Begus is a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley. He got the chance, last summer, to observe sperm whales in their wild Caribbean habitat. With him were marine (海洋的) biologists and roboticists. There were also cryptographers and experts in other fields. All have been working together to listen to sperm whales and figure out what they might be saying. They call this Project CETI. Project CETI’s team is not the only group turning to AI for help decoding animal talk. Researchers have trained AI models to sort through the sounds of prairie dogs, dolphins, naked mole rats and many other creatures.
Long before AI came into the picture, scientists and others have worked toward understanding animal communication. Some learned that vervet monkeys have different calls when warning of leopards, eagles or pythons. Others discovered that elephants communicate in rumbles too low for human ears to hear. Bats chatter in squeaks too high for our hearing. Still other groups have explored how bees communicate through dance.
“It took us a long time to measure all these things,” says researcher Karen Bakker. AI, she notes, has the potential to greatly speed up this type of research. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to use AI to build a futuristic chat box that translates animal sounds into human language, or vice versa (反之亦然).
“Al could eventually get us to the point where we understand animals,” says Bakker. What’s interesting to her is what we can learn from how bats and other creatures talk among each other. We should listen to animals for better protection, she argues. For example, a system set up to record whales or elephants can also track their locations. This can help us avoid whales with our boats or prevent elephants from illegal hunters.
1. What is Project CETI aimed at?| A．Applying AI to animal research. |
| B．Improving the living conditions of sperm whales. |
| C．Preventing all marine life from extinction. |
| D．Analysing talks of sperm whales. |
| A．By listing figures. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By analyzing causes. |
| A．Animal researches used to be time-consuming. |
| B．Animals may one day understand human language. |
| C．We can already well figure out animal talk with AI. |
| D．We apply AI to eventually assist us protect animals. |
| A．AI: A Potential Threat to Human Future |
| B．AI: A Technology Beneficial to the Earth |
| C．AI: A Tool to Understand and Protect Animals |
| D．AI: A Field of Fierce Major-country Competition |
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【推荐1】The "world's loneliest elephant" has been resettled at a sanctuary （保护区）in Cambodia after receiving some assistance from iconic （偶像的）singer Cher, who has been advocating for Kaavan's resettlement along with her animal welfare group Free the Wild.
Kaavan, a 36-year-old, 9,000-pound elephant, was given the nickname after he was diagnosed as being emotionally and physically damaged while living in a zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, for 35 years. During that time, Kaavan was mostly chained in his fence, and when his partner died in 2012, her body laid next to him for several days before it was removed. Vets have diagnosed Kaavan as being overweight, malnourished （营养不 良）and suffering from behavioral issues due to isolation.
Kaavan was tested for COVID-19 before his seven-hour journey, which was complete with 440 pounds of snacks. Amir Khalil, a vet who accompanied him on the flight and works with Four Paws, the animal rescue group that organized the move, described Kaavan as behaving like a "frequent flier,” saying that the elephant did not seem stressed and even slept while standing in his crate （大木箱）.
On Monday, Kaavan arrived in Cambodia and he made his way north by truck to his new home in the Oddar Meanchey province. Once he feels settled, he will be released from his temporary enclosure and allowed to roam the sanctuary, which houses about 600 Asian elephants. Animal rights groups and activists appealed for years to move Kaavan into better conditions.
Kaavan will require years of psychological and physical assistance, experts have said. Living in an enclosure with improper flooring caused his nails to crack and overgrow, and he developed a habit of shaking his head back and forth for hours, which vets attributed to boredom. The elephant has lost half a ton since his diet was changed to fruit and vegetables, Khalil said. He was previously eating about 550 pounds of pure sugarcane every day and some fruits and vegetables.
1. Which of the following took charge of moving the elephant?| A．Free the Wild. | B．The reserve in Cambodia. |
| C．Four Paws. | D．The local government. |
| A．Stressed. | B．Scared. | C．Curious. | D．Calm. |
| A．Wander. | B．Leave. | C．Desert. | D．Protect. |
| A．Kaavan has slim chances of recovering. |
| B．Effects of dieting on Kaavan are noticeable. |
| C．Kaavan had a more balanced diet in the original zoo. |
| D．Previous living conditions were beneficial to Kaavan. |
【推荐2】On Christmas Eve, a team of reindeer (驯鹿) will help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children all around the world. The reindeer, led by their fearless leader Rudolph, won’t be the only ones doing something special. Back in the highest Arctic, their cousins have a remarkable ability changing their eye color.
During the summer months, when the days are long and the sun is bright, reindeer’s tapetum lucidum (荧光膜), a mirror-like layer at the back of their eye, appears golden, which helps bounce the majority of light off the eyes, effectively acting like a pair of natural sunglasses. As winter comes, and the days become shorter and darker, the tapetum lucidum turns blue to absorb more light, allowing reindeer to improve their night vision and see clear in low light conditions.
With these adaptations, reindeer can adapt and thrive in one of the harshest environments on Earth. Unlike humans, reindeer can see well into the shorter Ultra Violet (UV) range. This UV vision enables them to spot food and predators more effectively in the snowy landscape. Lichens, a key part of their winter diet, absorb UV, so they show up dark against UV-reflecting white snow. Wolf and polar bear fur also absorb UV, so instead of disappearing against snow they pop out in high contrast, allowing reindeer to spot potential threats from a distance.
Reindeer change their eyes by adjusting their tapetum lucidum, which is made of collagen fibers. In winter, the collagen fibers become packed tighter, causing the tapetum lucidum to mainly reflect blue light. This change happens when reindeer dilate their pupils (瞳孔). In summer, the reindeer’s pupils return to a smaller size, which helps reindeer reduce the amount of light entering the eye.
But their unique adaptation may hurt them. Today, the increasing use of artificial lighting, especially during the winter months, poses a potential threat to their sensitive eyes. It can make reindeer lose their way, affecting their ability to survive in their challenging environment. So it is crucial for us to be mindful of our use of electricity and make efforts to minimize light pollution to ensure the well-being and survival of these magnificent creatures.
1. What do we know from paragraph 2?| A．The shape of reindeer’s eyes varies with seasons. |
| B．It is difficult for reindeer to live in low light conditions. |
| C．The tapetum lucidum helps reindeer adapt to seasonal changes. |
| D．Reindeer’s eyes appear golden in winter while blue in summer. |
| A．To help them see clear in dark nights. |
| B．To distinguish food of different colors quickly. |
| C．To protect their eyes from harsh sunlight in summer. |
| D．To better locate food and enemies during snowy days. |
| A．Relax. | B．Expand. | C．Narrow. | D．Hide. |
| A．To call on people to protect reindeer from light pollution. |
| B．To show the reasons for the decline in reindeer population. |
| C．To present humans’ great efforts to reduce artificial lighting. |
| D．To prove reindeer’s strong adaptability to harsh environments. |
【推荐3】Some birds are inside decorators, placing big, showy feathers in their nests. But rather than beautifying their homes, these birds may be trying to scare nest-stealing neighbors.
Birds sometimes weave feathers into their nests to provide insulation (隔绝). But behavioral ecologists Karen Wiebe and Tore Slagsvold also saw birds placing large feathers on the surfaces of nests. Those feathers wouldn’t help with warmth. The researchers wondered whether the birds might be using the decorations to send a message.
For birds that nest in holes, competition for nests can be really fierce. Birds scream and fight, sometimes killing an opponent. But these holes can also hide danger. Eagles or other predators may be hiding inside. If a nest contains feathers or other remains, it might be evidence that a predator had been there. Those holes might not be desirable.
During spring, when nest competition is the fiercest, the researchers set up pairs of nesting boxes. One box contained white feathers. The other either contained no feathers or black feathers. Inside the boxes, black feathers were more difficult to see than white ones. Using video cameras, the researchers spied on how tree swallows, blue tits, and pied flycatchers reacted to the boxes. They watched how long birds waited to explore a nest box. When birds took longer to enter, that suggested the birds were scared.
Birds of all three species hesitated to enter boxes with white feathers. But when feathers were in front of a nest, birds jumped right up and grabbed them. That suggested that birds weren’t afraid of the feathers themselves.
“It was really interesting to discover that birds were using a trick to help them keep their nests,” Wiebe says. “When a bird leaves its nest to search for food, it opens the door for a nest stealer. But if it can buy a little time by scaring away intruders (不速之客) with these feathers, then it has a better chance of coming back in time to defend its nest site.”
1. Why do birds cover the surfaces of their nests with big feathers?| A．To keep warm. | B．To attract mates. |
| C．To scare off intruders. | D．To hide from predators. |
| A．Feathers alone fail to frighten birds. |
| B．Holes with black feathers scare birds most. |
| C．Most birds are hesitant to get into white boxes. |
| D．Birds like feathers similar to those of their own. |
| A．They are poor at using tricks. |
| B．They use feathers to play catch. |
| C．They seek food near their nests. |
| D．They may be aware of nest stealers. |
| A．Birds protect their food from predators cleverly |
| B．Birds attach importance to decorating their nests |
| C．Birds decorate nests to scare off stealers |
| D．Birds identify danger by feather colors |
【推荐1】Salvador Dali had a strange way of refreshing his mind — “slumber (睡眠) with a key”. In a book, he described how it worked. “You were to grasp a heavy key, hanging above a plate.” Then, he continued, “As you were progressively asleep, the key would slip from your fingers and fall on the plate, awakening you.” He claimed the brief moment spent between wake and sleep would refresh your physical and mental being.
Now Dali’s mysterious-sounding method has been, to some degree, proven by science — napping with an object in hand might help to tap into this creative sweet spot.
Delphine Oudiette is a sleep researcher at the Paris Brain Institute. She was curious to find out why — so she and her colleagues asked 103 volunteers to complete a series of math problems.
Unknown to the participants, there was a quick shortcut to solve all the problems. ( Sixteen of the volunteers figured that out and were excluded from the rest of the study. ) The volunteers who didn’t determine the secret were asked to emulate (模仿) Dali’s method — but grasping a plastic bottle with their fingertips rather than a key. Some took a Dali-style micro nap (小睡), some napped longer and others didn’t nap at all. After the nap, the researchers asked all the volunteers to do hundreds more of these math problems. And they found that volunteers who took micro naps were nearly three times as likely to figure out the problem-solving trick, compared to those who didn’t nap at all.
Oudiette said, “We think that’s maybe in this short period, you have the best of the two worlds: sleep and wake. So you lose control of your thoughts and have loose associations, which could be helpful for creativity. But at the same time, you still keep some awareness that might help you to recognize when you have a great idea. Those who slept for longer periods actually did worse than both those who briefly slept and those who stayed awake. The next step of my work will involve repeating the experiment with other creative tasks to know more about the mechanism — and maybe to teach people to reach this creative sweet spot.”
1. Why did Dali use a heavy key and a plate?| A．The key and the plate could help him sleep faster. |
| B．The key and the plate were easy to find in his house. |
| C．The plate could prevent the key slipping onto the floor. |
| D．The key would make a loud noise when hitting the plate. |
| A．Dali’s method. | B．Oudiette’s study. |
| C．The quick shortcut. | D．The maths problem. |
| A．All the participants didn’t nap in the process. |
| B．Only 16 participants worked out the math problems. |
| C．87 volunteers tried sleeping with a key in their hands. |
| D．Those who napped were asked not to do the math problems. |
| A．Sleep and wake have loose associations. |
| B．People have relaxed minds when sleeping. |
| C．Those staying awake did worst in the study. |
| D．She has fortunately found out the root cause. |
【推荐2】Do our musical preferences say something about our personality or how we view relation- ships with others? According to new research, they just may.
In the study, 469 participants listed their favorite songs about falling in love, breaking up, parental love or anything else related to relationships. Then, they filled out questionnaires to define their attachment (依恋) style in relationships — whether they feel confident, anxious and avoidant.
Researchers matched words of these songs with the questionnaires. According to the analysis, participants who see themselves as worthy of love preferred songs with sweet themes, while those who tend to worry liked songs expressing more sad themes, and those who often drop out of social relationships chose songs with avoidant themes.
According to the lead author, Ravin Alaei from the University of Toronto, this is the first study that examines how song words play a role in music preferences. “One reason why people turn to music is that it can embody what they think, feel, and do in relationships and song words especially matter for that,” he said. “People enjoy having their feelings and thoughts spoken back to them.”
To extend their findings, the researchers pulled together 823 most popular songs from 1946 to 2015. After rating how much these songs’ words showed different attachment themes, they compared songs from 1946 to 1965 with those from 1990 to 2015. They found more recent popular songs were more likely to have avoidant attachment words or themes than older popular songs. Alaei believes this can show a trend (趋势) toward more avoidance in relation-ships — Perhaps because people are less connected than they used to be. “We’ve become more individualistic, and we feel lonelier than people used to several decades ago,” he said.
What does this mean? It may mean that we can reflect (沉思) on our interpersonal relationships with people around us when we want to listen to a kind of music over and over again.
1. What will a man who feels anxious in relationships probably prefer?| A．A sweet song. | B．An interesting song. |
| C．An inspiring song. | D．A sad song. |
| A．Explore. | B．Copy. | C．Guess. | D．Express. |
| A．They are able to change our personalities. |
| B．They are greatly affected by social media. |
| C．They suggest a change in interpersonal closeness. |
| D．They strengthen people’s attitude to relationships. |
| A．Turning to our favorite music for mental comfort. |
| B．Having a self-reflection through the music we like. |
| C．Improving our interpersonal relationships by music. |
| D．Encouraging ourselves to try various music styles. |
【推荐3】Nancy Tillman’s wonderful On the Night You Were Born is one of my favorite books. Its celebration of the uniqueness of each and every child told in lyrical language makes it the gift I choose most often for expectant or adoptive parents. I also read it regularly with my grandchildren and talk with them about how special they are.
Tillman feels that the most important message for children to receive is simply, “You are loved.” And it’s that message that is the focus of this, her newest book, Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You. Once again, it is her turn of phrase that most fascinates me: In the green of the grass ... in the smell of the sea ... in the clouds floating by ... at the top of a tree ... in the sound crickets make at the end of the day ... “You are loved. You are loved. You are loved,” they all say. Phrases encourage children to grow, to try new things, to “march to the front” of their “own parade” and assures them that, no matter how far they go or what they do, they will be loved.
Though the words alone would convince me to buy, share and recommend this book, Tillman is also a gifted artist and her lovely work makes this book a visual treasure as well. Through the pages, a child rides hippos, splashes in the surf with elephants, plays hide and seek with rabbits, shares a trampoline (蹦床) with a kangaroo and enjoys some quiet time with a pair of pandas. My favorite drawing has the child walking away along a wide path that runs between trees covered in mist. In all of the drawings, swirls of sparkling lights wrap around the child--the love that will always be with him/her.
I’ve read On the Night You Were Born dozens of times and with every single reading, I am incredibly touched. Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You creates the same feeling of wonder, peace and happiness in me. It’s a keep-forever book and I’m so happy to have it in my collection to share with the children I love most.
1. The purpose of this passage is to _____.| A．encourage people to buy Nancy Tillman’s books for their children |
| B．recommend Tillman’s new book--Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You |
| C．advocate the theme of love among family members |
| D．Let children know they are loved and educate them to love others |
| A．Nancy Tillman’s book On the Night You Were Born encourages children to try new things. |
| B．The most important focus of Tillman’s books is for children to know they are loved. |
| C．The writer considers Tillman a gifted artist for her vivid use of words and rich imagination. |
| D．The writer has bought and read both of Tillman’s books mentioned in this passage. |
| A．The words alone makes Tillman’s books the writer’s favorite. |
| B．Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You is published earlier than On the Night You Were Born. |
| C．My favorite drawing shows the feeling of wonder with the child swirling in sparkling lights. |
| D．The drawings in Wherever You Are convey love with pictures involving animals. |
【推荐1】Here is a record of the discussion about AI (artificial intelligence) conducted by several scientists:
Scientist A: I would say that we are quite a long way off developing the AI, though I do think it will happen within the next thirty or forty years. We will probably remain in control of technology and it will help us solve many of the world’s problems. However, no one really knows what will happen if machines become more intelligent than humans. They may help us, ignore us or destroy us. I tend to believe AI will have a positive influence on our future lives, but whether that is true will be partly up to us.
Scientist B: I have to admit that the potential consequences of creating something that can match or go beyond human intelligence frighten me. Even now, scientists are teaching computers how to learn on their own. At some point in the near future, their intelligence may well take off and develop at an ever-increasing speed. Human beings evolve biologically very slowly and we would be quickly substituted. In the short term, there is the danger that robots will take over millions of human jobs, creating a large underclass of unemployed people. This could mean large-scale poverty and social unrest. In the long term machines might decide the world would be better without humans.
Scientist C: I’m a member of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. Forget the movie image of a terrifying Terminator stamping on human skulls and think of what’s happening right now: military machines like drones, gun turrets and sentry robots are already being used to kill with very little human input. The next step will be autonomous “murderbots” following orders but finally deciding who to kill on their own. It seems clear to me that this would be extremely dangerous for humans. We need to be very cautious indeed about what we ask machines to do.
1. What is Scientist B worried about?| A．AI technology will destroy the earth. | B．Robots will take the place of humans. |
| C．Computers can’t think by themselves. | D．Humans will be unhappy without machines. |
| A．I launched the campaign to Stop Killer Robots. |
| B．We forget the movie image of a terrifying Terminator. |
| C．“Murderbots” will be against humans’ orders. |
| D．“Murderbots” can’t decide by themselves. |
| A．The employment will be affected by AI technology in the future. |
| B．Scientist A thinks AI technology will never develop. |
| C．“Murderbots” will follow the orders of their manufacturers in the wars. |
| D．All the three scientists agree that AI technology will benefit human beings. |
| A．Scientist A. | B．Scientists B & C. | C．Scientist B. | D．Scientists B & A. |
【推荐2】Smart technology is helping doctors provide better service in the medical field. At the 2023 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, Xia Bangbo, a doctor from Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, showed a 5G+AR remote emergency medical services system.
With this system, doctors at grassroots(基层的) levels can wear portable AR devices to immediately connect with higher-level medical experts for communication, receiving advanced medical guidance. “In medical work, especially in emergencies, what doctors need most is rapid decision making, which doctors at grassroots levels currently lack in terms of response speed,” said Hong Yucai, director of the emergency department of the hospital. He expressed that this 5G+AR system, using a communication system based on 5G and AR technology for audio and video interactions, rapidly connects grassroots and higher-level doctors.
This 5G+AR system also uses artificial intelligence (AI). Even if a ship carrying it on the sea loses network connection and no doctors are present, the AI doctor in the system will provide real-time guidance to those around. Since its trial run at the beginning of 2022, this smart system has covered more than 40 county-level hospitals and community health service centers in seven counties in Zhejiang.
Another way AI is being used in medical service is to collect and study data from smartwatches and wearables. China’s company Zepp Health recently launched several AI-powered products to go with its existing smart wearables. Zepp Aura, for instance, is a new software service that offers users tailored guidance, sleep analysis, as well as AI-generated sleep music which adjusts in real time based on the user’s heart rate.
With the development of AI, big data, and other innovative tools, smart technology in healthcare will certainly be changing the game in more ways.
1. What problem does the 5G+AR system solve?| A．The slow reaction of grassroots doctors to medical cases. |
| B．The poor medical equipment in remote areas. |
| C．The lack of communication between grassroots doctors. |
| D．The inexperience of young doctors. |
| A．Improve medical level of hospitals in cities. |
| B．Collect data from users’ smartwatches. |
| C．Guide ordinary people to handle medical emergencies. |
| D．Provide audio and video materials for higher-level doctors. |
| A．Multi-functional. | B．Cost-effective. |
| C．Groundbreaking. | D．Lifelike. |
| A．Smart Technology Betters the World. |
| B．AI’s Development Promotes People’s Health. |
| C．Smart Technology Improves Medical Service. |
| D．Medical Field Is Changed Completely by AI. |
【推荐3】ChatGPT maker OpenAI from the United States stepped up the global artificial intelligence race in mid-February when it released its text-to-video generation tool Sora. That made me wonder — how long before China develops its own Sora? And, will AI become China’s critical new productive force?
According to OpenAI’s explainer, Sora is capable of generating complex scenes with a very high degree of accuracy, including multiple characters, specific types of movements, themes and backgrounds. It understands not only what the user requests, but also how these things exist in the physical world.
On Feb 16, Zhou Hongyi, founder of cybersecurity firm 360 Security Technology, said Sora may bring a huge disruption to the advertising industry, movie trailers and the short-video industry; what’s more, the realization of generative AI may be shortened from 10 years to one or two years.
“Although the development level of large-scale models in China seems to be close to GPT-3. 5, there is still an 18-month gap compared to GPT-4. 0. OpenAI should still have an ace or two up its sleeve, whether it is GPT-5. 0 or machine self-learning to generate content,” Zhou said, adding that it is worth paying attention.
According to a report by the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, China had developed at least 254 AI large language models by October last year. Currently, most domestic large models still have a huge gap with GPT-4. 0.
But the country could make use of such frontier AI technologies in more industry-specific fields. Or, to put it simply, China needs to apply such technologies to real use, to develop them into productive forces and narrow the gap between itself and the US.
Though China still has a gap with the US in such a large model, Chinese AI startup ModelBest Inc launched last month its latest lightweight large model, an emerging less expensive AI technology that aims at more targeted commercialized fields.
1. What is Sora according to the passage?| A．It is a kind of new productive force for China. |
| B．It is an AI tool to produce videos out of texts. |
| C．It is an Internet user in the physical world. |
| D．It is a latest large-scale security model. |
| A．Sora will bring both challenges and chances. |
| B．Sora can understand users’ feelings at ease. |
| C．Sora has totally changed the movie industry. |
| D．Sora will soon be replaced by other AI tools. |
| A．China’s domestic large models should be used in education. |
| B．China should take advantage of present AI technologies. |
| C．China should develop less expensive AI technology. |
| D．China should speed up its development in OpenAI. |
