Plato was upset about the invention of the alphabet(字母表)because, with this “technology”, learners would not use their memories and thus appear to be a know-it-all but actually know nothing. If Plato were alive today, what would he say about ChatGPT? ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence program released recently by OpenAl, is a significant advancement that can produce articles comparable to good high school essays.
When I asked ChatGPT a range of simple questions, the answers were well-reasoned and clear. It’s also interactive: I could ask for more details or request changes. But then, on trickier topics or more complicated concepts, ChatGPT gave completely wrong answers.
However, that doesn’t mean ChatGPT can’t be a useful tool in education. Schools have already been dealing with the internet’s wealth of knowledge, along with its misleading essay factories. One way has been to change how they teach. Rather than listen to a lecture in class and then go home to research and write an essay, students listen to recorded lectures and do research at home, then write essays in class, with supervision, even cooperation with peers(同龄人) and teachers. This is called flipped(翻转的) classrooms, in which students wouldn’t use ChatGPT to create a whole essay. Instead, they’d use it as a tool to generate critically examined building blocks of essays.
Plato was wrong to think that memory itself is a goal, rather than a means for people to have facts so they can make better analyses and arguments. As Plato was wrong to fear the written word as the enemy, we would be wrong to think we should be against a process that allows us to gather information more easily.
The way forward is not just to feel regret for replaced skills, as Plato did, but also to recognize that as more complex skills become essential, our society must fairly educate people to develop them. And then it always goes back to the basics. Value people as people, not just as packs of skills. And that isn’t something ChatGPT can tell us how to do.
1. What would probably be Plato’s attitude toward ChatGPT?| A．Favorable. | B．Uncaring. | C．Critical. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They apply it to correcting mistakes. | B．They use it as a part of their research. |
| C．They rely on it to create a whole essay. | D．They employ it to conduct peer reviews. |
| A．He laid stress on memory too much. |
| B．He failed to tell facts from opinions. |
| C．He doubted easily accessible information. |
| D．He used written words to attack his enemy. |
| A．Updating and improving ChatGPT. |
| B．Breathing fresh life into replaced skills. |
| C．Equipping all people with necessary skills. |
| D．Bringing people with different skills together. |
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【推荐1】All American dollar bills (纸币) weigh the same, they’re the same size, and they’re made of the same material. “There are no physical marks for those with vision (视力) loss, who need an effective means of knowing how much it is, a $1 or a $100.” explains Vencer Cotton, director of technology and training at the Columbia Lighthouse for the Bind in Washington D.C.
NOW there is something that comes pretty close. Meet the iBill, a piece of plastic about the size of a large cigarette lighter. Equipped with one AAA battery, a couple of buttons and a speaker, the iBill is designed to be simple. A narrow opening allows for a U..S. Bill to be placed inside and upon scanning, it will say the amount the bill is worth. However, even though the iBill can do that job for you, it doesn’t mean it’ll tell you if a bill is real or even how much you have.
Created by Orbit Research, it will be the first money reader distributed by the U.S.Bureau of engraving and Printing (BEP). THE BUREAU WILL SOON BE SHIPPING iBills, free of charge, across the country. “It is my No. 1 choice,” Cotton says of the iBill, especially when it comes to sorting money as fast as possible.”
There are actually a bunch of apps (应用程序) that can do what the iBill can, made convenient by the iPhone’s voiceover functions. In particular, EyeNote was also developed by the U.S. BEP to help distinguish bills. Another app, called LookTel, offers recognition for a large number of countries’ bills and VisionHunt distinguishes different kinds of bills and offers many tools to the blind. “But a lot of blind people can’t afford an iPhone,” says Shawn Callaway, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Washington D.C.
1. The iBill was invented to .| A．pay for things at certain shops |
| B．help children sort out their money |
| C．help the blind recognize their money |
| D．tell whether a dollar bill is real or not |
| A．It is unbreakable. |
| B．It can’t calculate. |
| C．It can light a cigarette. |
| D．It costs a lot of money. |
| A．is much easier for poor people to accept |
| B．offers more useful functions to the blind |
| C．is the only one developed by the U.S. BEP |
| D．can tell the differences between many foreign bills |
| A．To encourage people to help the blind. |
| B．To talk about American dollar bills. |
| C．To ask people to buy the iBill. |
| D．To introduce a hi-tech tool. |
【推荐2】Your next car could have two seats, three wheels — two in front and one in the back and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. Elio Motors plans to make such a tiny car named the Elio. Its two seats sit front and back instead of side by side. The driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind.
The starting price for the car is just $6,800. It has only one door, on the left side, which cuts a few hundred dollars off the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it cheaper. It has air conditioning, power windows and door locks and an AM/FM radio. More features can be ordered through Elio's long list of suppliers. Elio will also sell the cars directly through its own stores and not through franchised dealers (特约经销商).
Paul Elio dreamed as a kid that he would one day own a car company called Elio Motors. In 2008, tired of high gas prices, he started working on a car that burns gas in a more effective way. Equally important to him was creating U.S. manufacturing jobs and making the car inexpensive enough to attract buyers who might otherwise be stuck in their old, unreliable cars. “Whatever matters to you, this can move the needle on it,” he said.
Already, more than 27,000 people have reserved (预订) one. Paul hopes to make 250,000 cars a year by 2016. So far, reservation holders are those who will use the Elio as a second or third car for work. Finally, though, he believes the car will interest high school and college students as well as used-car drivers who want something newer and more reliable.
1. Which of the following shows the design of the Elio?(○ = wheel, □ = seat)
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．will be available in most stores | B．is sold at affordable prices |
| C．has a fixed temperature | D．does no harm to the environment |
| A．take a chance | B．stand in the way | C．break into pieces | D．make a difference |
| A．The history of Elio Motors | B．Cool car or stupid vehicle? |
| C．Paul Elio: a kid with big dreams | D．What car to choose: new or used? |
Last Thursday, the world’s first self-driving, electric container (集装箱) ship made its first trip to Oslo, Norway. The ship’s owners aim to cut pollution by moving large amounts of products by water on the southern coast of Norway instead of by truck.
The ship, called Yara Birkeland, is owned by Yara, a company that makes fertilizer (化肥). The company wanted to develop a zero-pollution ship that was completely autonomous (self-driving). Yara worked with a ship-building company called Vard and the technology company Kongsberg to develop the ship. The company says that in the future everything will be done completely by machine.
The Yara Birkeland is a container ship, able to carry 120 large containers like those pulled by trucks. But the ship is fully electric and is powered by clean batteries (电池). The company says the ship has roughly as many batteries as 100 electric cars. The electricity that will be used to recharge the batteries is produced by water power, so there’s no pollution at all.
On November 18, the boat traveled from Horten to Oslo, making its first trip ever. But the Yara Birkeland won’t usually be going to Oslo, and it won’t be traveling far, either. It will travel a regular route from Yara’s factory in Porsgrunn up to the port in Brevik, covering a distance of about 8.7 miles. Yara normally uses trucks to move fertilizer between these locations.
Now, with the Yara Birkeland moving huge amounts of fertilizer by water, the company expects to cut out 40,000 yearly trips by oil-powered trucks. That will prevent about 2,204,620 pounds of carbon from being let out every year.
In the future, as an autonomous ship, the Yara Birkeland is expected to operate without any human control. Yara plans to spend the next two years training and testing the ship. But, as with many autonomous cars, the ship will continue to have humans watching out even once the ship is driving by itself.
1. What do the first two paragraphs tell us about Yara?| A．It aims for green transportation. |
| B．It makes money by building ships. |
| C．It uses machines to do everything. |
| D．It’s an information technology company. |
| A．Why ships are better than trucks. |
| B．How large and powerful the ship is. |
| C．What makes the ship pollution-free. |
| D．What special batteries the ship uses. |
| A．Moving goods from Horten to Oslo by road. |
| B．Moving goods from Horten to Oslo by water. |
| C．Moving goods from Porsgrunn to Brevik by road. |
| D．Moving goods from Porsgrunn to Brevik by water. |
| A．Humans Are Not Needed in Future Shipping |
| B．Self-driving Is Not Limited to Cars Any More |
| C．Electric, Self- driving Container Ship Sets off |
| D．Shipping Goods with Less Pollution Is Possible |
【推荐1】Laptop computers are popular all over the world. People use them on trains and airplanes, in airports and hotels. These laptops connect people to their workplace. In the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.
Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program that allows students to do schoolwork anywhere they want. Within five years, each of the 1500 students at the college will receive a laptop. The laptops are part of a $10 million computer program at Westlake, a 110-year-old college. The students with laptops will also have access to the Internet. In addition, they will be able to use e-mail to “peak” with their teachers, their classmates, and their families. However, the most important part of the laptop program is that students will be able to use computers without going to computer labs. They can work with it at home, in a fast-food restaurant or under the trees—anywhere at all!
Because of the many changes in computer technology, laptop use in higher education, such as colleges and universities, is workable. As laptops become more powerful, they become more similar to desktop computers. In addition, the portable computers can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources. State higher-education officials are studying how laptops can help students. State officials are also testing laptop programs at other universities, too.
At Westlake College, more than 60 percent of the staff use computers. The laptops will allow all teachers to use computers in their lessons. As one Westlake teacher said, “Here we are in the middle of Virginia and we’re giving students a window on the world. They can see everything and do everything.”
1. The main purpose of the laptop program is to give each student a laptop to ________.| A．connect them to libraries | B．surf the Internet |
| C．work at home | D．use for their schoolwork |
| A．It is an old college in America. | B．1500 students have laptops. |
| C．All teachers use computers. | D．Students there can do everything. |
| A．attend lectures on information technology |
| B．get information from around the world |
| C．travel around the world |
| D．have free laptops |
| A．The program is successful. | B．We don’t know the result of the program yet. |
| C．The program is too expensive. | D．The program is not workable. |
【推荐2】Telling a yellow taxi and a pair of binoculars（望远镜）apart is so easy that most people could do it standing on their head. Not so for an artificial intelligence: make the cab upside down and it sees binoculars.
This is just one of dozens of examples that show AI is a lot worse at identifying objects by sight than many people realise.
The examples, given by Anh Nguyen at Auburn University in Alabama, raise concerns about the real-world ability of image-recognition systems, for example in driverless cars. “It's a huge problem,” says Nguyen.
We already know AIs are often flummoxed by some pictures that humans can recognize without any problem—such as a turtle with a special shell pattern that an AI misidentifies as a gun.
But do AIs have problems in the real world? Nguyen and his colleagues took images of common objects from ImageNet— a database used to train AIs— and randomly rotated and changed the position of the objects in the pictures. They found this was enough to confuse several state-of-the-art image-recognition systems, including Google's, 97 per cent of the time, averaged across all of the systems.
In one case, a school bus that was correctly identified in the original image was misidentified as a punching bag when shown in close-up, and as a snow plough when upside down in the road.
“It shows these systems aren't as intelligent as many people think they are and raises important questions about how safely they can be used in certain applications,” says Jeff Clune at Uber AI Labs in San Francisco.
Nguyen worries what could happen in chaotic situations such as airports, where AI-based airport security scanners need to be able to identify objects in bags from multiple angles.
There are big implications for driverless cars as well. It makes sense for a vehicle to avoid any object it can't recognise. But if a car slams on its brakes because it thinks a Coke can is a fire engine this could be as dangerous as thinking a fire engine is a Coke can and doing nothing. “This is one reason why driverless cars will need to have multiple sensors to fall back on,” says Nguyen.
He, Clune and others have been uncovering these problems for the past few years, but nobody knows how to fix them. The biggest barrier to progress is that when an AI looks at an image, it can't extract rules about the object that would help it identify a similar one next time—for example, the rule that horses have four legs. “To reach a human level of reasoning, we need a way to extract rules from images,” says Nguyen.
1. The underlined word “flummoxed” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to________.| A．confused | B．preferred |
| C．criticized | D．applauded |
| A．prove that human beings are much smarter than AI systems |
| B．illustrate AI recognition systems are not as intelligent as you think |
| C．arouse people’s concerns about the safety of AI recognition systems |
| D．show school buses can have different forms when seen from different angles |
| A．The biggest obstacle to progress is that AI can’t analyze images from previous experiences. |
| B．AI has not possessed the ability to distinguish things that look similar to each other. |
| C．The reason why AI can’t tell a horse and a car apart is that they both have four legs. |
| D．Developing reasoning in AI is the biggest challenge AI researchers face. |
| A．Puzzles remain to be solved | B．AI is not cleverer than human beings |
| C．AI recognition system needs improving | D．AI can't see things from another view |
【推荐3】For the first time, scientists have grown plants in the moon soil (土壤) collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts. The scientists had no idea if anything would grow in the moon soil. They wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by the next generation of moon explorers.
Robert Ferl of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences was surprised with the results. He and other researchers planted small flowering plants in the moon soil returned from the Apollo missions. The good news was that all of the plants grew. The bad news was that after the first week, the moon soil stressed the plants so much that they grew slowly. Most of the moon plants were small or not fully developed.
The longer the soil was exposed (暴露) to solar wind on the moon, the worse the plants seemed to do. The soil collected by the Apollo 11 mission was the least helpful for growth. It was exposed a couple billion years longer to the elements, the scientists said.
Simon Gilroy of the University of Wisconsin-Madison wasn’t part of the study. He said, “This is a big step forward to know that you can grow plants.” Gilroy added, “The real next step is to go and do it on the surface of the moon.”
Moon soil is full of glass particles (微粒). They got in the Apollo lunar landers and wore down the moonwalkers’ spacesuits. One solution might be to use younger spots on the moon for digging up soil. The environment also could be changed by adding special nutrient (养分) mixtures or man-made lighting.
1. What happened to the plants after the first week?| A．They grew better than before. | B．They died from lack of water. |
| C．They failed to grow very well. | D．They were struck by diseases. |
| A．Solar wind. | B．Glass particles. | C．Man-made lighting. | D．Nutrient mixtures. |
| A．thinks highly of the research | B．took part in the study himself |
| C．found a way to improve the soil | D．works at the University of Florida |
| A．NASA collected soil from the moon. | B．Astronauts returned to Earth safely. |
| C．Scientists grew plants in the lunar soil. | D．Explorers grew food on the moon. |
On Christmas morning, Marie really got a pair of boots. They fit perfectly. The quality was superb. There was only one thing missing: the tiny label (标签) on the heel that says UGG.
Marie thanked her grandma. But she’s only worn those boots twice — both times to visit her grandma. “I would never wear them in public,” she says.
Marie’s grandma would be heartbroken to know the truth. But at UGG headquarters (总部), a room full of sales managers would be cheering.
Through clever marketing and expensive advertising, the makers of UGGs have convinced (使信服) Marie — and millions of others — that the name UGG has value far beyond what the homely slipper boots should really cost. UGGs, like North Face jackets, Nike sneakers, and other brand-name items are “status symbols”. People pay double, triple, even 10 times more for brand names than for similar items. Is a pair of $400 True Religion jeans really better than the $18 Wranglers you can get at Walmart? Maybe the quality is a bit higher. Maybe they shrink less. But are brand names really worth the exorbitant prices? Some pricey brands do, in fact, use higher-quality materials that fit better and feel nice on your skin.
However, the truth is that the value of a brand has little to do with quality and a lot to do with status. A recent study by Consumer Reports found that some of the least expensive jeans are better made than the more expensive jeans. But that doesn’t matter. Wearing a certain label tells the world “I belong” or “I can afford it.”
A few decades ago, the idea of a kid refusing to wear a pair of boots because the label was wrong would have seemed as crazy as talking on a phone the size of your hand.
Clearly, times have changed.
1. When she received the Christmas gift from her grandma, Marie seemed .
| A．excited | B．worried | C．moved | D．disappointed |
| A．its particular design |
| B．its successful marketing |
| C．its high-quality products |
| D．its better customer service |
| A．high | B．good | C．average | D．attractive |
| A．follow the fashion |
| B．show themselves off |
| C．keep pace with the times |
| D．improve their quality of life |
【推荐2】Many researchers use the term artificial intelligence (AI) to describe the thinking and intelligent behavior by machines. While AI can be helpful to human beings, scientists warn it can also be a threat.
Stuart Russell, who teaches computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, says humans should make AI products that we like.
“In the future,"Russell says, “many of today's jobs that require a lot of physical labor will be replaced by machines with artificial intelligence. These include agricultural jobs, and ones with repetitive duties like telephone call centers. Al machines can also replace jobs like ones in the financial industry-jobs that require studying a lot of data."
The health industry is one area that artificial intelligence is already changing. AI can process huge amounts of data, so doctors can use the most up-to-date information to diagnose and treat patients.
IBM's Watson technology is already in use at hospitals in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Watson helps doctors keep up with information.
There is also a dangerous side of artificial intelligence. One example is combining drone technology and AI to create autonomous weapons.
Stuart Russell is working to create international treaties to ban such weapons. He says the risk is that people will use the technology to develop a kind of “poor men's nuclear weapon”.
IBM's Banavar points out the value of artificial intelligence, including search engines and the autopilot function on planes.
The debate about whether artificial intelligence is good or bad for humans continues. Researchers agree there is no question that the technology is here, and that will continue to change the life on our planet.
1. What can be inferred from Russell's words in paragraph 3?| A．People's lives are becoming better. |
| B．Machines are cleverer and cleverer. |
| C．More people are in danger of unemployment. |
| D．People are bored with today's physical jobs. |
| A．Machines with AI can take the place of human beings. |
| B．Machines with AI can help doctors treat and diagnose all diseases. |
| C．Machines with AI can only fly a plane by itself without the need for a pilot. |
| D．Machines with AI can be used in many fields, search engines included. |
| A．AI is definitely changing human life. |
| B．AI will change our life for the better. |
| C．More people are needed in developing AI. |
| D．AI is a big threat to people in the future. |
| A．The Wide Usage of AI |
| B．AI: a Double-edged Sword |
| C．A Breakthrough in Developing AI |
| D．AI: a Threat for Humans |
【推荐3】In June, the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED, added about 1,000 words and new definitions to its website. The changes are to help users understand a mix of terms, some dating back to many centuries. The additions include words such as "brencheese" "deathshildy" and "hip-pop".
The new entries are part of the company's update to Oed. com, its searchable online dictionary for paid members. The OED makes changes to the website four times each year. But the latest print version has been in process since the year 2000, and may not be ready for 10 more years. That information comes from Katherine Connor Martin, who heads the company's dictionary operations in the United States.
"Usually, the OFD watches usage of a word for at least 10 years before deciding whether to add a new entry, new definition or word related to an existing entry." she said. This general rule, however, is sometimes not followed. That is what happened with "tweet", a word that the OED added far before the 10-year mark. Other times, the company adds words that are very old, but were not included in the dictionary in the past.
"It's funny because we talk about new words but many of the words we add are already obsolete. It's just that they were never in the dictionary before," Martin told the Associated Press.
"That is the reality." she said, of a historical dictionary trying to put more than 1,000 years of English into books that already have over 855,000 entries. So, you get "brencheese", a rarely used term for when bread and cheese are eaten together. The word dates back to the year 1665. The word "deathshildy" is from Old English. It means someone who is guilty of a serious crime and condemned to death.
The website defines the term "hip-pop" for music that combines parts of hip-hop and popular music. The OED discovered the term "hip-hip pop" was used in a 1985 story from a Pennsylvania newspaper. It noted that the term "hip-pop" appeared in a 1991 U. S. newspaper report about the rap artist M. C. Hammer.
The website has added several other terms related to modern culture. They include three popularterms: "binge-watching", "spoiler alert" and "microaggression".
Here are a few other new entries if you long to read on.
1. What has OED done recently?| A．It has made changes to its words’ explanations. |
| B．It has picked out some words which are out of date. |
| C．It has helped users to have more convenient use of OED. |
| D．It has taken in more words and new meanings of some words. |
| A．outdated | B．updated | C．changed | D．explained |
| A．The influence cultures have on the words in OED. |
| B．The difficulties OED has in choosing the words. |
| C．The effect modern technology has on OED. |
| D．The new vocabularies OED has included. |
| A．OED, a Great Help for English Learners | B．A Brand New Version of OED Website |
| C．A Better Understanding of Words in OED | D．Examples of OED Choosing Words |
