1 . Suppose you are about to complete high school and are thinking about attending a college or university. After doing some research, you find a school you would like to attend, but have questions about the application process. So you go to the school’s website in the hope of finding a few answers.
Time goes by and you, a student, still do not have the answers. You almost feel like giving up. But today, as you can see, artificial intelligence is so advanced. You find a message appears on your computer or personal electronic device. It says something like: ''How can I help? '' Writing back to the website, you try to explain your problem. You possibly get a few questions to clarify what your concerns are. Then, almost immediately, the person with whom you are in contact provides the information you are seeking.
In fact, you are not actually communicating with a school official. You are not even dealing with a human being. You are in contact with a computer program, or chatbot. It is using artificial intelligence, AI for short, to understand and communicate with you. This might sound strange. But chances are that this would not be the first time you have communicated with a computer program without knowing it. In recent years, chatbots have become a common tool for banks and large companies around the world.
Having human beings available to answer people’s questions and complaints can be costly, requiring many workers. And in most cases, employees can only work for several hours in a day, increasing customers’ waiting time for a response, but the chatbot can work around the clock. So not only companies, but a growing number of universities have also begun using the chatbot technology.
Australia's University of Adelaide noted a major improvement in its service to student after employing a chathot to deal with application questions in 2018. It said that students received responses 13 times faster, and students’ approval of the quality of service increased by 60 percent. And just the speed of reacting to questions is the chatbot's major strength.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By assumption. | B．By comparison. |
| C．By definition. | D．By data. |
| A．To tell time and tide wait for no man. |
| B．To advise students should clarify their questions. |
| C．To present the communication convenience brought by Al. |
| D．To show the phenomenon that students are addicted to computers. |
| A．Its low cost. | B．Its ease of use. |
| C．Its short working hours. | D．Its quick response. |
| A．Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly. |
| B．Robots are gradually replacing human services. |
| C．Employees chat with robots without knowing them. |
| D．More universities use chatbots to communicate online. |
2 . “Birds” and “airports” are two words that, paired together，don’t normally paint the most harmonious picture. So it really raises some eyebrows when China announces plans to build an airport that is for birds.
Described as the world’s first-ever bird airport, the proposed Lingang Bird Sanctuary(保护区）in the northern coastal city of Tianjin is, of course,not an actual airport. Rather，it's a wetland preserve specifically designed to accommodate hundreds-even thousands-of daily takeoffs and landings by birds traveling along the East Asian-Australian Flyway. Over 50 species of migratory (迁徙的）water birds，some endangered, will stop and feed at the protected sanctuary before continuing their long journey along the flyway.
Located on a former landfill site，the 150-acre airport is also open to human travelers.(Half a million visitors are expected annually.) However，instead of duty-free shopping，the main attraction for non-egg-laying creatures at Tianjin’s newest airport will be a green-roofed education and research center, a series of raised “observation platforms” and a network of scenic walking and cycling paths totaling over 4 miles.
“The proposed Bird Airport will be a globally significant sanctuary for endangered migratory bird species, while providing new green lungs for the city of Tianjin.” Adrian McGregor of an Australian landscape architecture firm explained of the design. Frequently blanketed in smog so thick that it has shut down real airports, Tianjin is a city---China’s fourth most populous----that would certainly benefit from a new pair of healthy green lungs•
1. The underlined phrase “non-egg-laying creatures” in Paragraph 3 refers to?| A．Visitors. | B．Designers. |
| C．Endangered water birds. | D．Planes. |
| A．People cannot watch birds up close here. |
| B．It is located on a 150-acre landfill site. |
| C．It functions as an actual airport and a wetland preserve. |
| D．It provides migratory birds with food and shelter. |
| A．The airport will become a permanent home for birds. |
| B．Tianjin will win worldwide fame in the future. |
| C．Tianjin’s air quality will improve thanks to the airport. |
| D．Tianjin will be able to accommodate more people. |
| A．Airports shut down and open up. |
| B．China is to open the first Bird Airport. |
| C．Airports turn into green lungs. |
| D．Birds are no longer enemies to airports. |
