Deep in a forest of France’s Burgundy region, a group of enthusiasts have been building a castle with tools and methods from the late 13th century since 1995. Some of those working here are very skilled heritage people, and others are history lovers. But all of them share a deep respect for nature and a desire to return to simpler times.
The idea to build the castle was born in 1995 among three residents of the region. One of them, Maryline Martin, owns a nearby 17th-century house and is involved in work to restore different castles in the area.
“We thought that it would be amazing to imitate (模仿) how people did things in the past,” Martin tells public radio station France Culture. “We decided to use other ancient castles in this area as examples and get inspiration from descriptions in old books.”
On the construction site, the workers are all dressed in ancient clothing. The smell of fire is coming from a nearby blacksmith’s shop, where 20-year-old Matisse Lacroix is burning a piece of iron in a stove to make tools needed to build the castle.
“The temperature in the stove is around 1100℃, so the iron can be softened to make these nails,” Lacroix explains to a group of fourth-graders, who are watching him bending and shaping the iron into nails.
“Part of the project’s mission is to rediscover and pass along skills and knowledge from the past,” Martin tells reporters. “That learning aspect of the project is one reason why its construction is taking so long.”
Initially, the project was funded by European Union. Now it is financed through more than 300,000 visitors a year who pay between 12 and 15 euros each. The income is more than enough to cover the construction costs and payments for the 100 staff members.
As for the project’s future, Martin says it could take 10, 15, or even 20 more years to build. “But we’re OK with that. It’s not about finishing the project. It’s about the things we learn and discover while building,” he says. “I believe the way we’re working here is more sustainable. The future is low tech.”
1. Which of the following best describes the castle-builders?| A．Famous historians. | B．Enthusiastic conservationists. |
| C．Housing developers. | D．Professional heritage researchers. |
| A．Maryline Martin’s background. | B．The project’s influence. |
| C．The inspirations for the project. | D．The history of the castle. |
| A．The owners don’t have enough money. |
| B．The workers don’t have proper equipment. |
| C．The French authorities fail to provide timely support. |
| D．The participants want to explore the ancient building skills. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Unclear. | C．Approving. | D．Objective. |
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【推荐1】Just how much does the Constitution(宪法) protect your digital data? The Supreme Court will now consider whether police can search the contents of a mobile phone without a warrant (授权令) if the phone is on or around a person during an arrest.
California has asked the justices to restore the practice that the police may search through the contents of suspects’ smartphones at the time of their arrest. It is hard, the state says, for judges to assess the implications of new and rapidly changing technologies .
The justices would be careless if they followed California's advice. They should start by rejecting California’s weak argument that exploring the contents of a smart phone is similar to say, going through a suspect's wallet. The court has ruled that police don't offend against the Fourth Amendment(修正案) when they go through the wallet of an arrestee without a warrant. In fact, exploring one's smartphone is more like entering his or her home. A smartphone may contain an arrestee's reading history, financial history, medical history and comprehensive records of recent correspondence.
Americans should take steps to protect their own digital privacy and should avoid putting important information in smartphones. But keeping sensitive information on these devices is increasingly a requirement of normal life. Citizens still have a right to expect private documents to remain private and protected by the Constitution's prohibition on unreasonable searches.
In many cases, it would not be very difficult for authorities to obtain a warrant to search through phone contents. They could still trump(打出王牌) the Fourth Amendment protections when facing severe and dangerous circumstances, such as the threat of immediate harm, and they could take reasonable measures to ensure that phone data are not deleted or altered while a warrant is on the way. The justices, though, may want to allow room for police to cite situations where they are entitled to more flexibility.
But the justices should not swallow California's argument whole. New technology sometimes demands fresh applications of the Constitution's protections. Orin Kerr, a law professor, compares the explosion and accessibility of digital information in the 21st century with the establishment of automobile use as a digital necessity of life in the 20th. At that time, the justices had to explain new rules for the new personal domain(领域) of cars. Similarly, the justices must sort out how the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution applies to digital information now.
1. The author’s attitude toward California’s argument is _____________.| A．skeptical | B．tolerant |
| C．indifferent | D．disapproving |
| A．getting into one's residence | B．handing one's historical records |
| C．scanning one's correspondences | D．going through one's wallet |
| A．principles are hard to be clearly expressed |
| B．citizens' privacy is not effectively protected |
| C．phones are used to store sensitive information |
| D．the court is giving police less room for action |
| A．the Constitution should be implemented flexibly |
| B．Principles of the Constitution should never be changed |
| C．New technology requires reinterpretation of the Constitution |
| D．California's argument violates principles of the Constitution |
【推荐2】Traffic Regulation and Accident Prevention
We live in a remarkable time, and many of the once fatal diseases can now be cured with modern medicine and surgery.
Nothing can seriously increase your risk of potentially fatal car accidents other than speeding and failing to pay due attention to weather conditions.
Traffic rules are for everyone to follow under any circumstances, and no one can make an exception unless you make a joke of your own life. Universally accepted standards can only have a significant beneficial on the incidence of accidents. Governments should develop safety codes for manufacturers.
| A．There are five reasons for the accident and you are guilty. |
| B．Every year thousands of people are horribly killed, and we sit still and let it happen. |
| C．Surprisingly, society should smile at the driver and forgive him. |
| D．Someone has rightly said that when a person is sitting behind the steering wheel, his car becomes an extension of his personality. |
| E．All advertisements that emphasize power and performance should be banned. |
| F．It is time to develop a universal norm to reduce this senseless waste of human life. |
| G．It is almost certain that one day a cure will be found for the rest of the diseases. |
【推荐3】We’re increasingly relying on automation and artificial intelligence in everyday life. But we still don’t quite trust robots and fear they will take our jobs.
Humankind has a complicated relationship with robots. On the one hand, we appreciate how they can do dangerous, repetitive work so we don’t have to. Robots don’t need vacations or medical insurance. And in areas such as agriculture, where farmers can’t find enough people to pick the produce, robots can shoulder some of those tasks. But polls (民意调查) show that the growing robotization of the planet makes us feel deeply agitated - and threatened.
Pew Research Center surveys found that more than 80 percent of Americans believed thạt by 2050, robots would do much of the work humans now do and about 75 percent believed that would make economic inequality worse. Across lines of race, age, and education, people who said automation has hurt workers outnumbered those who said it’s helped workers by two to one.
National Geographic sent David Berreby around the world to look at the present and future state of robots in society.
“Robots now deliver food in Milton Keynes, England, carry supplies in a Dallas hospital, disinfect (给……消毒) patients’ rooms in China and some European countries, and wander parks in Singapore, asking pedestrians (行人) to maintain social distance,” Berreby writes.
“It’s an unavoidable fact that we are going to have machines, artificial creatures; that will be a part of our daily life,” Carnegie Mellon University AI roboticist Manuela Veloso told Berreby. “When you start accepting robots around you, like a third species, along with pets and humans, you want to relate to them.”
A third species? That’s a new idea indeed. But were not there yet. So far, Berreby reports, robots can’t equal the human mind’s ability to do a lot of tasks, especially unexpected ones, and robots haven’t yet mastered common sense - all sill required to be a magazine editor.
1. What does the underlined word “agitated” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Disappointed | B．Proud. | C．Comfortable | D．Worried. |
| A．Most people regarded workplace automation as good. |
| B．Most people agreed robots helped stimulate the economy. |
| C．More people thought robots did more harm than good. |
| D．More people feared robots would bring more social problems. |
| A．People enjoy robots’ company. |
| B．People have a growing reliance on robots, |
| C．Robots will pose a serious threat to humans. |
| D．Robots will soon replace humans in many fields. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Favorable. | C．Concerned. | D．Reserved |
【推荐1】A great amount of dark, sticky tar(焦油)was reported along Israel's coast last week. An off-shore oil tanker is believed to have leaked out.
The floating oil can form tar balls as it is pushed by wind and waves on the ocean's surface. After a violent storm, the tar balls were seen ashore. Israel has about 190 kilometers beaches. The tar has already had a big effect on the local wildlife. Volunteers were working quickly to rescue sea birds, turtles and fish. Some animals were covered in oil or tar. Others had swallowed it. The body of a young whale was found washed up on shore. The whale appeared to have died after swallowing a black oily liquid.
The government has asked people to avoid going to the beach, since tar exposure can make people sick and do harm to the skin. A number of volunteers had to be taken to the hospital after breathing in the air polluted by chemicals from the tar.
Experts from Israel and countries in Europe are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. The leak is believed to have taken place about a week ago, when there were strong storms in the area. Israel believed that a ship leaked tens or even hundreds of tons of oil in the Mediterranean. Experts are working together to review satellite images of ships that passed through the area, and they have a list of about 10 ships that are the most likely ones to leak out.
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority warned that the “consequences will be seen for years to come”. Israeli environment minister Gila Gamliel said on Saturday that there is no more floating oil visible off Israel's coast, “which is a very animative condition”. However, the ministry warned that large waves are forecast this week. The waves could carry the sticky tar from beach to beach, which could make clean-up efforts more difficult.
1. What brought the tar balls to the shore?| A．An oil ship. | B．A strong storm. |
| C．The sea animals. | D．The Floating oil. |
| A．Israel has found out the cause of the leak. |
| B．Volunteers have tried hard to stop the leak. |
| C．When the leak occurred hasn't been figured out. |
| D．Which ship is responsible for the leak is unclear. |
| A．Challenging. | B．Encouraging. | C．Rare. | D．Natural. |
| A．Health. | B．Science. | C．Environment. | D．Trade. |
【推荐2】On an island in northern Norway, the sun doesn’t set from May 18 right through to July 26. The locals, having spent the long polar night from November to January, when the sun doesn’t rise at all, make the most of these months, with no regard to conventional timekeeping. The island intends to exchange its watches for flower garlands (花环) and declare itself the world’s first time-free zone.
“There’s constant daylight, and we act accordingly,” says islander Kjell Ove Hveding in a statement. “In the middle of the night, which citizens might call ‘2 am’, you can spot children playing soccer, people painting their houses or mowing their lawns, and teens going for a swim.”
Now they want to make it official. Islanders gathered at a town hall meeting to sign a petition (请愿) for a time-free zone and on June 13, Hveding met with a Norwegian member of parliament (国会) to hand over the locals’ signatures and to discuss the practical and legal challenges.
“To us, getting this in writing would simply mean formalizing the lifestyle we have been living for generations,” he says.
Islanders hope to be free of traditional opening hours and to introduce flexibility in school and working hours. Fishing and tourism are the main industries on this island with a population of little more than 300 people. Local fisher and women often spend days on the ocean for their catch, with little regard to timetable.
It’s clear that they mean business. When visitors cross the bridge to the island from the mainland, they aren’t greeted with padlocks (symbolizing love locks) like on similar bridges worldwide. The bridge is covered with watches, as people prepare for entry to the land time forgot.
1. What do the islanders normally do at midnight from May 18 to July 26?| A．Do daily work or have fun. | B．Sleep like outside people. |
| C．Struggle with strong light. | D．Turn watches into flowers. |
| A．It is difficult to describe. | B．It has been a long tradition. |
| C．It is a new kind of lifestyle. | D．It proves practical and legal. |
| A．Visitors actually prefer watches on bridges. | B．Visitors are ready to enter a time-free island. |
| C．The islanders intend to treat tourism as business. | D．The islanders are serious about being free of time. |
| A．An island wants to be a time-free zone officially. | B．Islanders in Norway have been free from time. |
| C．It’s time to lead a life without the limit of time. | D．An island won’t be open to the world any longer. |
【推荐3】In the last few months, companies, often backed by governments, have raced to launch or begin building AIs for their native languages including Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and multiple Indian languages. But will they ever be able to compete or offer a solid alternative to Silicon Valley’s AI bots like ChatGPT?
Machine learning engineer Yennie Jun started noticing the problem when she was testing ChatGPT-4 in different languages. “I saw that it was slower, and just not as good when using it in Korean and Chinese which usually have good quality training data to draw on,” she said.
Earlier this month Yennie decided to test GPT-4 — the latest AI model from Open AI — with some tricky maths problems. She asked the same maths questions in 16 different languages and found it much better at solving problems in certain languages like English, German and Spanish. In fact, GPT-4 was able to correctly solve the maths problems in English more than three times as often compared to other languages, such as Armenian or Farsi. It wasn’t able to solve any of the tough questions in Burmese or Amharic.
“I think the current state of AI will accelerate inequality. Emerging markets just don’t have the computing power, data sets or the AI resources to compete with the western world’s models,” said Nick Adams, founding partner at Differential Ventures.
However, one promising project launched by India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology aims to improve the amount of training data in low-resourced languages by crowd sourcing. The project invites people to “make your own AI language models better by confirming data”. Participants are played audio from podcasts or shows in different Indian languages and then given digital medals in reward for translating them in their own languages. But there is a mountain to climb. Despite the huge populations of native speakers, only a few thousand people have so far got involved.
1. Why does the author ask the question in paragraph 1?| A．To present an argument. | B．To question building AIs. |
| C．To introduce the topic. | D．To showcase expectations. |
| A．Turn on. | B．Keep on. | C．Focus on. | D．Depend on. |
| A．Negative. | B．Hopeful. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Tolerant. |
| A．An AI language model. | B．An approach to training data. |
| C．A language to translate. | D．A plan launched by India. |
