1 . When it comes to black holes, we are caught between a rock and a hard place. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that all black holes give off thermal radiation(热辐射)and eventually evaporate(蒸发). In doing so, they seemed to be destroying information contained in the matter that fell into them, therefore going against a rule of quantum mechanics(量子力学): information cannot be created or destroyed.
Some argued that the outgoing “Hawking radiation” preserved the information. However, if this were the case, then given certain assumptions, the event horizon(视界)—— the black hole’s boundary of no return—— would become intensely energetic, forming a firewall. But such firewalls go against the theory of general relativity, which says that space-time near the event horizon should be smooth. The black hole firewall paradox was thus born.
Now, Sean Carroll at the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues have shown that the paradox disappears when the evolution of black holes is understood in the context of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
The quantum state of the universe is described by something called the global wave function(全局波函数). According to traditional quantum mechanics, whenever there are many possible outcomes for physical process, this wave function ”collapses“ to represent one outcome. But in the many-worlds Interpretation, the wave function doesn’t collapse-rather, it branches, with one branch for each outcome. The branches evolve independently of each other, as separate worlds.
In this way of thinking, the formation of a black hole and its evaporation due to Hawking radiation lead to multiple branches of the wave function. An observer monitoring a black hole also splits into multiple observers, one in each branch.
The new work shows that from the perspective of an observer in a given branch, space-time behaves as described by general relativity and the black hole has no firewall.
But does that imply loss of information? No, says team member Aidan Chatwin-Davies, also of Caltech. That is because the principle of preservation of information applies to the global wave function and not to its individual branches, he says. Information is preserved across all branches of the global wave function, but not necessarily in any one branch. Given this case, a black hole that doesn’t lose information and yet has a smooth, uneventful event horizon without a fire wall isn’t a contradiction.
Yasunori Nomura at the University of California at Berkeleyy has independently arrived at some similar conclusions in his work. He agrees that the many-worlds approach resolves the paradox around information loss from black holes. “Many worlds should be taken seriously,” he says.
1. Which word in the article is similar in meaning to the underlined word in Paragraph 2?| A．Assumption (Paragraph 2) | B．Interpretation (Paragraph 4) |
| C．Evaporation (Paragraph 5) | D．Contradiction (Paragraph 7) |
| A．There is a firewall. | B．No observer will split. |
| C．No information is lost. | D．The wave function collapses. |
| A．introduce an independent scientist |
| B．support the many-worlds interpretation |
| C．question whether many worlds really exist |
| D．argue against the information loss from black holes |
| A．Rules of quantum mechanics. |
| B．A new understanding of the black hole. |
| C．Hawking’s interpretation of the black hole. |
| D．The development of the global wave function. |
Official Ticketing Service | |
Welcome to the official Louvre online sales site The Musée du Louvre is reopening and we are glad to be able to welcome you back again. In line with the measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, visitors will be required to wear a mask. According to government recommendations, all visitors to the Louvre aged 12 years and two months or older must show a Health Pass. All visitors, including those entitled to free admission, must book a time period. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience. | |
 | Individual tickets for the Museum Admission and reservation of a time period to access the permanent collections. Tickets valid for the selected date only. Full list of visitors entitled to free admission at Louvre.fr. General admission: €18 |
The Musée du Louvre is open every day — except Tuesdays, January 1, May 1 and December 25— from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Visitors will be asked to leave the exhibition rooms 30 minutes before closure. All tickets purchased online are time-stamped and nominative (记名的); you may therefore be asked to provide proof of identity. They are only valid for the service, date and time selected. They cannot be used to skip the queue but do guarantee access to the museum within half an hour of the time shown on the ticket. Any holder of an online ticket who does not arrive within the assigned time period for admission to the museum shall be subject to the same admission and waiting conditions as visitors without tickets. | |
| Visitors entitled to free admission (other than Louvre members) —Under 18s, proof of ID required —16-25 year-old residents of the European Economic Area (European Union, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), proof of ID and residency required Professionals —Teachers working in France, valid “Pass Education” required —Teachers of art, art history or the applied arts, valid proof of employment stating subject taught required —Artists with the Maison des Artistes or International Association of Art, valid proof required Other —Jobseekers, valid proof and ID required (dated within the last year or indicating a period of validity) —Disabled visitors and the person accompanying them | |
| A．introducing the exhibits at the Louvre |
| B．providing ticketing information of the Louvre |
| C．listing restrictions on admission to the Louvre |
| D．clarifying the history of the Louvre |
| A．€18 | B．€36 | C．€45 | D．€54 |
| A．It is open every day except on Tuesdays. |
| B．Its online tickets guarantee access to it at any time. |
| C．Proof of ID is required for anyone buying its tickets online. |
| D．Ticket holders may be refused to enter it if arriving an hour late. |
3 . After five long years, it appears California’s drought is finally becoming less severe.
The state’s water struggles,
The quick inrush of water has also created a(n)
For now, though, Jones is focused on planning and ensuring the state’s water supply whatever may happen. “We’re halfway through our wettest season, and conditions have been encouraging,” she says. “I would say we’re
| A．According to | B．With respect to | C．Thanks to | D．In addition to |
| A．official | B．exhaustible | C．unexpected | D．crucial |
| A．experienced | B．improved | C．worsened | D．investigated |
| A．pollution | B．restrictions | C．pressure | D．cycles |
| A．nevertheless | B．therefore | C．meanwhile | D．moreover |
| A．accurate | B．plentiful | C．consistent | D．emergent |
| A．productive | B．unchangeable | C．progressive | D．unreliable |
| A．fell behind | B．broke down | C．came about | D．took off |
| A．Or else | B．In other words | C．At that point | D．Above all |
| A．Literally | B．Contrarily | C．Historically | D．Consequently |
| A．levels | B．formations | C．struggles | D．reserves |
| A．random | B．delicate | C．mechanical | D．insensible |
| A．heightens | B．assumes | C．minimizes | D．identifies |
| A．restorations | B．calculations | C．conditions | D．projections |
| A．hopelessly | B．extremely | C．guardedly | D．cheerfully |
4 . HANDSTITCHED WORLDS: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF QUILTS
Quilts (床罩) are a narrative art; with themes that are political, spiritual, communal, or commemorative, they are infused with history and memory, mapping out intimate stories and legacies through a handcrafted language of design. Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts is an invitation to read quilts as maps, tracing the paths of individual histories that illuminate larger historic events and cultural trends.
Spanning the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, this insightful and engaging exhibition brings together 18 quilts from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, New York, representing a range of materials, motifs, and techniques from traditional early-American quilts to more contemporary sculptural assemblages. The quilts in Handstitched Worlds show us how this too-often overlooked medium balances creativity with tradition, individuality with collective zeitgeist. Like a road map, these unique works offer a path to a deeper understanding of the American cultural fabric.
Number of Works:18 quilts
Organized by: American Folk Art Museum, New York
Approximate size:175-200 linear feet
Security: Moderate security
Participation Fee: Please inquire
Shipping: IA&A makes all arrangements; exhibitors pay outgoing shipping costs within the contiguous U.S.
Booking Period:12 weeks
Tour: June 2021—August2024
Contact: TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
June 12, 2021—August 29, 2021
Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, WA
September 17, 2021—January 23, 2022
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
February 19, 2022—May 14, 2022
Fort Wayne Muesum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
June 18, 2022—September 11, 2022
AVAILABLE
October 2022—January 2023
Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum, Logan, KS
February 17,2023—May 14, 2023
AVAILABLE
June 2023—December 2023
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS
January 30, 2024—April 21, 2024
AVAILABLE
May 2024—August 2024
All tour dates can be customized to meet your scheduling needs. Please contact Traveling Exhibitions @ Artsand Artists.org for more information.
1. What is the purpose of the exhibition of Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts?| A．To promote creativity and individuality thorough the engaging exhibition. |
| B．To provide an opportunity for visitors to learn to make quilts stitch by stitch. |
| C．To give visitors an insight into the history and culture of America in specific periods. |
| D．To enrich the understanding of the American culture by a tour visit to museums across America. |
| A．The exhibition is free both for the exhibitors and for the visitors. |
| B．Exhibitors that are interested can choose whatever dates they want. |
| C．The artistic and historic value of handstitched quilts used to be neglected. |
| D．Exhibitors that are interested can book the exhibition 12 weeks in advance. |
| A．exhibitors | B．visitors | C．artists | D．historians |
5 . More and more online shopping platforms now offer consumers a detailed look into products’ historical prices. But how does this information influence buying decisions?
To explore this question, we conducted a series of experiments with a total of more than 5,000 business school students and working adults. We measured the impact of different kinds of price shifts on people’s interest in purchasing products and identified several consistent trends:
First, when consumers saw that the price today was lower than it had been in the past, they were more likely to buy now, because the current price seemed like a good deal.
However, the picture gets more complicated when you consider the frequency of historical price shifts: In our studies, we found that if consumers were shown at least three changes in the same direction, they were likely to assume the price would continue to move in the same direction. While if they were only shown one or two changes in the same direction, they expected the price to change in the opposite direction.
So what does this mean for sellers? It may be tempting to slowly lower the price over time. However, our data shows that this can lead consumers to assume that the price will continue to fall, making them hesitant to buy. But if they just see a single price drop, they ‘re more likely to expect a reversal in the near future, pushing them to buy the product now.
Our findings can also help buyers make more informed decisions about whether and when they choose to make a purchase. As with any irrational bias (非理性的偏见), awareness of the natural tendency to expect trends to continue and single large changes to reverse can help consumers question this assumption before acting on it. Instead of letting this arbitrary (武断的) expectation guide buying decisions, consumers may benefit by doing a bit more research around the underlying factors driving price shifts. Buyers may also benefit from learning more about a product’s longer-term price history, fluctuations (波动), and typical industry-wide price ranges, to avoid being disproportionately influenced by near-term price changes. It’s also always a good idea to think about both how urgent your need for a given product is, and your own risk tolerance for a potential price increase, as this can affect whether it’s worth it for you to wait and see if the price falls.
Of course, there are countless factors that influence both consumers’ decisions around whether and when to buy and sellers’ decisions around how to price their products. But it’s important for both sides to recognize the key role that expectations play in influencing these decisions.
1. Which of the following is true about the experiment?| A．It proves that people’s interest in the product drives the purchasing behavior. |
| B．E-commerce platforms turn to it to connect with customers and boost sales. |
| C．It’s designed to figure out the purchasing decision process based on pricing. |
| D．Business school students make up the whole control group for comparison. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．decide on the assumptions that long-term price trend will continue |
| B．research longer-term price history, price ranges and hidden factors |
| C．put off the purchase for better deals because of the unsustainable market |
| D．cooperate with sellers while putting aside the personal risk and urgency |
| A．How do price changes influence buying decisions? |
| B．Why should products’ historical prices be shown? |
| C．When is the best time for consumers to purchase? |
| D．What do businesses need to price their products? |
6 . ①What does it say about the future of meat when the country’s largest processor of chicken, pork, and beef buys a stake (股份) in a start-up that aims to “perfectly replace animal protein with plant protein”?
②Tyson Foods announced this week that it purchased a 5 percent stake in Beyond Meat, the Southern California-based food-tech start-up that made headlines earlier this year with its veggie burger that reportedly cooks and tastes like real beef.
③To be sure, Beyond Meat’s meatless creations have yet to take the country by storm. Although the 100 percent plant-based burgers have achieved plenty of positive press since they appeared for the first time in May, so far they’re only available at Whole Foods stores in seven states. Even though the company’s “chicken” strips, “beef” pies, and meatless frozen dinners are available nationwide, Beyond Meat is hardly a household name.
④That may be what makes the news of Tyson’s investment all the more noteworthy. While the two companies declined to give details about the deal, it’s doubtful that Tyson’s 5 percent stake made much of dent (凹陷) in the meat giant’s coffers (金库). The company posted $41.4 billion in sales last year; prior to the deal with Tyson, Beyond Meat had reportedly raised $64 million in project capital funding — about what Tyson earns before lunch on any given day.
⑤Tyson is doing pretty great. The company reported record third-quarter earnings per share in August and says that it expects overall meat production to increase 2 to 3 percent during the next financial year. But like a big oil company shelling out cash to invest in wind power, Tyson’s toe-in-the-water move to team up with a start-up devoted to bringing more plant-based protein to American dinner tables seems to suggest the meat industry is starting to see which way the winds are blowing.
⑥Sales of plant-based protein, which totaled an estimated $5 billion last year, continue to pale compared with the market for meat in America — but vegetarian alternatives to meat are booming, with sales growing at more than double the rate for food products overall. The steady drumbeat of news about the negative health impacts, environmental problems, and animal welfare concerns associated with meat consumption appears to be sinking in. According to a survey released in April, more than half of Americans surveyed said they plan to eat more plant-based foods in the coming year.
1. Beyond Meat’s veggie burger made headlines probably because ________.| A．it makes perfect use of animal protein |
| B．it uses high tech in the making process |
| C．it tastes as good as a genuine beef burger |
| D．it represents the diet trend in South California |
| A．It is the creator of the country’s first 100 percent plant-based burgers. |
| B．It has been well received as its products are available nationwide. |
| C．It is far from being a match to real food processing giants like Tyson. |
| D．It provides high-quality dining experience in selected Whole Foods stores. |
| A．The purchase of the stake barely costs a thing for Tyson. |
| B．The 5 percent stake in Beyond Meat means a lot to Tyson. |
| C．Tyson’s investment hasn’t caught the attention of the media as expected. |
| D．Tyson is relying on this investment to raise more project capital funding. |
| A．Meat will still take over the market in spite of other alternatives. |
| B．A major American meat company is betting on plant-based protein. |
| C．Tyson and Beyond Meat work together to build a global meat giant. |
| D．Plants have been found to contain protein that does more good to human beings. |
7 . Diplomacy (外交) is an art. It requires not only strategy, but also other aspects, including intuition, persuasion, and even tricks, human skills that have long been unreachable to even the most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) approaches. Now, an AI algorithm (算法) from a high-tech company has shown it can beat many humans in a game of diplomacy, which required both strategic planning and negotiations with other players. The work, researchers said, could point the way toward virtual exercise coaches and conflict mediators (调解员) .
AI has already beaten humans in some games of strategy. It is also proving powerful at natural-language processing, in which it can generate humanlike text and carry on conversations. In the game of diplomacy, seven players vied for control of Europe. On each turn, players issued orders regarding the movement of army and naval units, following discussion with other players, whom they could attack or support.
There are two technical innovations noted by Jonathan Gratch, a computer scientist at the University of Southern California who studies negotiation agents. First, the Al agent’s com-munication is grounded in multistep planning. Second. the Al agent keeps its remarks and game play within the range of human common practice.
To test its skill, the researchers had the Al agent play 40 online games against humans. It placed in the top 10% of players who’d played at least two games. “In a game that involves language and negotiation, that agents can reach human equal level is very exciting,” said Yu, a computer scientist at Columbia University.
According to Brown, a computer scientist at the company who co-authored the paper, the work could lead to practical applications in fields that now require a human touch. One specific example is that virtual personal assistants might help consumers negotiate for better prices on plane tickets. Gratch and Yu both see opportunities for agents that persuade people to make healthy choices or open up during therapy.
1. Who is likely to benefit from the research work?| A．A famous cyber athlete. | B．A professor of civil law. |
| C．A professional accountant. | D．A virtual fitness instructor. |
| A．Accounted. | B．Apologized. | C．Searched. | D．Competed. |
| A．To understand the thought of AI. | B．To illustrate the advantages of AI. |
| C．To describe the importance of AI. | D．To introduce the strategy of AI. |
| A．Diplomacy, a Popular Game | B．AI Learns the Art of Diplomacy |
| C．Al Will Become a Perfect Diplomat | D．An Excellent Game Player |
8 . I was the only kid in college with a reason to go to the mail box, because my mother never believed in email, in Facebook, in texting or cell phones. I was literally waiting by the mailbox to get a letter with a warmest comfort from her.
So when I moved to New York and got depressed, I did the only thing I could think of. I wrote those same kinds of letters like my mother for strangers, and tucked them all over the city: in cafes, in libraries, and even in the subway. I blogged about those letters and promised if asked for a hand-written letter, I would write one.
Overnight, my inbox became this harbor of heartbreak — a single mother in Sacramento, a girl being bullied in Kansas, a 22-year-old immigrant, all asking me to write them and give them a reason to wait by the mailbox. And this is how I initiated the act The World Needs More Love Letters.
Today I run a global organization fueled by those trips to the mailbox. It is a miracle. But the thing about these letters is that most of them have been written by people brought up in a paperless world where some best conversations happen on a screen. We have learned to diary our pain onto Facebook, and we speak swiftly in twitter.
Therefore, I’ve been carrying this mail crate (大木箱) with me these days, which is a magical icebreaker. So I get to tell total strangers about a woman whose husband was traumatized (受精神创伤) from war, and how she left love letters throughout the house saying, “Come back to me.” And a man, who had decided to take his life, slept safely with a stack of letters just beneath his pillow, handwritten by strangers who were there for him.
These stories convince me that letter-writing will never need to be about efficiency, because it is an art now, all of it: the signing, the scripting, the mailing.
1. Why did the author share her experience in college?| A．To show her care for her family. | B．To convey her love for writing letters. |
| C．To express her feelings attached to letters. | D．To prove her consistency in writing letters. |
| A．She advocated the paperless lifestyle. | B．She intended to provide professional aid. |
| C．She tried to improve her communication skills. | D．She aimed to give emotional support with letters. |
| A．It cures people of mental diseases. | B．It serves as a conversation starter. |
| C．It has magic power to melt ice. | D．It empowers people to be brave. |
| A．Family Letters Are Priceless | B．Love for Writing Never Declines |
| C．World Needs More Love Letters | D．Hand-written Letters Improve Efficiency |
9 . Do you shop for groceries online and have them delivered to your door? Well, this might be just the start of a digital revolution in food. How about tattooed (刺花的) fruit, ice cubes which send text messages, and wine from the bottom of the ocean? All these things are on the
They say stickers and wasteful packaging on fruit could be
Our
Innovative ways to
Indeed, some companies are helping consumers stay
This makes the retailer more than just a supplier of food — it becomes “kind of food
For the discerning (有眼力的) drinker, the future holds another new experience. How would you like to try “ocean-aged wine”? This is the wine which has been sunk to the bottom of the ocean to help it
I find all these
| A．rise | B．contrary | C．horizon | D．whole |
| A．replaced | B．exchanged | C．covered | D．understood |
| A．connected | B．contributed | C．imported | D．applied |
| A．heavily | B．actually | C．purposefully | D．weakly |
| A．situations | B．groceries | C．services | D．kitchens |
| A．In short | B．At first | C．For instance | D．After all |
| A．enhance | B．add | C．analyze | D．locate |
| A．search | B．monitor | C．elect | D．limit |
| A．developed | B．tracked | C．tempted | D．followed |
| A．comfortable | B．smart | C．holy | D．healthy |
| A．consumption | B．waste | C．cost | D．bargain |
| A．consultant | B．customer | C．designer  | D．guard |
| A．delicate | B．dizzy | C．mature | D．delicious |
| A．innovations | B．goals | C．behaviors | D．consumers |
| A．move about | B．step across | C．join in | D．get on |
10 . A baby born today will be thirty-something in 2050. If all goes well, that baby will still be around in 2100, and might even be an active citizen of the 22nd century. What should we teach that baby to help them survive and flourish in the world of 2050 and beyond? What kind of skills will they need in order to get a job, understand what is happening around them, and navigate their tough life?
At present, too many schools across the world focus on providing pupils with a set of predetermined skills, such as writing computer code in C++ and conversing in Chinese. Yet since we have no idea how the world and the job market will look in 2050, we don’t really know what particular skills people will need. We might invest a lot of effort in teaching kids how to write in C++ or to speak Chinese, only to discover sooner or later that AI will have been able to code software far better than humans, and that a new translation app will have enabled you to conduct a conversation in almost flawless Mandarin, Cantonese or Hakka, even though you only know how to say ni hao.
So what should we be teaching? Many experts argue that schools should downplay technical skills and emphasize general-purpose life skills: the ability to deal with change, to learn new things, and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations. In order to keep up with the world of 2050, you will above all need to reinvent yourself again and again.
To succeed in such a demanding task, you will need to work very hard on getting to know your operating system better—to know what you are and what you want from life. This is, of course, the oldest advice in the book: know thyself. This advice was never more urgent than in the mid-21st century, because unlike in the days of Laozi or Socrates, now you have serious competition. Coca-Cola, Amazon and Facebook are all racing to hack you.
Right now, the algorithms (算法) are watching where you go, what you buy, and who you meet. Soon they will monitor all your steps, breaths and heartbeats. They are relying on big data and machine learning to get to know you better and better. And once these algorithms know you better than you know yourself, they could control and manipulate (操纵) you. In the end, authority will shift to them.
Of course, you might be perfectly happy giving up all authority to the algorithms and trusting them to make decisions for you and for the rest of the world. If, however, you want to maintain some control over your personal existence and over the future of life in general, you have to run faster than the algorithms. To run fast, don’t take much luggage with you. Leave all your illusions (幻想) behind. They are very heavy.
1. What does the underlined word “downplay” in paragraph 3 most probably mean?| A．Give too much emphasis on something. |
| B．Make people think that something is less important. |
| C．Offer your reasons why something is right or wrong. |
| D．Decide something in advance so that it does not happen. |
| A．imagination | B．adaptability | C．self-discipline | D．a good sense of balance |
| A．if we don’t, algorithms will hack all our devices. |
| B．it is an essential skill for us to succeed in the world of 2050. |
| C．we need to learn how algorithms work and make full use of them. |
| D．we need to outrun algorithms to keep some control over our personal life. |
| A．the importance of knowing yourself |
| B．the threats and dangers of technology |
| C．what kind of skills we might need in the future |
| D．some potential benefits algorithms would bring to humankind |
