When you add “nano” to the front of a word, it means you are talking about something very small. A nanometer (nm), for example, is one billionth of a meter.
Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. It can take a wide variety of forms and greatly helps with both the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. It also has a lot of promise in developing new medications. In 1965, a British scientist was examining the properties of cells using an electron microscope. He found that the molecules that make up cell membranes (膜) can be made into a useful shape. The result was the creation of the liposome (脂质体), a brand-new nanoparticle that could be used as a drug- delivery system.
In 1995, the first cancer treatment drug using liposomes was approved in the U.S. Since then, major developments have been made in the production of liposomes that have increased their usefulness in health care.
It all sounds complicated, but in simple terms a liposome is nothing more than a nanometer-sized container that can carry medicine to a targeted part of the body.
The outside of the capsule can be keyed to connect only with certain types of cells. This targets the delivery of the medication to those cells only. Additionally, the medication itself is protected from breaking down as it travels through the body by the protective walls of the liposome.
The ability of liposome to protect the medication they carry proved vital in 2020 when researchers were developing a new type of vaccine using mRNA (信使核糖核酸). Cells use mRNA to produce proteins, but mRNA degrades within hours in humans. Inside a liposome, however, mRNA can be stabilized long enough to do a special job: instructing cells inside our bodies to create a copy of a foreign protein. In this case, cells copy a small protein unique to the COVID-19 virus, which safely activates the body’s immune system and prevents infection.
Nanomedicine has already made a huge impact on public health and promises great things in the future.
1. What do we know about nanomedicine?| A．It is aimed to create the liposome. | B．It is focused on studying DNA. |
| C．It is applied in public health. | D．It is used to deliver medication in the body. |
| A．It can carry drugs to any part of the body. | B．It can stabilize the medication inside it. |
| C．It can activate the body’s immune system. | D．It can produce proteins. |
| A．Objective. | B．Conservative. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Supportive. |
| A．The future of nanomedicine. | B．The application of nanomedicine. |
| C．The research of nanomedicine. | D．The development of nanomedicine. |
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【推荐1】Given the buzz it’s created, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about ChatGPT. It’s an interactive chatbot powered by machine learning. The technology has basically devoured the entire Internet, reading the collective works of humanity and learning patterns in language that it can recreate. All you have to do is give it a prompt (提示), and ChatGPT can do an endless array of things: write a story in a particular style, answer a question, explain a concept, compose an email—write a college essay-and it will spit out coherent, seemingly human—written text in seconds. The technology is both awesome and terrifying.
22-year-old Edward Tian is working feverishly on a new app to combat misuse of ChatGPT.
Over the last couple years, Tian has been studying an AI system called GPT-3, a predecessor to ChatGPT that was less user-friendly and largely inaccessible to the general public because it was behind a paywall. As part of his studies this fall semester, Tian researched how to detect text written by the AI system while working at Princeton’s Natural Language Processing Lab.
Then, as the semester was coming to a close, OpenAI, the company behind GPT-3 and other AI tools, released ChatGPT to the public for free. For the millions of people around the world who have used it since, interacting with the technology has been like getting a peek into the future; a future that not too long ago would have seemed like science fiction.
For many users of the new technology, wonderment quickly turned to alarm. How-many jobs will this kill? Will this empower nefarious (恶意的) actors and further corrupt our public discourse (公共话语)? How will this disrupt our education system? What is the point of learning to write essays at school when AI-which is expected to get exponentially better in the near future-can do that for us?
Tian had an idea. What if he applied what he had learned at school over the last couple years to help the public identify whether something has been written by a machine?
Tian already had the know-how and even the software on his laptop to create such a program. Ironically, this software, called GitHub Co-Pilot, is powered by GPT-3. With its assistance, Tian was able to create a new app within three days. It’s a testament to the power of this technology to make us more productive.
On January 2nd, Tian released his app GPTZero. It basically uses ChatGPT against itself, checking whether “there’s zero involvement or a lot of involvement” of the AI system in creating a given text.
When Tian went to bed that night, he didn’t expect much for his app. When he woke up, his phone had blown up. He saw countless texts and DMs from journalists, principals, teachers, you name it, from places as far away as France and Switzerland. His app, which is hosted by a free platform, became so popular it crashed. Excited by the popularity and purpose of his app, the hosting platform has since granted Tian the resources needed to scale the app’s services to a mass audience.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE about GPT-3?| A．It’s designed and researched by Edward Tian in Princeton University |
| B．Not many ordinary people have used it because it is not free. |
| C．It is in the same AI system series as ChatGPT and GPTZero. |
| D．It used to be less user-friendly than ChatGPT but has outdone it now. |
| A．AI may replace human beings in the future when it comes to writing essays. |
| B．Actors may turn bad or even evil if the new technology is adopted in acting. |
| C．The education system may be badly impacted by the misuse of the new technology. |
| D．Many people may be out of employment because of the new technology. |
| A．the app is hosted by a free platform which is very popular. |
| B．they know many journalists are also very interested in it. |
| C．they are eager to share the resources Edward Tian is granted. |
| D．they are worried about the possibility of students cheating in writing. |
| A．Harm set, harm get. | B．Birds of a feather flock together. |
| C．Fight a man with his own weapon. | D．Great minds think alike. |
【推荐2】AirTag, a small Bluetooth-and-GPS-enabled device, was released by Apple in April 2021. This small device aimed at making our lives easier was originally designed to end the trouble of losing keys, wallets or other little objects. However, it may become the “perfect” tracking tool if in the wrong hands. My ex-husband was an early adopter of the AirTag. He and I had a falling out, leading to a divorce battle. In order to win custody battle, he used the little device to track me.
As a tech giant, the Apple company brought great convenience to the users, including me. I had never given a thought to tracking via AirTag until it happened to me. So I started scanning stories about AirTag. I was surprised to find that I was not alone. There were so many people tracked by these seemingly innocent electronic tags in their daily life. AirTag which was originally launched for a better life should have such a dark side in the wrong hands.
People have found that the digital device has the potential for abuse. What matters is how to avoid its danger. Apple has released updates to the AirTag’s functionality very quickly since they hit the market. Meanwhile, Apple has also improved its customer service to deal with the bugs of this kind. If you find an unwanted AirTag following you, don’t panic. Just disable it. You can follow the prompts on your Apple device to learn more about disabling the device. Once you’ve completed the above step, the tag’s original owner can’t keep track of you any more.
Almost every digital technology creates security issues. Nobody can go and live in a cave to remain unaffected. While enjoying its convenience, you need to be aware of the risks it poses, and know how to deal with them. Prevention is more effective in security issues than fixes. After all, a stitch in time saves nine.
1. What is the original function of AirTag?| A．To track one’s location secretly. | B．To help find one’s easily lost items. |
| C．To locate one’s phone accurately. | D．To ensure the safety of one’s phone. |
| A．Her ex-husband tracked her via AirTag. |
| B．Many people suffered from security problem. |
| C．AirTag was a newly released electronic device. |
| D．She intended to know about its great convenience. |
| A．Have it updated. | B．Make it unable to work. |
| C．Pay no attention to it. | D．Contact its original owner. |
| A．People should keep pace with the times. |
| B．People should use technology in a proper way. |
| C．People should handle potential digital risks actively. |
| D．People should bear the responsibility to fix the bugs bravely. |
【推荐3】A wearable interactive display made of a flexible, breathable electronic fabric can display simple maps and text messages, potentially for use in future smart clothing, a research group reports in their latest paper.
Previous research has developed flexible thin-film displays that are rollable, foldable and stretchable. However, such electronics have not yet been successfully integrated into clothing. This is because it has proven challenging to design fabric displays that are both durable over time and easy to assemble over a large area.
Now, Chinese scientists have woven bands of a new fabric display roughly 20 feet long by 10 inches wide. To make the new fabric, polymer scientists Peining Chen and Huisheng Peng at Fudan University in Shanghai and their colleagues weave electrically transparent fibers into a flexible, breathable fabric. The fabric is about as bright as the average flat-screen TV. The researchers noted their prototype (雏形) was also significantly more durable than conventional flexible thin-film displays, making it more suitable for practical use. One likely application for this is wearable displays. The researchers integrated a touch-sensitive 16-button fabric keyboard, solar-energy-harvesting threads and battery fibers into their fabric to add interactivity and a power supply. They added electronics to wirelessly link it to a smartphone via a Bluetooth connection so users could send and receive messages on their sleeves, as well as see their real-time locations on a map.
In the future, smart clothing might help display messages from people with voice, speech and language problems. And it might even work in concert with devices that can decode (译解) complex brain waves to figure out what these people would like to say but cannot. However, “putting displays with 36 volts (伏特) directly on the body may potentially be a concern,” cautioned Bao, chemical engineer at Stanford University in California.
1. What does the underlined word “assemble” mean in the second paragraph?| A．Fit together. | B．Take in. | C．Build up. | D．Put out. |
| A．The making of a fabric display and its potential use. |
| B．The novel application of Bluetooth to wearable displays. |
| C．The introduction of a unique fabric and its future. |
| D．The contrast between conventional displays and wearable ones. |
| A．Such clothing poses no danger to wearers. |
| B．Such clothing can get wearers’ ideas across. |
| C．It can receive and send complex brain waves. |
| D．It enables people with voice problems to speak. |
| A．Say No to Conventional Flexible Thin-film Displays |
| B．Wearable Electronic Displays Is to Appear on Clothing |
| C．Say Yes to Wearable Electronic Displays on Clothing |
| D．Wearable Electronic Displays May Get Your Ideas across |
【推荐1】In English, the object on your face that smells things is called “nose”, and you can describe it as “big”. The popular belief among language scientists had been that sounds used to form those words were arbitrary. But new work led by Damian Blasi, a professor from the University of Zurich, suggests that may not be true — and that the same sounds may be used in words for the same concepts across many different languages.
The research team focused on words for 100 basic concepts in 85% of the world’s living languages, including the names of body parts, such as “bone” and “ear”, and natural phenomena, like “leaf” and “star”. Verbs, including “bite”, the pronouns “I”, “you” and “we”, and descriptive words such as “red”, were also studied.
The researchers understood that some words would be similar because they have a common history. Others, including “sugar”, “tea” and “coffee”, have similar-sounding names in different languages because they are traded goods. The people exchanging them were thus exposed to each other and strongly motivated to make themselves understood. But even when keeping these in mind, the team found a lot more consistency across languages than they had expected. For example, the words for “nose” often involve either an “n” sound or an “oo” sound in almost any language. Employing an “s” sound in the words for “sand” is similarly common. There must be some deeper reasons.
The research team made several assumptions. One is that some objects have names whose sounds bring them to mind, a sort of “sound symbolism”. Employing an “n” sound to name a nose would be one example. Another is that sensory associations play a role. Studies have found that people routinely associate darker colors with lower sounds and lighter colors with higher ones. But there might be a clearer possibility — expediency. “Huh” is a word that has been found to be remarkably similar across languages. “It’s cheap, short and understandable,” says Dr Blasi — convenient for something you might say hundreds of times a day.
1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The research purpose. | B．The research subject. |
| C．The research result. | D．The research problem. |
| A．The similar-sounding names. | B．The traded goods. |
| C．The recognized factors. | D．The deep reasons. |
| A．Annoyance. | B．Convenience. | C．Accuracy. | D．Fluency. |
| A．Why words have different sounds | B．How sounds change in language |
| C．Are sounds arbitrary in language | D．Do words have sound symbolism |
【推荐2】Alida Monaco doesn’t spend her summers doing the usual teenage work, like working at the mall. Instead，she ‘ s studying.
It used to be that a summer job was considered a teenage thing. Today, Monaco ,who has never had a summer job, is part of growing trend (趋势)teenagers focusing on their studies, even during the summer. That’s down from 72% of Americans aged 16 to 19 who worked in July of 1978, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fierce (激烈的)competition, older workers returning to the workforce and weak economic growth are all adding to the decrease of teenagers in the workforce. But as schoolwork grows increasingly heavy and homework eats up more time, data suggest the biggest reason why some teens won’t be working this summer is that they simply don’t1 have time.
For college - bound teens, some teachers even advise students not to waste time on a summer job. “ Some of my students only have about six weeks off in the summer,” said Shannon Reed, a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh and a former high school English teacher.” I could never advise that they get jobs during that short break. ”
Young people who don’t work may miss out on valuable skills that they’11 need control and help people learn to deal with adult situations. But Monaco, who plans to attend Harvard, isn’t fazed by her lack(缺乏)of work experience. “Maybe I have missed out on a couple of life skills, “she said. “ But I don’t think it will harm me in way .”
1. What is the trend of American teenagers?| A．They are becoming lazy. |
| B．They are fond of doing holiday jobs. |
| C．They are focusing more on studies than on jobs. |
| D．They are becoming particular about (挑剔)holiday jobs |
| A．The reasons for teenagers giving up work. |
| B．The fierce competition teenagers face. |
| C．The structure (结构)of America’s workforce. |
| D．The effects of America9 s weak economy. |
| A．uncaring. | B．favorable(支持的). | C．worried. | D．doubtful. |
| A．supported. | B．helped. | C．upset. | D．confused. |
【推荐3】Imagine taking to the skies, spreading your arms out and soaring (翱翔) through the clouds. Flying is indeed possible — in your dreams. But no one can control what happens in dreams, right? Wrong.
Dreams in which you are aware that you are dreaming and can control what happens are called lucid dreams (清醒梦). These dreams are most common during the stage of sleep known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
Lucid dreaming has been referenced (提及) throughout history. It’s mentioned in Greek philosopher Aristotle’s writing, as well as in Egyptian hieroglyphics (象形文字) and in the oral traditions of Australian aborigines (土著). However, it wasn’t until 1975 that British psychologist Keith Hearne was credited as the first person to produce scientific proof that lucid dreams occur. Since then, we have learned much more about this phenomenon. According to a study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition, 55 percent of people have had a lucid dream at least once in their lifetime, while 23 percent experience lucid dreams once a month or more.
Though these numbers show that the majority of people don’t have lucid dreams regularly, scientists are developing new technology for those who want to have this experience. For example, Curzio Vasapollo invented a device called ZMax, a headband that can monitor eye movements, body movements and heart rate to help people have a lucid dream.
But why would someone want to have lucid dreams? As it turns out, lucid dreaming can have many benefits. Alix Generous, a young woman suffering from autism (自闭症), said in her TED talk: “I love lucid dreaming because it allows me to be free, without judgment of social and physical consequences.” Also, learning how to have lucid dreams may help those who suffer from nightmares. Through being able to control their actions, they may be able to overcome the cause of their fear.
Lucid dreams may encourage creativity, as well. According to the website Notes Read, those who experience this dream state will find access to “an unbelievable fund of knowledge and inspiration”. For example, British American filmmaker Christopher Nolan took inspiration from his own lucid dreams when he wrote the 2010 sci-fi movie Inception.
Maybe one day, everyone can indulge in (沉浸在) lucid dreams.
1. What can we know about lucid dreaming?| A．It usually happens during REM sleep. | B．We can sleepwalk when lucid dreaming. |
| C．Most people experience lucid dreams. | D．It’s likely to cause nightmares. |
| A．Aristotle’s writing. |
| B．Egyptian hieroglyphics. |
| C．Keith Hearne’s research. |
| D．The oral traditions of Australian aborigines. |
| A．It is an effective cure for autism. |
| B．It enables people to become confident. |
| C．It helps people adjust their heart rate. |
| D．It can be a source of creativity. |
| A．Recent discoveries about lucid dreaming. |
| B．A brief introduction to lucid dreaming. |
| C．Ways to deal with lucid dreaming. |
| D．New technologies to treat sleep disorders. |
| A．Travel guide. | B．Biography. | C．Book review. | D．Science journal. |
