricultural tools. |
| B．This stylish design made the coins valuable. |
| C．A lot of emphasis was put on agriculture. |
| D．The handles made the coins easily exchanged. |
| A．To show they both used to be new concepts when first invented. |
| B．To highlight their same importance in our civilizational transformation. |
| C．To suggest computers will experience dramatic changes as coins did. |
| D．To explain abstract digital worlds are different from concrete coins. |
| A．Flexible. | B．Wasteful. | C．Essential. | D．Alternative. |
| A．How Agriculture Loses to Digital Industry |
| B．What Coins and Computers Bring Us |
| C．What Bronze Age and Information Age Have In Common |
| D．What Ancient Money Tells Us About the Future Digital World |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】When facing an extremely annoying problem, we often gather a group to brainstorm, aiming to get the best ideas quickly. I love seeing it happen — except for one tiny wrinkle. Group brainstorming usually backfires.
In brainstorming meetings, many good ideas are lost — and few are gained. Extensive evidence shows that when generating ideas together, we fail to maximize collective intelligence. Surprisingly enough, individuals working alone tend to produce more and better ideas compared to brainstorming in groups.
To unearth the hidden potential in teams, instead of brainstorming, a shift to a process called “brainwriting” is more effective. Initially, you ask everyone to generate ideas independently. Next, you pool them and share them anonymously (匿名地) among the group. To preserve independent judgment, each member evaluates them on their own. Only then does the team come together to select and refine the most promising options. By developing and assessing ideas individually before choosing and detailing them, teams can surface and advance possibilities that might not get attention otherwise.
For instance, during the 2010 Chilean mine rescue, time pressing, the rescue team established a global brain writing system to crowd source independent ideas, avoiding time-consuming brainstorming. An entrepreneur offered a tiny plastic telephone that became the sole means of communicating with the miners while a 24-year-old engineer’s suggestion resulted in the creation of a specialized drill that ultimately saved the miners.
Research by organizational behavior scholar Anita Woolley and her colleagues helps to explain why this method works. They find that a key to collective intelligence is balanced participation. In brainstorming meetings, participation can easily become dominated by the most influential people. The brainwriting process ensures that all ideas are brought to the table and all voices are brought into the conversation. The goal isn’t to be the smartest person in the room — it’s to make the room smarter.
Collective intelligence begins with individual creativity, but it doesn’t end there. Individuals working alone produce greater varieties of novel ideas, both brilliant and terrible, than groups. It takes collective judgment to locate the signal within the noise and extract the best ideas.
1. Which of the following best describes “group brainstorming” according to this passage?| A．Creative. | B．Productive. |
| C．Inefficient. | D．Fundamental. |
| A．To illustrate the significance of specific equipment in the rescue. |
| B．To show the importance of brainstorming in emergency situations. |
| C．To highlight the role of influential people in collective intelligence. |
| D．To demonstrate the effectiveness of brainwriting in generating ideas. |
| A．The importance of collective intelligence. |
| B．The goal of becoming the smartest person. |
| C．The power of equal involvement in brainwriting. |
| D．The influence of powerful individuals in decision-making. |
| A．Identifying the top ideas. | B．Finding more good solutions. |
| C．Replacing individual creativity. | D．Encouraging group brainstorming. |
【推荐2】Fact or Fiction?
Non-fiction can be broken down into many categories. One category is literary non-fiction, which is still based in fact but employs some of the storytelling elements that fiction uses. Literary non-fiction includes a type of autobiography(自传) called memoir. Memoir most often focuses on a certain period of the author’s life. It is, by definition, rooted in truth. Still, people sometimes question whether memoir should be categorized as non-fiction at all.
As non-fiction, memoir is intended to be factual. Is this really the case, though, considering memoir relies on human memory? One classic study, led by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, showed how easily an interviewer’s choice of wording can influence an eyewitness’s account of a traffic accident. It is therefore reasonable to wonder whether memoir should continue to be branded as non-fiction.
Certainly, human memory can be unreliable. However, a memoir author is undoubtedly writing about significant and impactful life events. Memories of such events are actually more reliable than others. Studies show that the more influential an event is, the more accurately people recall the details. As an emotionally charged event unfolds, the brain activity changes in a way that amplifies small details. This activity helps build a more precise and accurate memory.
Of course the brain is not a camera that can “save” any memory with perfect accuracy. But if memoir is questionable due to the imperfections of the human mind, then critics will have to tackle non-fiction more broadly. All writers are using their memories when they create, and moreover, they are relying on the memories of others. Journalists conduct interviews to tell a news story and history writers depend on the accuracy of accounts from long ago. Yet they all rightfully fall under the umbrella of non-fiction.
Some people may doubt memoir not because they mistrust human memory, but because they mistrust the author’s morality. Critics may suspect an author of making up events. However, there is no reason to be suspicious of memoir author’s intentions. Writing a factual memoir that appeals to readers has the potential to be profitable for the author, and there is no motivation for a memoir writer to knowingly change or beautify the truth.
Looking beyond the author’s own life events, memoir can inform readers about the world in the same way that other non-fiction can. Memoir has a way of relaying facts about anything from an occupation to brief fashion trends, all of it meaningful to the author.
1. The author introduces the topic in Paragraph 1 by _____ .| A．illustrating why it is important to talk about memoir |
| B．listing some interesting facts and features of memoir |
| C．defining key terms that are discussed later in the passage |
| D．making a comparison between autobiography and memoir |
| A．Collects. | B．Ignores. |
| C．Enlarges. | D．Absorbs. |
| A．critics argue that a news story by a journalist is fiction |
| B．a memoir author’s memory can be influenced by the interviewees |
| C．memoir can’t show readers facts about what an author experienced |
| D．emotional moments can cause the creation of more detailed memories |
| A．the most profitable memoirs are those shown to be the most factual |
| B．many authors are untrustworthy, although many memoirs are fact-based |
| C．memoir is rightfully categorized under the umbrella of literary non-fiction |
| D．memory is too unreliable for memoir to be considered a type of non-fiction |
【推荐3】Here are the simple instructions given by a Harvard University assistant professor to people participating in a recent science study: “Imagine the following scene. Visualize it in your mind’s eye, as vividly as you can: a person walks into a room and knocks a ball off a table.”
The assistant professor, Tomer Ullman, then asked those in the study about their mental images: “Did you see how big the ball was? How about the person’s hair color?” Most participants visualized the former but not the latter. Ullman and his colleagues term this absence of details “noncommitment” to mental imagery (意象).
Brain imaging studies show that mental imagery engages the same neurons (744770) in similar ways as perception (EXXI). Visualizing things seems to have much in common with actually seeing them. But if mental images are indeed pictures, why do they lack such simple details?
Ullman and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments in which participants visualized the ball and table scene and were then presented with the questions selected by the researchers. The findings show 78% of the participants did not visualize at least two details. People are often unaware of how little detail their mental images contain until asked. They don’t notice how much they don’t notice. It has nothing to do with a person forgetting the contents of a mental image, and it also is found in people with vivid imaginations.
“Nearly everyone can tell you the size of the ball but not the person’s hair color,” Ullman says. “It’s like there’s one hierarchy when we construct images, and spatial properties are high up. Then things like colors are further down.” This fits with Kosslyn’s “skeletal image” theory, in which overall shape is generated first, and other details are added as needed.
“There are imagery-based systems for interviewing people who witnessed a crime to guide them through trying to visualize it as accurately as possible,” Kosslyn says. Imagination is an issue, but understanding noncommitment better could help develop ways of getting more accurate eyewitness evidence, he says. “That’s worth a lot.”
1. What does noncommitment to mental imagery refer to?| A．Imagining a scene in one’s mind vividly. | B．Remembering the size of a ball exactly. |
| C．Picturing things in one’s mind partially. | D．Forgetting a person’s hair colour entirely. |
| A．They fail to realize. | B．They have poor memories. |
| C．They lack a rich imagination. | D．They think in a wrong way. |
| A．Prejudice. | B．Order. | C．Height. | D．Standard. |
| A．The potential value of the research. | B．The further prospect of the research. |
| C．The importance of looking for a witness. | D．The difficulty in finding evidence of a crime. |
【推荐1】Reading on the go
*FReader
A standard reading app for eBooks and audiobooks, FReader supports a variety of formats. The program is very pleasant to the eye and is adjustable to various spectrums (光谱). Apart from being a reading app, FReader has an integrated translator for five languages (English, Russian, German, French, and Ukrainian), making the app attractive to people across the world. You can also select a section of the page you are reading and share it via social networks, Bluetooth, SMS and other methods.
*AlReader
Although it can read every type of book, AlReader is specially designed for Sci-Fi lovers. The app doesn’t support iOS but you can open many book formats on your Android phone. This app has enhanced graphical (图解的) features and a wide range of customization options that focus on providing the best quality for fictional book reading.
*Nook
Nook is strongly integrated with the online store Banes & Noble, where you can find over a million free books on their website or purchase new titles for the price of as low as $0.99. You can also buy you eBooks anywhere and they will automatically appear in the Nook library. The app supports most eBook formats.
*Scribd
Scribd has come a long way from the document-reading app it was initially. Today, it is one of the most famous programs with over a million titles in its library. Upon registration, you get a 30-day demoaccount that lets you read all the books you want for free! Apart from books, Scribd provides comic books, audiobooks articles, scientific studies, court cases and uncommon genres that no other app offers. You can even publish your own book on this platform.
1. Why is FReader attractive to international readers?| A．It doesn’t harm your eyes. |
| B．It has many customization options. |
| C．It has a powerful integrated translator. |
| D．Users can share what they read via social networks. |
| A．Buy Sci-Fi books. | B．Enjoy great graphics. |
| C．Read on an iOS device. | D．Publish your own writing. |
| A．FRcader. | B．AlReader. |
| C．Nook. | D．Scribd. |
【推荐2】Some people are so rude. Who sends an e-mail or a text message that just says “Thank you?” Who leaves a voice mail message rather than texts you? Who asks for a fact easily found on the Internet?
Maybe I’m the rude one for not appreciating life’s little courtesies(礼节). But many social norms(规范) just don’t make sense to people drowning in digital communication.
Take the thank-you note. Daniel Post Senning, a coauthor of Emily Post’s Etiquette，asked, “At what point does showing appreciation outweigh the cost?”
This isn’t the first time technology has changed our manners,
In the age of the smart phone, there is no reason to ask once-acceptable questions about:the weather forecast, a business’s phone number, or directions to a house, a restaurant, or an office, which can be easily found on a digital map.
How to handle these differing standards? Easy: Consider your audience. Some people,especially older ones, appreciate a thank-you message.
A. Then there is voice mail.
B. Others, like me, want no reply.
C. But people still ask these things.
D. Don’t these people realize that they’re wasting your time?
E. Won't new technology bring about changes in our daily life?
F. Face-to-face communication makes comprehension much easier.
G. When the telephone was invented, people didn't know how to greet a caller.
【推荐3】Starlink, a new satellite Internet system from the company Space X, is changing the world more quickly than many people expected. Before Starlink, most satellite Internet service was based on satellites that constantly remained above one point on Earth. This means signals from farther away need to travel a long distance, causing delays.
Starlink has a web of satellites moving constantly in a low orbit around the earth. Because the satellites are closer, the speeds are faster. This makes the service better for things that need to happen without delay, like holding meetings over the Internet. Space X isn’t the only company competing to provide this kind of satellite Internet service. For example, One Web is a British company developing a similar satellite Internet service. But Starlink is farther along than most others.
Starlink works in 31 countries, but Space X plans to expand the service to cover the whole world. Space X is also planning to offer service on transportation, like planes, trains, and boats. Starlink has over 2,100 satellites in orbit around the earth. Space X has permission from the US government to send up 12,000 satellites, and it has asked for permission to send up 30,000 more.
Astronomers have complained (抱怨) Starlink satellites make it harder to study things in space without satellites getting in the way. Space X has worked to reduce the light from Starlink satellites. But scientists say the satellites still make their work harder. This will get worse as more satellites fill the skies. There are also worries about Starlink satellites crashing into other satellites or spacecraft. In 2019, a European satellite had to move to avoid coming close to Starlink satellites. Last year, China complained its space station had to move twice to avoid Starlink satellites.
Still, Starlink has been useful in emergencies. Starlink service has helped firefighters battling wildfires in remote areas. When the island nation of Tonga lost Internet service after a volcano eruption, SpaceX provided temporary service using Starink.
1. Why is OneWeb mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To prove the wide popularity of satellite Internet service. |
| B．To show the competition among satellite Internet service providers. |
| C．To display the great difficulty in providing satellite Internet service. |
| D．To praise Starlink’s great success in providing satellite Internet service. |
| A．It has provided service globally. | B．It suffers from signal delays. |
| C．It consists of several thousand satellites. | D．It is mainly designed for transportation. |
| A．Worsening natural conditions in space. |
| B．Light pollution and space safety concerns. |
| C．Rising production costs and light pollution. |
| D．Stricter control and underdevelopment of space. |
| A．Satellite Internet Service Changes the World |
| B．Working Principles of Satellite Internet Service |
| C．Satellite Internet Service Uses Too Many Satellites |
| D．The Huge Potential for Satellite Internet Service |
【推荐1】As part of my research, I collected every digitized number one New York Times bestseller from 1960 to 2014 and ran the Flesch-Kincaid test* on 563 of them. Most books meant for a general audience will fall within the fourth- to eleventh-grade range, as did all of these bestsellers. If you look at the scores over the decades, an unmistakable trend becomes clear: The bestseller list is full of much simpler fiction today than it was 40 or 50 years ago. In the 1960s, the median （中间的，中位数的） book had a grade level of 8. Today the median grade level is 6.
On the upper end, James Michener’s 1988 novel Alaska had a grade-level score of 11.1. Of the books I analyzed, 25 had a grade level of 9 or higher. But just two of these were written after 2000.
On the low end, eight books tied for the lowest score of 4.4. All were written after 2000 by one of three high-volume writers: James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, and Nora Roberts.
There’s no way around it: While prize-winning literary novels such as Jonathan Franzen’s.
The Corrections make the number one spot on occasion, overall, the books we’re reading have become simpler. Does that mean that books-and therefore their readers-are getting “dumber” too?
It is true that today’s bestsellers have much shorter sentences than the bestsellers of the past, a drop from a median of 17 words per sentence in the 1960s to 12 in the 2000s. Also, today’s list is much more often topped by commercial novels than in the past.
It would be easy to associate the New York Times list of reading-level decline with the rise of arguments that the country’s intellect is at an all-time low, but I don’t think this is fair.
Writing doesn’t need to be complicated to be considered powerful or literary. The winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Goldfinch, was also a bestseller and has a reading level of 7.2. While many classics have high scores (The Age of Innocence at 10.4, Oliver Twist at 10.1, The Satanic Verses at 10.1), just as many have surprisingly low scores: To Kill a Mockingbird at 5.9, The Sun Also Rises at 4.2, and The Grapes of Wrath at 4.1. These books are highly respected, but they are also accessible enough to be taught in middle and high school.
It’s logical that our bestselling books are not complex-by definition, popular means they appeal to the masses. For what it’s worth, plenty of successful “literary” writers have welcomed the beauty of “easy” writing.
As one bestselling writer put it,” One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” His name: Jack Kerouac. By the way, Kerouac’s most popular book, On the Road, scores a reading level of 6.6.
*The following is the formula of the Flesch-Kincaid test and the resulting score is the grade level required to understand the text.
| A．The Flesch-Kincaid test fails to reflect the truth. |
| B．More novels were written before 2000 than after 2000. |
| C．The language of best-sellers has been getting simpler. |
| D．High-volume writers were mostly born between 1960 and 2000. |
| A．something that we cannot deny | B．something that we think unusual |
| C．something that is worthy of a prize | D．something that will cause damage |
| A．To illustrate how respected books are usually like. |
| B．To stress the importance of being complicated to classics. |
| C．To remind readers that there are too many classics to name. |
| D．To show that books can be both respected and easy to read. |
| A．It makes readers dumber. | B．It doesn’t do much harm. |
| C．It fails to be accepted by writers. | D．It should be paid attention to. |
【推荐2】Never Talk to Strangers?
“Never talk to strangers.” Many children are taught this simple rule as a caution against abduction(诱拐). In June, 2005, an 11-year-old boy was lost in the Utah wilderness for four days. During that time, he stayed on the path. He saw people searching for him but hid from them, afraid someone might “steal” him. Eventually, the unfortunate game of hide-and-seek ended and he was found. According to the Canada Safety Council, this alarming incident shows how unwise it is to instill(灌输) a fear of strangers in children. The “stranger danger” message can prevent children from developing the social skills and judgment needed to deal effectively with real-life situations. In a difficult situation, a stranger could be their lifeline to safety.
To have a child go missing is a parent’s worst nightmare. The threat of abduction by a stranger is minimal when compared with other possible reasons for a disappearance. In 2004, there were 67,266 missing-children cases in Canada. Only 31 involved abduction; in most of those cases the abductor was a relative, friend, or person known to the family. There were 671 cases of children wandering off, and 332 cases of abductions by a parent. Almost 80 percent of all cases were runaways. These statistics cast doubt on the idea that children should never talk to strangers. Wandering off is more common - but a lost children may have to call upon a stranger for help, and must develop the ability to judge what kind of people to approach. The “never talk to strangers” rule does not protect children in the situations they are most likely to face. On top of this, it can be confusing. Adults do not model the behavior; they often talk to strangers. A child may not know how to tell who is a stranger, and who is not.
For young children, nothing replaces close supervision(监管). Pre-schoolers do not understand risk and tend to act without thinking. Children need to develop habits and attitudes that will protect them from the real threats and dangers they may face. The Canada Safety Council encourages parents to give their children age-appropriate positive messages about safety, bearing in mind how youngsters may understand their world.
1. Which of the following statements is true about the 11-year-old boy?| A．He practiced the “never talk to strangers” rule. |
| B．He hid from the rescuers just as he was told. |
| C．He eventually showed up when the game ended. |
| D．He went somewhere else to avoid being found. |
| A．Being abducted by a parent. | B．Wandering off. |
| C．Being abducted by strangers. | D．Running away. |
| A．a friendly and attractive person may be dangerous |
| B．adults do not act upon the rule and strangers are hard to tell |
| C．the rule does not protect children in the situation of abducting |
| D．a lost child may have difficulty in communicating with a stranger |
| A．It is not well recognized by parents. |
| B．It is not effective in keeping kids safe. |
| C．It is easy enough for children to follow. |
| D．It is practical as a safety tip in daily life. |
【推荐3】Our character, basically, is a composite of our habits. “Sow a thought, reap (获得) an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny,” the maxim goes.
Habits are powerful factors in our lives. Because they are consistent, often unconscious pattems, they constantly, daily, express our character and produce our effectivcness...or ineffectiveness.
As Horace Mann, the great educator, once said, “Habits are like a cable. We weave a part of it every day and soon it cannot be broken.” I personally do not agree with the last part of his expression. I know they can be broken. Habits can be learned and unlearned. But I also know it isn’t a quick fix. It involves a process and a tremendous (极大的) commitment.
Those of us who watched the lunar voyage of Apollo 11 were transfixed as we saw the first men walk on the moon and return to earth. Superlatives such as “fantastic” and “incredible” were inadequate to describe those eventful days. But to get there, those astronauts literally had to break out of the tremendous gravity pull of the earth. More energy was spent in the first few minutes of lift-off, in the first few miles of travel, than was used over the next several days to travel half a million miles.
Habits, too, have tremendous gravity pull—more than most people realize or would admit. Breaking deeply imbedded habitual tendencies such as procrastination (拖延), impatience, criticalness, or selfishness that violate (违背) basic principles of human effectiveness involves more than a little willpower and a few minor changes in our lives. “Lift- off” takes a tremendous effort, but once we break out of the gravity pull, our freedom takes on a whole new dimension.
Like any natural force, the gravity pull can work with us or against us. The gravity pull of some of our habits may currently be keeping us from going where we want to go. But it is also the gravity pull that keeps our world together, that keeps the planets in their orbits and our universe in order. It is a powerful force, and if we use it effectively, we can use the gravity pull of habit lo create the cohesiveness and order necessary to establish effectiveness in our lives.
1. The author disagrees with Horace Mann because the latter believes________.| A．habits are like a cable | B．habits can be learned |
| C．habits learning is hard | D．habits cannot be broken |
| A．They both involve a little willpower. |
| B．They can be learned and unlearned. |
| C．They both take a tremendous effort in the beginning. |
| D．Once done, they’ll ensure people unlimited freedom. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．The breakoff of habits | B．The power of habits |
| C．The lift-off of gravity pull | D．Important habits in our lives |
