In the early 1980s，an American engineer Chuck Hull went to his boss with an idea：to build a machine that prints out things you can hold in your hand. His manager told him that the company produced UV lamps, not machines that were able to make copies of things of all kinds. But finally they reached an agreement. Hull would spend the day working on the company’s lamps；at night he’d work on his machine.
It was the UV lights that gave Hull the idea at first. The lamps were used in factories to harden a plastic veneer（薄片镶饰）. Hull realized that he could use UV lights to cut plastic pieces into whatever shape he liked and then pile these pieces to form a 3-D thing. Then he had to write programs to tell his machine how to cut each piece. At last，his first 3-D printer was put together.
But by the mid-1980s，the printer had developed into a working product，though it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because the printer was too heavy to carry to exhibitions，Hull made home movies to show it to people. “The movies were pretty boring，but even so，”he said，“we got a strong reaction，especially in Detroit. Back then，the US car industry had been far behind Japan and the car companies were eager for a secret weapon（武器）. “The 3-D printer was just that：engineers could make their own models for parts such as door handles（把手），rather than send plans to a tool and dye shop，saving months during the design process and thus making their cars more competitive.
Now that the technology is becoming affordable，all kinds of people have caught 3-D fever. A professor from the University of California is working on printing out an entire house. Another 3-D artist has made a robotic hand that lets his son，who was born without several fingers，pick up a water bottle. “Anything that can be made will be made by anyone anywhere，”wrote Joris Peels，a 3-D pioneer. “Anyone will be able to 3-D-print a spoon，a truck or a rose. ”
1. What was Hull？| A．An engineer working for a lamp company. |
| B．A worker in a printer company. |
| C．A professor from the University of California. |
| D．A moviemaker. |
| A．Because he didn’t want people to know too much about it. |
| B．Because it was too heavy. |
| C．Because it still could not work. |
| D．Because it was too expensive. |
| A．It has a bright future. |
| B．It is difficult for people to use. |
| C．It still needs improving. |
| D．It will be used as a powerful weapon. |
| A．To introduce an engineer. |
| B．To make us know how the 3-D printer was invented. |
| C．To advertise for a printer company. |
| D．To tell us that a lamp company can also make printers. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Inventor Creates Wheels That Let Cars Roll in Any Direction
Omnidirectional wheels have been around for a while, but they are mostly used on utility(实用的) vehicles like forklifts. london-based inventor William Liddiard has created a special set of all-around wheels that can beboltedon to any car, allowing it to move in any direction, spin 360 degrees and slide into a parallel park with ease.
"Unlike other all-around capable wheels, my wheels do not require the vehicle to be built around them. This is a world first bolt-on application for anything with wheels." Liddiard wrote in the description of a You Tube video he uploaded to show how his invention works on an old Toyota Echo. "They are stronger, faster, and more accurately controlled than previous technology. They can take a beating. The tires can have the same build characteristics (siping, grooves, rubber compounds etc.) as regular tires. Now you can drive in all directions, and turn on the spot, when needed."
While the "Liddiard Wheels" shown in the video are just proof of concept prototypes(原型机), they seem to work as described by the inventor. His car can be seen spinning in place and sliding from one side to the other as the tires move under the power of 24,000 pounds of torque (扭矩) applied directly to them.
William is now hoping that the power of social media will help him get his invention out there and eventually team up with a company willing to help him improve the wheels and eventually bring them to the market.
" Will a set of wheels make sideward parking an easy thing? Yeah, I’m pretty sure these things will be in high demand if they ever end up on the market." the inventor said confidently.
1. What does the underlined word "bolted" in Paragraph I mean?| A．Changed. |
| B．Loaded. |
| C．Designed. |
| D．Fastened. |
| A．They use the same tires. |
| B．They have the same structure. |
| C．They are made in the same way. |
| D．They are accurately controlled. |
| A．To explain its advantages. |
| B．To seek a cooperator for it. |
| C．To challenge traditional wheels. |
| D．To show off his great achievements. |
| A．Interesting. |
| B．Convenient. |
| C．Promising. |
| D．Priceless. |
【推荐2】Watching his father die without oxygen support while suffering from a heart attack in 2020, Taher Mahmud Tarif, a Bangladeahi boy, made up his mind to build a device to prevent any more such tragic deaths. Afterwards, many COVID-19 patients experienced low oxygen levels in their blood, with demand for oxygen concentrators (浓缩器) among other medical equipment shooting up during the recent sharp rise in cases. Tarif said the situation gave him more driving force to build the device.
With the financial and overall support of Ishwardi UNO office and his educational institution, Tarif's determination and tireless efforts were rewarded with success as the ninth grader of Ishwardi Sara Marwari High School managed to make the concentrator after trying five times for about seven months, mainly using domestic components. He said that a locally made oxygen eoncentrator like his costs approximately $ 760 whereas an imported one does over $2,600.
In June, Tarif gave a detailed account of his invention and manufacture at the UNO office in Ishwardi at 11:00 am on Tuesday. He said it was created from his own thinking and with the addition of local technology generators and electric components. An oxygen concentrator takes in air and removes nitrogen (氮气) from it, leaving oxygen-enriched gas for use by people needing medical oxygen. “About 90 percent oxygen concentration can be generated from my oxygen concentrator machine. This machine can provide high-flow oxygen supply too. It can be very handy in local areas with no scope of getting oxygen support,”Tarif added.
“This is obviously a good invention for oxygen generation. It is capable of producing high-flow oxygen so it can be used for patients or refilling oxygen bottles,” said an assistant professor of Pabna Medical College Hospital. “Despite more lab and other examinations before using the machine as medical equipment,” the UNO said, “Tarif's invention will probably be a great achievement during this alarming COVID-19 situation.”
1. Why did Tarif build an oxygen concentrator?| A．Because his father needed one. |
| B．Because his father died of COVID-19. |
| C．Because COVID-19 patients need oxygen. |
| D．Because he wants to help save other patients. |
| A．It mostly consists of local parts. | B．It succeeded at the first attempt |
| C．It was made without others' help. | D．It costs more than 2.600 dollars. |
| A．Tarif's invention has not been tested yet. |
| B．Tarif's invention has a promising future. |
| C．Tarif's invention produces oxygen botles. |
| D．Tarif 's invention has proved useful for COVID-19. |
| A．A diary. | B．A brochure. | C．A newspaper. | D．A novel. |
【推荐3】One of the most important changes cities must make to improve life in them is to separate people from their cars. Even when you have a strong public transport system in moving people between population hubs, the last mile - that section between the railway station and someone’s home, for example - can lead to car use if it’s considered too far or too dangerous to walk.
The idea of a low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN) - where cars are banned from quieter ‘rat runs’ (偏僻小路) to keep them on the major routes - has taken off in parts of the UK. LTNs attempt to filter out cars from residential streets using bollards, camera-controlled gates or even planters full of flowers placed across the road, while pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles can still pass.
Analysis for the active transport charity Sustrans found that “driving a mile on a minor urban road is twice as likely to kill or seriously injure a child pedestrian, and three times more likely to kill or seriously injure a child cyclist, compared to driving a mile on an urban A-road,” and that heavy car traffic in residential areas can lead to a rise in social isolation. LTNs reduce this danger, leading to a three-fold reduction in injuries, and have been shown to increase the number of visitors to local businesses.
Also popular are e-scooter hire trials, which are taking place in towns and cities including Middlesbrough, Bristol and Chelmsford. The trials see gaggles of electric scooters available to be picked up from street corners. The scooters are hired using an app and then, once they’re finished with, parked elsewhere inside the trial area, where they’re collected and recharged by the hiring company. A Department of Transport report on e-scooter use found they were “widely perceived to have environmental and convenience benefits,” but suffered from comparisons to children’s toys.
But that’s not all. The world’s first hub for demonstrating electric air taxis and drones opened in Coventry earlier this year. The taxis and drones based at the hub all take off and land vertically like helicopters and are being used to travel short journeys or deliver cargo.
Weaning us off our car addiction is one of the more difficult barriers standing between us and healthier cities. The first step that needs to be taken will be to tackle the dominance of the car.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．People are considered reliant on cars to travel. |
| B．Public transport system still needs improvement. |
| C．Pollution from cars has an impact on people’s life quality. |
| D．Residential areas are usually far away from the railway station. |
| A．It’s a way to encourage social interaction and local business. |
| B．It’s a series of measures to reserve the streets to walking residents. |
| C．It’s a system that employs high technology to keep cars on the main roads. |
| D．It’s a practice proved effective in keeping children safe from traffic accidents. |
P=Paragraph
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．To call on readers to construct a healthier city. |
| B．To promote the latest developments in car alternatives. |
| C．To introduce possible ways to get rid of dependence on cars. |
| D．To inform citizens of technological advances to tackle social problems. |
【推荐1】Plenty of harvests of corn and other major crops rely on a mysterious phenomenon known as hybrid vigor (杂交活力). When highly naturally-born varieties are crossed, their next generations are taller, hardier, and bear more grain, Researchers report that this vigor is somehow influenced by microbes (微生物) in the soil, perhaps through a plant's immune system .
Charles Darwin was one of the first researchers to describe hybrid vigor. In the early 20th century, biologists began to apply this effect to agriculture by creating naturally-born parent plants that produced hybrid seeds. By the 1940s, almost every farmer in the United States was planting hybrid corn, and the harvests multiplied.
Biologists have proposed several theories about the cause of hybrid vigor, but no definitive explanation has emerged.
Maggie Wagner, plant biologist at the University of Kansas, and her colleagues wondered whether microbes might be it involved. Last year, Wagner and her colleagues found an interesting clue in a field study. They discovered that the leaves and roots of hybrid corn had microbial communities that are different from those living on naturally-born varieties of corn. “Something about being a hybrid makes a plant interact differently with microbes,” Wagner says. It could be that the naturally-born corn's immune systems react more actively to beneficial microbes, compromising their growth. Alternatively, hybrid plants may be better able to defend against weak pathogens (病原体) in the soil.
Wagner says the finding highlights the need for plant growers to match the hybrid crops to the microbial communities with which they live. The findings help scientists realize the importance of understanding the role of soil microbes in making agriculture more productive and sustainable, “This holds great promise.”
1. How did people use the effect of hybrid vigor in agriculture?| A．By producing naturally-born parent plants that bore hybrid seeds. |
| B．By creating naturally-born parent lines that produced hybrid vigor. |
| C．By providing more microbes communities that could produce more seeds. |
| D．By looking for hybrid parent plants in the field that produced hybrid seeds. |
| A．Hybrid plants react worse to weak pathogens in the soil. |
| B．Wagner connected hybrid vigor with microbial communities. |
| C．Being naturally-born makes a plant interact differently with microbes. |
| D．Hybrid corn and naturally-born corn have similar microbial communities. |
| A．Making farmers know what to grow to resist certain diseases |
| B．Helping scientist realize the importance of spreading soil microbes. |
| C．Showing the significance of associating soil microbes with specific crops. |
| D．Highlighting the need for plant growers to find more microbial communities. |
| A．Hybrid corn: a double-edged sword |
| B．How can farmers grow hybrid crops? |
| C．Hybrid vigor: a mysterious phenomenon |
| D．What role do soil microbes play in the harvests of corn? |
【推荐2】An international team of researchers from the University of Oxford have found that the way people use the Internet is closely tied to the seasonal movements in the natural world. Their online species searches follow the patterns of seasonal animal migrations (迁徙).
Migratory birds ( 候 鸟 ) flood back to where they reproduce every spring. That migratory behavior is accompanied by some human behavior. “In English-language Wikipedia ( 维基百科), the online searches for migratory species tend to increase in spring when those birds arrive in the United States,” said the lead author John Mittermeier.
And not just birds. Mittermeier and his team surveyed nearly 2.5 billion Wikipedia search records, for 32,000 species, across 245 languages. They also saw variable search rates for insects, horsetails and flowering plants. Seasonal trends seemed to be widespread in Wikipedia behavior for many species of plants and animals.
This finding suggests new ways to monitor changes in the world’s biological diversity. It also shows new ways to see how much people care about nature, and which species and areas might be the most effective targets for conservation.
Mittermeier is encouraged by the search results. He commented, “I think there’s a concern among conservationists (生态环境保护者) that people are losing touch with the natural world and that they’re not interacting with native species anymore. And so in that sense, it was really exciting and quite unexpected for me to see people’s Wikipedia interest closely related to changes in nature.” Richard Grenyer, Associate Professor from the University of Oxford, says search data is useful to conservation biologists, “By using these big data approaches, we can direct our attention towards the difficult questions in modern conservation: which species and areas are changing, and where are the people who care the most and can do the most to help.”
1. What have researchers found about species searches?| A．They strengthen ties among people. | B．They affect the animal movements. |
| C．They reflect animal migration seasons. | D．They differ in language backgrounds. |
| A．To further support the research findings. |
| B．To show the variety of species searches. |
| C．To summarize the research process. |
| D．To present researchers’ heavy work load. |
| A．Sad about people’s not getting close to nature. |
| B．Worried about Wikipedia behavior. |
| C．Amazed at people’s care about nature. |
| D．Satisfied with Wikipedia’s service. |
| A．A scientific magazine. | B．A biology textbook. |
| C．A biography. | D．A travel brochure . |
【推荐3】Slowness has been a sweeping trend in sustainability. Slow food celebrates local produce and traditional cooking methods; slow fashion is made with a focus on people and the planet. You may have even heard of the slow city, a campaign to restore local cultures and turn cities back to their natural environments.
Slow design developed from the larger slow movement. Although the term was only recently introduced, the idea of thoughtful design looks back to a time when buildings and furniture were made with great craftsmanship (手艺) and by hand-before the mass-produced throwaway furniture took over. You can think of the term “slow” as a celebration of timelessness: both the timelessness of a piece and the timelessness of the relationship between that piece and its owner.
One example of slow design today is what’s been dubbed the brown furniture revival (复兴). Brown furniture refers to the heavy wooden furnishings that were popular in your grandparents’ day but suddenly fell out of style at the turn of the century. Brown furniture is often associated with dark woods, such as trees like mahogany, walnut, and teak, that take decades to reach maturity and true craftsmanship to transform into functional pieces.
Today’s furniture industry is dominated by the $13.1 billion-and-growing global ready-to-assemble(RTA) furniture market. RTA furniture is usually constructed from low-quality fiberboard, which lasts a small part of traditional furniture’s lifespan (寿命).The weight of furniture landfilled in 2018 was 9. 7 million tons, 4. 5 times what was landfilled in 1960.
In a less direct way, the idea of timelessness also lends itself to a lower environmental impact. Besides their demonstrated physical durability, slow materials and design are meant to outlive trends and never be thrown out simply because they’re out of style.
As second-hand shopping becomes more appealing to today’s young generation-because of its low environmental impact and affordability-the brown furniture of yesteryear is making a comeback.
1. Why is the first paragraph written?| A．To explain a new term. |
| B．To present the topic of the text. |
| C．To provide background information. |
| D．To highlight the importance of slowness. |
| A．Known as. |
| B．Mistaken for. |
| C．Compared to. |
| D．Connected with. |
| A．It is out of date. |
| B．It has a long lifespan. |
| C．It is heavy and expensive. |
| D．It has bad effects on the environment. |
| A．Grandparents are buying new furniture. |
| B．The brown furniture will soon be mass-produced. |
| C．The young generation favors second-hand shopping. |
| D．Materials for slow design furniture are more available. |
【推荐1】One of the greatest killers in the Western world is heart disease.The death rate( 率) from the disease has been increasing at an alarming speed for the past thirty years.Today in Britain,for example,about four hundred people a day die of heart disease.Medical experts know that people can reduce their chances of getting heart disease by exercising regularly,by not smoking,by changing their diets,and by paying more attention to reducing stress(压力) in their work.
However,Western health-care systems are still not paying enough attention to the prevention of the disease.There is a need for more programs to educate the public about the causes and prevention of heart disease.Instead of supporting such programs,however,the U.S.health-care system is spending large sums of money on the surgical( 外 科 的 ) treatment of the disease after it develops.This emphasis( 强 调 ) on treatment clearly has something to do with the technological advances that have taken place in the past ten to fifteen years.In this time,modern technology has enabled doctors to develop new surgical techniques.Many operations that were considered impossible or too risky(有风险的) a few years ago are now performed every day in U.S.hospitals.The result has been a huge increase in heart surgery.
Although there is no doubt that heart surgery can help a large number of people,some people point out that the emphasis on the surgical treatment of the disease has three clear disadvantages.First,it attracts interest and money away from the question of prevention.Second,it causes the costs of general hospital care to rise.After hospitals buy the expensive equipment that is necessary for modern heart surgery,they must try to recover the money they have spent.To do this,they raise costs for all their patients,not just those patients whose treatment requires the equipment.The third disadvantage is that doctors are encouraged to perform surgery—even on patients for whom an operation is unnecessary—because the equipment and expert skills are there.A government office recently stated that major heart surgery was often performed even though its chances of success were low.In one type of heart surgery,for example,only 15 percent of patients improved their conditions after the surgery.However,more than 100,000 of these operations are performed in the United States every year.
1. What effect has modern technology had on medicine?| A．It has reduced the costs of medical treatment. |
| B．It hasn’t helped save any patients. |
| C．It has encouraged doctors to do more heart surgeries. |
| D．It has helped educate people about the prevention of heart disease. |
| A．to help patients recover |
| B．to increase the number of heart surgeries |
| C．to get back the money spent on the equipment |
| D．to buy new equipment for the treatment of heart disease |
| A．more money should be spent on the prevention of heart disease |
| B．heart surgery has helped most patients improve their conditions |
| C．modern technology has made heart surgery more risky than before |
| D．the public have known a great deal about the causes of heart disease |
| A．The Greatest Killer in the West |
| B．Heart Disease:Treat or Prevent |
| C．Old Technology and Heart Surgery |
| D．Heart Surgery:Advantages |
【推荐2】First, car makers wanted to take the human out of driving. Now, motorcycle manufacturers (制造商)want to do the same. But just as the driverless car movement has faced skepticism, it's not entirely clear that the world needs autonomous motorcycles.
What would a self-driving motorcycle do? It would be designed to let the rider sit back and relax while the machine drives by itself. Manufacturers have actually been creating and improving prototypes (原型)of self-driving motorcycles for years, and they're only just now beginning to share them with the public. For instance, AB Dynamics and AutoRD released the Autonomous BMW Cl. It comes with autonomous software, GPS, and re-balancing technology.
Yamaha's Motoroid is a model that uses artificial intelligence and self-balancing technology. The Motoroid sounds very futuristic, but it can't drive on its own. It needs a rider to make turns. Another example of an autonomous-light motorcycle is Honda's Riding Assist-e, which can change the center of gravity autonomously. However, like the Motoroid, it's not completely self-riding and isn't ready for a highway on its own.
Safety concerns for autonomous motorcycles are similar to those that trouble self-driving cars Firstly, the autonomous system may make a mistake and endanger the rider. Self-driving cars have an unfortunate record of running red lights and causing accidents. Professor Adam says, "So one can be forgiven for worrying about the safety of a two-wheeled speed machine with no one behind the handlebars. '' Secondly, there's the question of responsibility: Who is at fault if a self-driving bike crashes into another car? More importantly, it's not easy to satisfy the official regulations before autonomous motorcycles ride on the road. And to develop the industry will cost billions of dollars.
But there's the biggest problem with all of these motorcycles. One of the joys of driving motorcycles is the driving. It seems unlikely that a rider, like a high-speed motorcycle collector who loves the thrill of turning around corners, will give up the experience of the ride.
The prototypes for self-riding motorcycles are here, and manufacturers are busy putting them to the test, but it might be a while before we see them on the open road.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．Manufacturers' competition with each other is quite fierce. |
| B．Manufacturers are quite creative when making driverless cars. |
| C．Manufacturers are very optimistic about self-driving motorcycles. |
| D．Manufacturers have made some progress in promoting self-driving motorcycles. |
| A．autonomous motorcycles still have a long way to go |
| B．Yamaha and Honda compete with each other fiercely |
| C．autonomous motorcycles have a big improvement in safety |
| D．Yamaha and Honda have defeated other autonomous motorcycle makers |
| A．autonomous motorcycle should obey traffic regulations |
| B．it's convenient and safe to ride an autonomous motorcycle |
| C．mistakes made by autonomous motorcycles can be forgiven |
| D．it's normal that autonomous motorcycles' safety is doubted |
| A．They are unable to appeal to many riders. |
| B．They can't guarantee the riders, safety. |
| C．They can't suit the official regulations. |
| D．They are too costly to produce. |
| A．Self-riding motorcycles will be very popular one day. |
| B．Self-riding motorcycles are necessary to social development. |
| C．Users are likely to lose fun when riding self-riding motorcycles. |
| D．People will be fond of self-riding motorcycles for its convenience. |
【推荐3】A few hours after my first mission, returning to Earth on the space shuttle Endeavour, I completed all of my medical tests after flight, met with NASA officials, and reunited with my family. Finally, I was alone in my office room in astronaut crew quarters at the Kennedy Space Center, exhausted and ready for bed. And I did what anyone does when they return to their hotel room on a business trip: I turned on the TV. The television news started up: Such and such had happened, people were shocked, blah blah blah. Sports scores. Silly commercials.
It didn’t take more than a minute before I had to turn it off. It felt like my body was rejecting all this input, just as it would reject an organ donation that had the wrong blood type. All of this noise was just completely foreign to who I was—or, more appropriately, who I had become. A few hours before, I had been orbiting Earth, seeing our planet from space, flying the most amazing machine ever built by human hands, working with a team that was the absolute success of human. And now here in my room watching what was being sold as news, and with my newfound perspective, I just could not stomach it. My worldview was changed forever in a profound (深刻的) way.
The biggest change by far and the one for which I will always be most grateful is this big-picture perspective. That will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Whenever I feel the pressure of modern life, the stress about work, or worry about the future, I remember my time in the space station. Back to seeing the sun set Or watching our galaxy rise on the horizon. Or seeing a sea of lightning flash a hundred times a second. Or simply back to floating weightlessly.
When I’m there in my mind and realize how many billions of these beautiful sunsets there have been and will be in the future, the cares of the world just don’t seem that pressing. It goes that, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Living daily life down here on the planet is so much better with this attitude!
1. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word stomach in paragraph 2?| A．Access. | B．Attend. |
| C．Accept. | D．Afford. |
| A．He has a broader view of the world. |
| B．He doesn’t like watching TV any more. |
| C．He will always be most grateful for everything. |
| D．He can fly the most amazing machine by hands. |
| A．caged bird longs for clouds. | B．Live in the present moment. |
| C．Let bygones be bygones. | D．Time works great changes. |
【推荐1】Humans are no strangers to widespread viruses,and each time a vaccine(疫苗）is developed, it gives us hope for the future. Now, the world is waiting for a vaccine to fight COVID-19.
Scientists worldwide have been rolling up their sleeves to work toward an effective novel coronavirus vaccine.
Under the coordination(协调）of the World Health Organization (WHO),up to 172 countries have been engaging with the "largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio",a plan known as the COVAX Global Vaccines Facility.
COVAX is a system for joint purchasing and balancing the risks of multiple vaccines. When a vaccine proves to be safe and effective, all countries within the facility will be able to access it, according to Xinhua.
The plan is aimed to ensure that all countries, no matter their economic status, can get the vaccine in a timely manner when one is available. It also makes sure that prices will be kept as low as possible.
＂A number of vaccines are now in the final stage of clinical trials," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Aug 24,adding that the goal of COVAX is to deliver at least 2 billion doses of a vaccine by the end of 2021.
According to the WHO, at present, nine potential vaccines are part of the portfolio.
To guarantee the equal access and fair assignment of COVID-19 vaccines,the WHO has said that the world needs to prevent vaccine nationalism-countries putting their own interests ahead of others in trying to secure supplies of a possible vaccine.
＂Vaccine nationalism only helps the virus,"Tedros said, warning that it would lead to a prolonged pandemic(疫情） if only a small number of countries got most of the supply.
＂Like an orchestra,we need all instruments to be played in harmony to create music that everyone enjoys," he said.
Vaccine development looks promising,as several countries have made great progress. Russia began production of its first batch of a COVID-19 vaccine on Aug 15, according to its health ministry. It's the world's first registered vaccine. Four Chinese vaccine candidates have started international stage-3 clinical trials.
1. Which of the following is true according to the passage?| A．Russia is the first country to have made progress in fighting COVID-19. |
| B．COVAX ensures all the countries get the vaccine at the same time. |
| C．WHO plays an important role in fighting COVID-19. |
| D．Scientist have produced 2 billion doses of vaccines. |
| A．Supportive. |
| B．Critical. |
| C．Optimistic. |
| D．Sympathetic. |
| A．show his deep love for music |
| B．make the passage more interesting |
| C．illustrate the similarities in between |
| D．stress the importance of cooperation |
| A．United for vaccine |
| B．Vaccine on the way |
| C．Fighting against COVID-19 |
| D．Say goodbye to COVID-19 |
【推荐2】When Amanda Wanklin and Michael Biggs fell in love, they didn't realize the challenges they might face as a biracial couple. Amanda says, ''At first we only knew that we wanted together. '' They settled down in Birmingham, England, eager to start a family. On July 3, 2006, the black and white couple got their “one in a million'' miracle: Amanda gave birth to fraternal twin (异卵双胞胎) girls with completely different skin colors, and the greatly amazed parents gave their daughters intertwined names: one would be Millie Marcia Madge Biggs, the other Marcia Millie Madge Biggs.
From a young age the girls had similar features but very different color schemes. Marcia had light brown hair and fair skin like her English-born white mother, while Millie had black hair and brown skin like her black father, who is of Jamaican descent. ''We never worried about it; we just accepted it，'' Michael says.
''When they were first born, '' Amanda recalls, ''people would look at my one daughter and then look at my other daughter. Then I'd get asked the question: 'Are they twins? '''
''Yes. ''
''But one's white and one's black. ''
According to Amanda, people who commented on the girls weren't openly discriminatory (歧视的) or judgmental—just very curious, and then as time went on, people just saw the beauty in them.
The twins know what racism is. ''Racism is where somebody judges you by your color and not by your true self, '' Millie says.
Michael, the father, says he’s faced inequality at times throughout his life because of the color of his skin. '' But it's a different time now, '' he says. Neither he nor Amanda has ever witnessed racist behavior toward their twin girls.
''When people see us, they think that we're just best friends, '' Marcia says. ''When they learn that we're twins, they're kind of shocked because one's black and one's white. '' But when the twins are asked about their differences, they mention something else entirely. ''Millie likes things that are girlie. She likes pink and all of that, '' Marcia says. '' I don't like the color pink; I'm a tomboy. People should know about us by our true selves, not by our colors. After all, people are made how they are. ''
1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?| A．Amanda and Michael are of the same race. |
| B．Amanda and Michael were not happy about the birth of their twins. |
| C．The possibility of twins with different skin colors is small. |
| D．It was easy for Amanda and Michael to start a family of their own. |
| A．Sometimes Michael is unequally treated because of his race. |
| B．The twin girls see their skin colors as their major difference. |
| C．People are curious but friendly to the twin girls. |
| D．People who are racists judge a person by his appearance. |
| A．She never answers them. |
| B．She is upset about their questions. |
| C．She answers with their different characters. |
| D．She tells them about colors. |
| A．Opposed. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Tolerant. |
【推荐3】The Alpha Go program’s victory is an example of how smart computers have become.
But can artificial intelligence (AI) machines act ethically—can they be honest and fair?
One example of AI is driverless cars. They are already on California roads, so it is not too soon to ask whether we can program a machine to act ethically. As driverless cars improve, they will save lives. They will make fewer mistakes than human drivers do. Sometimes, however, they will face a choice between lives. Should the cars be programmed to avoid hitting a child running across the road, even if that will put their passengers at risk? What about making a sudden turn to avoid a dog? What if the only risk is damage to the car itself, no to the passengers?
Perhaps there will be lessons to learn from driverless cars, but they are not super-intelliger beings. Teaching ethics to a machine even more intelligent than we are will be the bigger challenge.
About the same time as AlphaGo’s victory, Microsoft’s ‘chatbot’ took a bad turn. The software, named Taylor, was designed to answer messages from people aged 18-24. Taylor was supposed to be able to learn from the messages she received. She was designed to slowly improve her ability to handle conversations, but some people were teaching Taylor racist ideas. When she started saying nice things about Hitler, Microsoft turned her off and deleted her ugliest messages.
Alpha Go’s victory and Taylor’s defeat happened at about the same time. This should be a warning to us. It is one thing to use AI within a game with clear rules and clear goals. It is something very different to use AI in the real world. The unpredictability of the real world may bring to the surface a troubling software problem.
Eric Schmidt is one of the bosses of Google, which own AlphaGo. He thinks AI will be positive for humans. He said people will be the winner, whatever the outcome. Advances in AI will make human beings smarter, more able and “just better human beings.”
1. What does the author want to show with the example of AlphaGo’s victory?| A．Computers will win human beings. |
| B．Computers have unmatched potential. |
| C．Computers are man’s potential opponents (对手). |
| D．Computers can become highly intelligent. |
| A．How to make super-intelligent AI machines share human feelings. |
| B．How to ensure that super-intelligent AI machines act ethically. |
| C．How to prevent AI machines doing harm to humans. |
| D．How to avoid being over-dependent on AI machines. |
| A．She could not distinguish good from bad. |
| B．She could turn herself off when necessary. |
| C．She was not made to handle strange situations. |
| D．She was good at performing routine tasks. |
| A．It will be far superior to human beings. |
| B．It will keep improving as time goes by. |
| C．It will prove to be valuable to human beings. |
| D．It will be here to stay whatever the outcome. |
