1 . As we all know, insects can be remarkably agile (灵活的) in flight. This is really hard to build into flying robots, but MIT Assistant Professor Kevin Yufeng Chen has developed an insect-sized drone (无人机) that approaches insects’ agility.
Typically, drones require wide open spaces. “If we look at most drones today, they’re usually quite big,” says Chen. “Most of their applications involve flying outdoors. The question is: Can you create an insect-sized drone that can move around in very crowded and complex spaces?”
According to Chen, he overcame many problems when building the drone. The insect-sized drone requires a fundamentally different construction from a larger one. The large drone is usually powered by a motor, but the motor loses efficiency as you shrink it. So, Chen says, “For an insect-sized drone, you need to look for alternatives.” The principal alternative until now has been employing a small, rigid actuator (执行器) built from new materials. Chen designed a more agile tiny drone using soft actuators instead of hard ones.
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1. What can we know about the actuator designed by Chen?A.It weighs about six grams. |
B.It drives the insect-sized drone. |
C.It loses efficiency too much. |
D.It employs conventional materials. |
2 . Today’s Brussels sprouts (孢子甘蓝) taste better than you might remember from childhood, and that is because a new variety has replaced the original vegetable. You can thank plant breeders (植物育种家) for the change. Modern breeders, armed with new gene-editing technology, are looking to reproduce Brussels sprouts’ reinvention.
In the late 1990s, scientists discovered specific chemicals which made Brussels sprouts taste bitter. Plant breeders started growing old seeds, previously abandoned due to poor yields (产量), to look for tastier versions with lower levels of these specific chemicals. Then they crossed these delicious but low-yield plants with high-yield individuals until they found a version that made plenty of tasty sprouts, transforming the vegetable from a bitter pill into a popular dish.
But other vegetables haven’t fared as well. That’s because most breeding decisions favor plant traits that matter to vegetable growers, not vegetable eaters. For instance, disease resistance is probably the major focus these days of most breeding programs because that prevents the farmer from growing the crop. The taste of vegetables is ignored.
People, however, are now becoming interested in prioritizing the taste of vegetables thanks in part to new genetic technology such as the gene-snipping technique CRISPR and DNA sequencing which is cheap enough to use widely. “There’s never been a better time to be a fruit breeder or a vegetable breeder because we have more tools and techniques,” says Susan Brown, an apple breeder at Cornell University.
Some companies are beginning to use those tools to deal with the challenge of developing tastier vegetables. One company, Pairwise, is fighting the same compounds that troubled Brussels sprouts: glucosinolates. But this time researchers are improving the flavor of salad greens.
All vegetable growers hope that more flavorful products on store shelves will convince people to consume the recommended allowances (推荐量) of fruits and vegetables — and do so better than decades of nutritional guidance have. “Don’t waste your time talking about trying to educate people to eat better,” said Harry Klee, a professor who specializes in tomato breeding. “Just give them products that taste better and that they want to eat.”
1. Why did plant breeders grow old Brussels sprout seeds?A.To find out why Brussels sprouts are bitter. |
B.To find the less bitter versions of Brussels sprouts. |
C.To study the specific chemicals of Brussels sprouts. |
D.To select high-yielding versions of Brussels sprouts. |
A.Profited | B.Emerged. | C.Survived. | D.Succeeded. |
A.Fruit and vegetable breeding techniques are booming. |
B.Fruit and vegetable breeding techniques need no further improvement. |
C.Fruit and vegetable breeders are struggling to develop new species. |
D.Fruit and vegetable breeders should develop new genetic technology. |
A.Enhancing the taste of vegetables and fruits. |
B.Making vegetables and fruits more affordable for people. |
C.Improving the nutritional content of vegetables and fruits. |
D.Educating people about the benefits of vegetables and fruits. |
3 . In 2022, campaign group Fashion Revolution Chelsea dye a garden for its Chelsea Flower Show presentation. An ancient craft, natural dyeing is a practice whose time has come again, with hand tie-dyed fashion also making a comeback in recent years.
The revival has been encouraged by Covid lockdowns, “which allowed people to explore the craft at home, says natural-dyeing enthusiast and teacher Susan Dye. It’s unlikely, though, that the practice would have caught on in quite the same way if not for a continually growing discomfort about fashion’s heavy footprint. From carbon emissions to animal cruelty, fashion is under considerable inspection. “Put it this way, 97% of dyes used in the industry are petrochemically (石油化学产品) based,” says sustainable fashion consultant Jackie Andrews, who helped advise the UN Ethical Fashion Initiative. We’ve got net zero targets which mean we’re going to have to remove all those petrochemicals from the manufacturing cycle.
Fashion is a huge polluter. According to the UN Environment Program, the industry is responsible for up to one-fifth of all industrial water pollution—due to the fact that most clothes today are produced in poorer countries where regulation is weak and enforcement weaker. Waste water is dumped directly into rivers and streams, poisoning the land as well as the water sources of people and animals who rely on them.
It’s easy to see why someone who cares about people, planet and animals, as well as clothes, might turn to natural plant dyeing. From the beauty of the raw materials—often wild plants-to the property of only bonding with natural fiber like cotton and linen (亚麻布) from the minor footprint of recycling old clothing that has grayed or faded over time to the vibrant and long-lasting dyeing results, plant dyeing feels like a quiet act of rebellion. This is why, while beginners start with simply changing their clothes’ color, new worlds open. Many of today’s natural dyers grow their own dye plants, run local community workshops, and advocate for change in industrialized fashion systems and beyond.
1. What is the main reason for the growing discomfort mentioned in paragraph 2?A.The adoption of petrochemical-based dyes |
B.The disturbing consequences of the fashion industry. |
C.The fashion industry’s focus on luxurious designs. |
D.The challenging net zero targets to be achieved. |
A.By making a comparison. | B.By listing numbers |
C.By giving examples. | D.By introducing a new topic |
A.A protest against turning to natural fiber. |
B.An objection to recycling old clothing |
C.A resistance to vibrant colors in natural dyeing |
D.A struggle for a sustainable fashion industry |
A.The Environmental Impact of Natural Dyeing |
B.The Return of Natural Dyeing with Ethical Appeal |
C.Fashion Revolution’s Dye Garden Presentation |
D.The Petrochemical Dye Industry and Its Challenges |
4 . Antibiotics, which can destroy or prevent the growth of bacteria and cure infections, are vital to modern medicine. Their ability to kill bacteria without harming the patient has saved billions of lives and made surgical procedures much safer. But after decades of overuse, their powers are fading. Some bacteria have evolved resistance, creating a growing army of superbugs, against which there is little effective treatment. Antimicrobial (抗菌的) resistance, expected to kill 10 million people a year by 2050 up from around 1 million in 2019, has been seen as a crisis by many.
It would be unwise to rely on new antibiotics to solve the problem. The rate at which resistance emerges is increasing. Some new drugs last only two years before bacteria develop resistance. When new antibiotics do arrive, doctors often store them, using them only reluctantly and for short periods when faced with the most persistent infections. That limits sales, making new antibiotics an unappealing idea for most drug firms.
Governments have been trying to fix the problem by channeling cash into research in drug firms. That has produced only limited improvements. But there is a phenomenon worth a look. Microbiologists have known for decades that disease-causing bacteria can suffer from illnesses of their own. They are supersensitive to attacks by phages, specialized viruses that infect bacteria and often kill them. Phages are considered a promising alternative to antibiotics.
Using one disease-causing virus to fight bacteria has several advantages. Like antibiotics, phages only tend to choose particular targets, leaving human cells alone as they infect and destroy bacterial ones. Unlike antibiotics, phages can evolve just as readily as bacteria can, meaning that even if bacteria do develop resistance, phages may be able to evolve around them in turn.
That, at least, is the theory. The trouble with phages is that comparatively little is known about them. After the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928, they were largely ignored in the West. Given the severity of the antibiotic-resistance problem, it would be a good idea to find out more about them.
The first step is to run more clinical trials. Interest from Western firms is growing. But it is being held back by the fact that phages are an even less appealing investment than antibiotics. Since they are natural living things, there may be trouble patenting them, making it hard to recover any investment.
Governments can help fun d basic research into phage treatment and clarify the law around exactly what is and is not patentable. In time they can set up phage banks so as to make production cheaper. And they can spread awareness of the risks of overusing antibiotics, and the potential benefits of phages.
1. We can learn from paragraphs 1 and 2 that .A.doctors tend to use new antibiotics when the patients ask for them |
B.antimicrobial resistance is developing more rapidly than predicted |
C.new antibiotics fail to attract drug firms due to limited use of them |
D.previous antibiotics are effective in solving modern health problems |
A.They can increase human cells when fighting bacteria. |
B.They are not particular about which cells to infect and kill. |
C.They can evolve accordingly when bacteria develop resistance. |
D.They are too sensitive to be infected by disease-causing bacteria. |
A.there is little chance of patenting phages in the future |
B.governments provide financial support for other research |
C.the emergence of superbugs holds back drug firms’ interest |
D.over-dependence on antibiotics distracts attention from phages |
A.Governments fail to stop the use of antibiotics. |
B.Phages could help prevent an antibiotics crisis. |
C.Development of antibiotics is limited by phages. |
D.Antimicrobial resistance calls for new antibiotics. |
5 . Most glitter(小发光物品), which is made up of tiny pieces of plastic, is a huge danger to the environment. “Everyone talks about the mountain of plastic floating in the ocean. You can grab empty bottles from the water, but with tiny pieces, it’s impossible,” says Victor Alvarez, a chemical engineer who sells an eco-friendly alternative to glitter.
In the early 2,000s, Alvarez worked for Mercedes-Benz in Germany, where he became fond of any technology that protected the environment. A few years after leaving Mercedes-Benz, he founded Blue Sun International in Miami, which makes specialty ingredients for the skin and hair care industries.
Glitter is a popular ingredient in cosmetics, such as eye shadows and lipsticks. So Alvarez began researching an alternative that didn’t contain plastic to make his products safer for the environment. That’s when he came across Ronald Britton Ltd., a company which had developed a plastic-free, biodegradable product called Bioglitter. It is made from regenerative cellulose(纤维素) sourced from hardwoods, primarily eucalyptus(桉树). Alvarez worked with the company to become the first retailer to sell Bioglitter in America. In 2018, he formed Today Glitter in order to sell the biodegradable glitter directly to consumers through its website.
Today Glitter sells two kinds of biodegradable glitter Bioglitter Sparkle and Bioglitter Pure. Both are almost plastic-free and can biodegrade in a short time. Meanwhile, they are as shiny as regular glitter. All these products are third-party tested by TÜV, an international organization that provides testing and certification for compostable (可降解的) and biodegradable products.
Despite its benefits, the hardwoods needed to make biodegradable glitter cause it to cost about twice as much as conventional glitter. A small glass container that contains just 6 grams of Bioglitter costs $10, while the same amount of regular glitter could cost at least half that amount. Alvarez expects the price will come down over time. He also expects the company’s sales to cross $1 million next year. But more importantly, Alvarez says, his main goal is to effect a meaningful change.
1. While at Mercedes Benz, Alvarez .A.developed a way to grab glitter in the sea | B.became interested in the environment |
C.attempted to live a plastic-free life | D.created a kind of harmless glitter |
A.It is a plastic-free ingredient for eye shadows. |
B.It will soon be on sale in the American market. |
C.It is very difficult to break down in the wild. |
D.It was invented by Blue Sun International. |
A.To show Bioglitter Sparkle and Bioglitter Pure are popular. |
B.To stress it provides a broad range of testing services. |
C.To prove Today Glitter’s products are eco-friendly. |
D.To explain many plastic products are low-quality. |
A.The complex process of making glitter. | B.How to expand its overseas market. |
C.How to attract potential investors. | D.The high cost of raw materials. |
6 . People solve some new problems readily without any special training or practice by comparing them to familiar problems and extending the solutions to the new problems. That process, known as analogical reasoning (类比推理), has long been thought to be an ability only humans have. But now people might have to make room for a new kid on the block.
Psychologists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) claim that, astonishingly, the artificial intelligence (AI) language model GPT-3 performs about as well as college undergraduates when asked to solve the sort of reasoning problems that typically appear on intelligence tests and standardized tests.
But the psychologists raise the question: Is GPT-3 copying human reasoning as a by-product of its massive language training data set or using a fundamentally new kind of cognitive (认知的) process? They also say that although GPT-3 performs far better than they expected at some reasoning tasks, the popular AI tool still fails completely at others. “It can do analogical reasoning, but it can’t do things that are very easy for people, such as using tools to solve a physical task,” says Taylor Webb, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher in psychology.
Webb and his colleagues tested GPT-3’s ability to solve a set of problems inspired by a test known as Raven’s Progressive Matrices, which ask the subject to predict the next image in a complicated arrangement of shapes. To enable GPT-3 to “see” the shapes, and make sure that the AI tool had never met the questions before, Webb transformed the images into a text format that GPT-3 could process.
The psychologists asked 40 UCLA undergraduate students to solve the same problems. Surprisingly, not only did GPT-3 do about as well as humans but it made similar mistakes as well. GPT-3 solved 80% of the problems correctly — well above the human subjects’ average score of just below 60%, but within the range of the highest human scores.
1. What is analogical reasoning usually considered?A.A simple learning skill. | B.A unique human ability. |
C.A vital thinking process. | D.A solution to any problem. |
A.Its system has some limitations. | B.Its application hasn’t been popular. |
C.It needs to be trained for these tasks. | D.It is good at copying human reasoning. |
A.To add difficulty to the questions. | B.To enable GPT-3 to see the results. |
C.To guarantee the foreignness of the tasks. | D.To test GPT-3’s ability to identify text. |
A.It will replace humans in some cases. | B.It rarely makes mistakes like humans. |
C.It is able to do things very easy for people. | D.It runs undergraduates close in reasoning. |
7 . A comment from Zadie Smith caught my attention this week. Asked whether she had ever considered recording an album, the novelist responded, “I have a dream of having a Café Carlyle residency in New York in my 80s.” Here she is at the height of her success dreaming of a career Plan B just like the rest of us!
Weird Plan Bs fascinate me because for years I had one of my own. Despite being perfectly happy in my chosen profession, I had long harboured the fantasy of becoming a photographer and I took a lockdown leap and applied to art school to acquire some actual skills.
Has it brought me fame and riches? Not as yet. Like many people who dream of having a go at something different, I was focusing on creative fulfilment rather than my future finances. By the time I graduated in 2022, my dream of running a portrait photography business was looking a lot less practicable—in part thanks to AI head-shot generators.
If only I had had a little more Fobo, also known as the fear of becoming out-of-date. This workplace trend is an updated version of Fomo—the fear of missing out, which now feels like a poignant (辛酸的) throwback to more optimistic times. 22% of workers are worried that technology will put them out of a job. And who can blame them?
There is another reason that nurturing an alterative career might be risky. Research indicates that having a back-up plan can work against you. Having a Plan B as a safety net can cause people to make less effort at their day job and — unhelpfully — run a greater risk of losing it.
So, do I regret pursuing my Plan B? Not at all — hopefully I’ve got a few years before robot photographers take over the world, and I currently spend a day a week on photography. My only sorrow is something unexpected. For so many years. I had the fantasy of trying something new. My “someday” ambition sustained me through dull and boring days. But now I’m actually spending some of my week doing it, which has caused empty space in my life. It made me realize that having an alternative career to dream about is in itself sustaining and comforting. You might never do it, and that might not even matter. So, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and start working on my Plan C...
1. Why did Zadie Smith want to have a Cafe Carlyle residency?A.She was not satisfied with her writing career. |
B.She was eager to take up a second career. |
C.She was depressed by recording an album. |
D.She was unable to reach the height of success. |
A.She was a skilled photographer who graduated from an art school. |
B.She gave up her chosen occupation because of lockdown. |
C.She gained a sense of creative satisfaction instead of income. |
D.She ran a photography business with the assistance of AI. |
A.To explain why workers are eager to do plan |
B.To introduce one of the disadvantages to do plan B. |
C.To advocate the society’s acceptance of plan B. |
D.To display the future of trend of the workforce. |
A.She will be replaced by robot photographer in the future. |
B.She can’t spare time to do photography professionally. |
C.She hates the dull and boring days in doing photography. |
D.She lost something new to excite some enthusiasm for life. |
8 . Researchers have claimed a major step forward in the field of organ transplantation after a monkey survived for more than two years with a genetically engineered pig kidney.
Scientists have spent decades working out whether animal organs could ever work properly and safely in humans without them being rejected by the patient’s immune system, but the challenges have proved immense.
For the latest trial, researchers used a gene-editing tool called Crispr to alter genes in Yucatan miniature pigs before transplanting their kidneys into macaques (猕猴). The modifications altered genes to prevent organ rejection and remove pig viruses that could potentially be activated in recipients.
Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists describe how 21 monkeys got on after their kidneys were removed and a single genetically modified pig kidney was implanted. Monkeys typically survived no more than 24 days when the kidneys were edited to disable three genes that triggered immune rejection. But when the scientists added seven human genes that reduce blood clotting (结块), inflammation and other immune reactions, the monkeys survived seven times longer, typically for 176 days. When combined with treatment to restrain the immune system, the researchers report that one monkey survived for more than two years — 758 days — with the transplanted organ.
Curtis, the chief executive of eGenesis, said the long-term survival of at least some of the monkeys had put eGenesis on course to satisfy the US Food and Drug Administration requirement to see at least 12 months’ survival in animals before the team can launch a clinical trial in humans. “We are well on our way there,” Curtis said. “There simply aren’t enough kidneys to go around. In our opinion it’s the only near-term practicable solution.”
The team uses Yucatan miniature pigs as donors because at maturity their kidneys are roughly the same size of those in the adult human. In the monkey trial, the kidneys were transplanted at two to three months when the organs were much smaller.
Prof Tatsuo Kawai, an author on the study at Harvard Medical School, said the scientists expected the modified pig organs to perform better in humans than monkeys because “they are a better match”.
1. What do researchers do with the Yucatan miniature pigs?A.They altered their immune systems. | B.They changed their genes to prevent rejection. |
C.They used them to produce a gene-editing tool. | D.They transplanted their kidneys into human beings. |
A.The 21 monkeys were implanted with a healthy pig kidney. |
B.The monkeys usually survived less than 24 days previously. |
C.Researchers removed three genes causing immune rejections from the kidneys. |
D.Monkeys can survive much longer if their genes are modified property. |
A.Dissatisfied. | B.Doubtful. | C.Content. | D.Indifferent. |
A.Monkey survives for over two years with a genetically engineered pig kidney. |
B.A big breakthrough has been made in the field of organ transplantation. |
C.Animal organs can work in an effective way in the bodies of human beings. |
D.It’s high time to make some adjustments to human immune system. |
9 . Plato believed that men are divided into three classes: gold, silver and bronze. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, argued that “ the vital few” contributed to most progress. Such viewpoints are taboo (禁忌) today in public life. Politicians avoid talking of a “leadership class” or “the vital few”. School recruitment turns away from picking winners. Universities welcome the masses: more people now teach at British universities than attended them in the1950s.
In the private sector things could hardly be more different. The world’s best companies struggle tirelessly to find and keep the vital few. They offer them fat pay packets, extra training, powerful instruction and more challenging assignments. Private-equity (私人股权) firms rely heavily on a few stars. Firms in emerging markets are desperate to find high-flyers who can cope with rapid growth and fast-changing environments.
Few people know more about how companies manage talent than Bill Conaty and RamCharan. Mr. Conaty led the human-resources department at General Electric (GE) for 14years. Mr. Charan has spent the past few decades presenting proposals to some celebrated entrepreneurs (企业家). Their recent book, The Talent Masters, provides. a nice mix of portraits of well-known talent factories, such as GE and Procter & Gamble (P&G).
Successful companies make sure that senior managers are involved with “ talent development”. Jack Welch and A. G. Lafley, former bosses of GE and P&G, claimed that they spent 40% of their time on personnel. Andy Grove, who ra n Intel, a chipmaker, obliged all the senior people, including himself, to spend at least a week a year instructing high-flyers . Nitin Paranjpe, the boss of Hindustan Unilever, recruits people from campuses and regularly visits high-flyers in their offices.
Elitism (精英主义) has its drawbacks. In their rush to classify people, companies can miss potential stars. Those who are singled out for special treatment can become too full of themselves.
1. The change that occurred in British universities reflects that .A.more students enroll for schools |
B.people of today are much cleverer |
C.UK attaches importance to education |
D.elitism in public organizations declines |
A.Potential clients. | B.Faithful employees. |
C.Competent managers. | D.Celebrated politicians. |
A.By listing examples. | B.By classification. |
C.By analyzing causes. | D. By describing a process. |
A.Discrimination in workplaces will get more serious. |
B.Famous companies’ elitism management is worth trying. |
C.The Talent Masters offers advice to some leading bosses. |
D.Elitism may get some potential talented people excluded. |
10 . When you’re going through a period of anxiety or depression, it can be difficult to make decisions, whether those are significant life changes or everyday choices. Those with generalized anxiety disorder or mood disorders often report feeling uncomfortable with or being troubled by feelings of uncertainty, which doesn’t help when you need to make a decision, big or small.
Now in a new study, researchers find that people with higher levels of anxiety and depression are less able to adapt to fast-changing situations. But with the right intervention (干预) there may be ways to help those with anxiety or depression make better decisions in the moment.
Participants were aged between 18 and 55; some had symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder while others had no history of mental illness at all.
In the study, after filling in measures related to anxiety, depression, and worry, participants took part in a video game. In each round, they were asked to choose between two shapes: picking one shape resulted in a reward, while the other delivered an electric shock.
The task took place in two blocks — one stable, in which one shape was associated with a reward 75% of the time and the other 25% of the time, and the other unstable, in which the shape with a higher probability of resulting in reward switched every twenty trials. In the unstable block, therefore, the participants had to keep adjusting their responses as the probabilities change.
Those participants with symptoms of anxiety or depression were slower to adjust their responses to the changes in probabilities. This suggests that mood disorders are associated with difficulty making decisions in changing circumstances.
Senior author Sonia Bishop argues that those participants who adapted quickly did so because of their emotional resilience (适应力).” Emotionally resilient people tend to focus on what gave them a good outcome, and in many real-world situations that might be key to learning to make good decisions,” she says.
Sonia Bishop suggests that encouraging people to focus on past successes rather than failures could be a useful behavioral intervention, making those difficult decisions a bit less tricky.
1. According to the text, which of the following affects decision-making?A.Feeling uncomfortable with someone. |
B.Feeling unsure of what will happen. |
C.Wondering who will make a decision. |
D.Wondering how to help make a decision |
A.To create a fast-changing situation. |
B.To train participants to respond to changes. |
C.To make the video game more challenging. |
D.To help those with anxiety make decisions. |
A.To improve decision-making. |
B.To remember the achievements. |
C.To adapt quickly to a new situation. |
D.To avoid making difficult decisions. |
A.Try to think quickly when making decisions. |
B.Don’t expect too much when making decisions. |
C.Don’t focus on one single thing when making decisions. |
D.Reduce your anxiety or depression when making decisions. |