【推荐1】At first glance, the image that flashed on the computer screen looked like an ordinary road map. Then John Richardson, acting manager of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), began tapping at his keyboard. With one click he got a close-up view of New York, divided not along town or county lines but along sectors of airspace. With another click on the key he eliminated hundreds of tiny black dots showing the location of low-flying aircraft and private jets. What remained on the screen were larger, winged symbols representing commercial airliners. With a few more key taps he color-coded the jetliners according to their airport destination.

To computer fans at ease with the graphic interpretation of Max Headroom, the FAA demonstration might seem simple. But to air-traffic professionals gathered in the agency’s sixth-floor “ war room, ” it represented a technological breakthrough. Before last week, FAA radar data showing the location of planes flying over the U.S. could be shown only dot on computer screens at one or more of the airline agency’s 20 regional control centers. Now, all that information has been combined and displayed on a single screen, giving the nation’s air-traffic controllers a unique view of overhead traffic patterns as they unfold from coast to coast. Exclaimed Richardson, with pride: “ It’s unbelievable! ”

Last week’s display — more evolutionary than revolutionary — involved the conveying of data on aircraft position, altitude (海拔), speed and identification from each of the regional air-traffic control centers to the FAA’s Washington headquarters. There the information is combined into a manageable whole by an assembly of Apollo work-stations and displayed through custom-designed software on as many as three dozen screens. The objective of the system is to provide centralized management of traffic problems as they may build up at any of the country’s 12,500 airports. Cost of the new computer operation so far: about $2 million. The FAA’s final goal, though, is a multibillion-dollar air-traffic control system so highly automated that it can monitor flights and direct pilots with little or no human disturbance.

Such a system is far in the future, but the new linkup may have arrived just in time. A badly overburdened U.S. air-traffic system has pushed control tower errors to record levels. Midair close calls added 215 in the previous three months of 1987, while errors by overtaxed air controllers jumped 18%. The safety crisis urged the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board to recommend the FAA take “ immediate action ” to reduce air traffic at key airports before the expected summer air-travel crush. FAA officials say that with their new control system they will be able to meet those recommendations without reducing the number of flights entering or leaving the critical barriers. Also supervisors can monitor with greater precision specific sections of airspace that are becoming dangerously overcrowded. Traffic jams can then be relieved or prevented by shifting the altitude of some flights or rerouting others to avoid jammed areas.

1. What can be concluded about the FAA demonstration?

A．It can present a close-up view of the New York Metropolitan area along town or county lines.

B．It makes it easy to highlight the location of low-flying private aircrafts by tiny black dots.

C．It can show the remaining larger, winged symbols that represent commercial airliners.

D．It makes it complicated to color-code the jetliners according to their airport destination.

2. What’s the purpose of the new air-traffic control system?

A．To show the technology breakthrough of airline agencies.

B．To manage air traffic problems in a concentrated way.

C．To inspect the overall situation in 20 regional control centers.

D．To train the operators to control air traffic more efficiently.

3. Why is it high time to operate the new air-traffic control system?

A．The heavily burdened system has driven control tower errors to record levels.

B．Control tower errors increased by over 18% in the first three months of 1987.

C．Midair close calls increased at least 215 in the previous three months of 1987.

D．It’s impossible for supervisors to shift the altitude of some flights or reroute others.

4. Which of the following is TRUE about their new air-traffic control system?

A．It can operate flights and direct pilots with little or no human disturbance.

B．It recommends reducing flights entering or leaving the critical barriers.

C．It enables supervisors to monitor specific sections of airspace more precisely.

D．It avoids most air traffic jams by changing the altitude of all flights at ease.

【推荐3】Research has shown that behavioral signaling is largely universal — not only across cultures, but across species. Based on this knowledge, Cogito Corp has created an artificial intelligence (AI) technology to analyze behavioral and vocal cues to provide in-the-moment guidance during conversations, making individuals more emotionally intelligent.

“Artificial intelligence continues to have a transformational effect across industries. One area we see specific accelerated advancement in with this technology, is machine learning,” said Dr. John Kane of Cogito. “Much of the advancement in machine learning is due to the fact that it’s not far removed from our daily lives. Take Amazon’s Alexa as a household example: Alexa can recognize and respond to whispered speech for voice commands, made possible through machine learning advancement,”Kane continued. He also pointed out that “media has built unrealistic expectations in the minds of the general public when it comes to AI, where in fact, machine learning algorithms are still generally developed for narrowly defined purposes.”

Cogito was founded with the mission of helping humans communicate with more emotional intelligence. Presently, it helps individuals across enterprise-level organizations, mainly in the insurance, healthcare and financial service industries, create stronger customer service outcomes with the help of the Cogito AI coach. “Our goal is to provide in-the-moment guidance to individuals within enterprise call centers so they can adjust their behavior and improve customer experiences,” Kane said.

Cogito’s AI technology aims to offer a win-win-win model for companies — improving agent performance so that employees are more occupied with their work, customers are more satisfied and the company is more productive. Cogito’s in-the-moment guidance identifies patterns and cues that may be easily overlooked, giving consistent recommendations to agents in real time. This focused level of analysis helps managers coach high-performing agents to be more consistent and low-performing agents to identify areas for improvement — positively impacting companies.

Looking to the future, Cogito’s CEO and co-founder, Joshua Feast, sees an opportunity to own the AI coaching space. AI coaches guide humans to improve their individual and team performance, resulting in a more productive, emotionally intelligent and successful workforce.

1. What’s the main reason for machine learning’s advancement?

A．Its connections with our daily lives.

B．Its being a basic area of AI technology.

C．An increasing demand for the technology.

D．Media’s efforts to promote the technology.

2. What do you know about AI from Kane’s words?

A．It has wider uses than expected.

B．What it can do now may be overestimated.

C．It is far from familiar to the public.

D．Most advanced AI technologies remain unknown to the public.

3. Why was Cogito established?

A．To bring greater advancement in machine learning.

B．To reveal the behavioral differences between humans.

C．To make humans more emotionally intelligent in conversations.

D．To help companies monitor and measure employees’ work performance.

4. Where is Cogito’s AI technology mainly applied?

A．In small companies.

B．In educational agencies.

C．In international trading.

D．In the service industry.

5. What can be inferred about Cogito’s AI technology?

A．It faces a lot of challenges.

B．It seems to have a bright future.

C．It may replace the human workforce sooner or later.

D．It is disadvantageous to low-performing employees.

【推荐1】The European Union (EU) has announced a broad new transport plan which aims to cut back on carbon emissions over the next three decades. The European Commission presented its “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy" on Wednesday. According to the Commission, its strategy focuses on making Europe’s transport system “sustainable, smart and resilient".

By 2030, aims for the strategy include: at least 30 million zero-emission cars on the road, “market-ready" zero-emission marine vessels, and the large-scale application of automated mobility. Other targets for the next decade include the development of more cycling infrastructure. And by 2035, it wants “zero-emission large aircraft" to be market-ready. Further ahead, the Commission says “nearly all cars, vans, buses as well as new heavy-duty vehicles will be zero-emission” by the middle of this century.

“By carrying out this strategy, we’ll create a more efficient and resilient transport system, which is on a firm pathway to slash emissions in line with our European Green Deal goals,^” said Adina Valean, the commissioner for transport. The European Green Deal refers to the European Commission’s plan for the European Union to be climate neutral by 2050.

While authorities in Europe were eager to play up the strategy and emphasize the potential effects of its goals, some environmental organizations offered a different viewpoint. In a statement reacting to the plans, the European Unit of Greenpeace said the Commission’s proposal didn’t “suggest setting a reduction target for air travel, nor the number of privately owned cars".

"While it does suggest that ‘collective travel’ (e.g. via air, rail and bus) under 500 km in the

EU be carbon neutral by 2030, it nevertheless falls short of binding measures, such as a ban on short-distance flights where there’s a greener alternative like rail,” the group added. "It also fails to set an end date for the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines."

Elsewhere, the European Cyclists' Federation, Cycling Industries Europe and Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry gave what they described as a “careful welcome” to the strategy’s "positive statements about cycling^". They stated that “a lot more work" was required to “identify how more ambitious change can be built into the Commission’s action plans”. The associations then went on to express their regret that the strategy had “not yet set specific milestones for cycling as a transport mode in the transport system of the future”.

1. What does the new transport plan mainly focus on?

A．Various means of transportation.

B．People’s traffic safety awareness.

C．Chief functions of future vehicles.

D．Environmental benefits of transport.

2. What does the underlined word “slash" in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．remove

B．affect

C．reduce

D．limit

3. What can we know about the Commission’s proposal?

A．It fails to satisfy the real needs of the public.

B．It meets opposition from some organizations.

C．It increases the government’s financial burden.

D．It sets many economic targets that are unrealistic.

4. What is the associations’ attitude towards the new strategy?

A．Casual.

B．Cautious.

C．Positive.

D．Friendly.

【推荐3】Once the choice of royal household, the watermelon has gained popularity rapidly over the years, and an online grocer reported that the fruit’s sales on the platform had increased sixfold from 2020 to 2022, resulting in increasingly high demand for watermelon quality testers.

Lee, 32, is extremely busy in the summer months. Just by holding the watermelon near his ear and knocking on the surface with his fingers, Lee says, he can tell by the sound if the fruit is ripe enough to be eaten or not. He works for a rural cooperative set up by a group of watermelon farmers, and puts thousands of watermelons through the “knock test” daily, before they are shipped to downtown warehouses where the platform sources its supplies.

The practice of knocking on watermelons to determine their ripeness can be found across cultures. In China, it is considered a national habit. Smart buyers tap on the fruit before purchase to ensure their money is well-spent. Some buyers knock on the fruit despite not knowing what the hollow sound means just to negotiate a better deal from the seller.

As fruit sales have moved to online platforms in a big way, those who make a living by checking the quality of the fruits with their fingers are much in demand. Lee is one among the growing group. Their task is to conduct knock tests on behalf of e-buyers and ensure that the fruits selected to be sold online are uniform in size and quality.

Lee, who was once an award-winning soccer player, now describes himself as a “goalkeeper for watermelons”. He quit soccer about four years ago and learned about melon-knocking as an emerging profession and decided to become an apprentice(学徒) to an experienced farmer.

After a year’s trial and error, Lee worked independently as a quality checker. “It is a highly demanding task. During the apprenticeship, I often cracked open melons to confirm my judgment. There are just no shortcuts, ” he said.

1. What is the main purpose of the text?

A．To introduce an emerging profession.

B．To describe Lee’s career transformation.

C．To discuss the importance of fruit quality testers.

D．To explain the cultural role of watermelon-knocking.

2. What has led to the high demand for watermelon quality testers?

A．The popularity of watermelons.	B．The big harvest of watermelons.
C．An increase in watermelon prices.	D．A rapid rise in online watermelon sales.

3. Why does Lee describe himself as a “goalkeeper for watermelons”?

A．He was once an award-winning soccer player.

B．He dreams of being a professional melon-knocker.

C．He was taught by an experienced watermelon farmer.

D．He ensures that customers enjoy watermelons of quality.

4. What can we learn from Lee’s words in the last paragraph?

A．Seeing is believing.	B．Every man has his value.
C．Great efforts and practice matter.	D．Excellence can be found in any profession.