1 . A robot with a sense of touch may one day feel “pain”, both its own physical pain and sympathy for the pain of its human companions. Such touchy-feely robots are still far off, but advances in robotic touch-sensing are bringing that possibility closer to reality.
Sensors set in soft, artificial skin that can detect both a gentle touch and a painful strike have been hooked up to a robot that can then signal emotions, Asada reported February 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This artificial “pain nervous system,” as Asada calls it, may be a small building block for a machine that could ultimately experience pain. Such a feeling might also allow a robot to “sympathize” with a human companion’s suffering.
Asada, an engineer at Osaka University, and his colleagues have designed touch sensors that reliably pick up a range of touches. In a robot system named Affetto, a realistic looking child’s head, these touch and pain signals can be converted to emotional facial expressions.
A touch-sensitive, soft material, as opposed to a rigid metal surface, allows richer interactions between a machine and the world, says neuroscientist Kingson Man of the University of Southern California. Artificial skin “allows the possibility of engagement in truly intelligent ways”.
Such a system, Asada says, might ultimately lead to robots that can recognize the pain of others, a valuable skill for robots designed to help care for people in need, the elderly, for instance.
But there is an important distinction between a robot that responds in a predictable way to a painful strike and a robot that’s able to compute an internal feeling accurately, says Damasio, a neuroscientist also at the University of Southern California. A robot with sensors that can detect touch and pain is “along the lines of having a robot, for example, that smiles when you talk to it,” Damasio says. ‘It’s a device for communication of the machine to a human.” While that’s an interesting development, “it’s not the same thing” as a robot designed to compute some sort of internal experience, he says.
1. What do we know about the “pain nervous system”?| A．It is named Affetto by scientists. | B．It is a set of complicated sensors. |
| C．It is able to signal different emotions. | D．It combines sensors and artificial skin. |
| A．Delivered. | B．Translated. | C．Attached. | D．Adapted. |
| A．Robots can smile when talked to. |
| B．Robots can talk to human beings. |
| C．Robots can compute internal feelings |
| D．Robots can detect pains and respond accordingly. |
| A．Machines Become Emotional | B．Robots Inch to Feeling Pain |
| C．Human Feelings Can Be Felt | D．New Devices Touch Your Heart |
2 . While mangoes are known as the "King of Fruits", grapes are popularly called as the "Queen of Fruits". The small juicy grapes are sorted into three varieties based on colors: green, red, black or blue. So are there any health benefits in grapes?
Grapes can be consumed in many ways. It can be either eaten raw, consumed in a juice form or used to prepare wine. During autumn, you will find different kinds of grapes in the market. As it is the main season of grapes, the amount of consuming this fruit is very high.
Although grapes are tiny in size, it has numerous health benefits. A lot of people are unaware of the health benefits of grapes. For example, drinking grape juice is one of the easiest ways to treat acidity. Moreover, the fruit juice is also a healthy drink for those who are on a diet.
Grape juice is loaded with nutrients, vitamins and mineral which keep us fit. For example, drinking grape juice is one of the traditional ways to cure a painful headache.
It would be interesting to know that grape juice is good for skin as well. Drinking a glass of grape juice every day helps get a clear and perfect skin naturally. It also has anti-ageing benefits on the skin. Green grapes especially speed up metabolism (新陈代谢) and induce perspiration which in turn helps get a youthful skin naturally.
So selection of grapes is very important. You must buy fresh, fine, and colored grapes. This can be easily done by lifting a bunch of grapes and shaking them. If the grapes fall, then they have been stored for long. And if the grapes are attached to the stem, then you can be sure that they are fresh to be consumed.
1. When it comes to grapes, the author thinks ________.| A．they are the best fruit in the world |
| B．they are consumed most in summer |
| C．they can do much good to our health |
| D．they consist of more than three kinds |
| A．Grapes are harvested only when it is cold. |
| B．The benefits of grapes escape many people. |
| C．Grape juice is considered to result in acidity. |
| D．Grape juice can make you have a good appetite. |
| A．It helps people avoid suffering from acidity. |
| B．It is beneficial to those being overweight. |
| C．It can make your skin fine and smooth. |
| D．It can cure all kinds of diseases. |
| A．Green grapes are much better than black ones. |
| B．It is better to prepare fresh grape juice at home. |
| C．The stored grapes juice is thought to be harmful. |
| D．Grape juice does more good to women than to men. |
3 . Grand Canyon Park Ranger Programs
Guided Cedar Ridge Hike
7 am Daily (Meet at the South Kaibab Trailhead)
A 3-mile(4.8km)hike on an unpaved path. Allow 4 hours. Minimum 2 liters of water per person. Bring salty snacks, sunscreen, and wear hiking shoes. Not recommended for people with heart problems, or difficulty walking.
Fossil Discovery Walk
9 am Daily(Meet at the Bright Angel Trailhead sign)
Walk among sea creatures that lived on this part of the continent 270 million years ago, before the age of the dinosaurs. This easy 1/2-mile(0.8 km)one-way walk explores an exposed fossil bed.
Critter Chat
9:30am Daily(Meet at Grand Canyon Visitor Center)
Learn about some of the Grand Canyon's diverse wild creatures who survive here in this place of extreme changes in exposure and climate. Wheelchair accessible. Family friendly.
Geology Walk
3:30 pm Daily(Meet at Yavapai Geology Museum)
Learn how the Grand Canyon formed while exploring Yavapai Geology Museum during this short introductory talk. Why is it so deep, wide, and grand? Why does it exist only here and nowhere else in the world? Consider walking the Trail of Time following the program.
Note: Children must be accompanied by an adult in all programs. All programs are free of charge.
1. What might you do in the program starting at 7 am?| A．Go on a hike. | B．Look for dinosaur fossils. |
| C．Learn more about climate change. | D．Walk the Trail of Time. |
| A．Guided Cedar Ridge Hike. | B．Fossil Discovery Walk. |
| C．Critter Chat. | D．Geology Walk. |
| A．At the South Kaibab Trailhead. | B．At the Bright Angel Trailhead sign. |
| C．At Grand Canyon Visitor Center. | D．At Yavapai Geology Museum. |
4 . Wildlife Crossing Bridges
The Wildlife Bridge
In 2018, Utah built a wildlife bridge over the busy highway 1-80. A 4.8-kilometer fence was created to help guide animals to the bridge. Normally, animals take a long time to discover and begin using wildlife bridges, so experts didn’t expect the bridge to get much traffic for several years. But recently, they’ve discovered many different kinds of animals are beginning to move by using the bridge.
The Rope Bridge
On China’s Hainan Island in 2015, scientists created a bridge for Hainan gibbons that are the world’s most endangered primates and normally cross the forest by swinging high in the trees. But after a 2014 typhoon, landslides caused huge gaps in the forest, which were forcing the gibbons to make dangerous jumps. Scientists created a simple and cheap rope bridge, which settled the problem.
The Eco-Bridge
In Uttarakhand state in India, the forest department has built a special "eco-bridge" , made from all-natural materials. It’s 27.5 meters long and runs over one of the busiest highways in the area. Though the bridge is high in the trees, forest department workers hope the bridge will help smaller animals on the ground, too. Already, the bridge has gotten a lot of attention on the Internet, with many people taking photos in front of it every day.
The Park Bridge
The Phil Hardberger Park lies in San Antonio, Texas, and recently it has opened what they say is the largest wildlife bridge in the US. This bridge, unlike the others mentioned here, was built for use by both animals and humans. The park says they have already seen deer using the bridge.
1. What has made experts feel unexpected about the Wildlife Bridge?| A．It’s been completed within 2 years. | B．It’s being used by animals already. |
| C．It’s become an Internet-famous site. | D．It’s America’s biggest wildlife bridge. |
| A．The Wildlife Bridge and the Eco-Bridge. | B．The Wildlife Bridge and the Rope Bridge. |
| C．The Eco-Bridge and the Park Bridge. | D．The Rope Bridge and the Park Bridge. |
| A．To attract more tourists. | B．To reduce traffic accidents. |
| C．To save endangered animals. | D．To create wildlife passageways. |
5 . Research has shown that disrupting one's natural “morning lark” (早起鸟) or “night owl” (夜猫子) tendency can result in immoral behavior at work.
Who doesn't love a flexible work schedule? Being able to make your own hours, come in when you're ready and leave when you're done, step out to attend a child's presentation at school, have a midday appointment, or even squeeze in a quick workout or nap as a guaranteed pick-me-up — flexibility greatly improves one's quality of life.
The benefits don't stop there, however. Research has shown that having flexible work hours actually makes one a better person. How so? It's been found that disrupted sleep patterns —in the form of having to act outside of your normal inclination to be a morning “lark” or a night “owl” — can result in strange, unethical, and out-of-line behavior.
Science journalist Linda Geddes said, “If you don't get enough sleep, research suggests you are more likely to have unethical behavior, such as being mean, bullying your fellow employees or falsifying receipts. But it's not just owls: the larks tend to behave more unethically in the evening, and owls in the morning. So ideally, you want to introduce flexible working."
Employers would be wise to allow their employees to start whenever they feel ready — whether it's at the crack of dawn or at 11 a.m., and to allow breaks or pauses in the day as needed — because that would mean better productivity, performance, and behavior.
This shift is already happening, with the New York Times recently reporting that 27 percent of US employers now offer the flexibility to work outside normal business hours, up from 22 percent in 2014; and 68 percent allow telecommuting as needed (up from 54 percent in 2014). With the national unemployment rate at its lowest in 50 years, employers are having to become more competitive in what they offer workers, and flex-hours seem like a no-brainer, highly beneficial to all.
1. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?| A．Ways to improve life quality. |
| B．People's activities in their free time. |
| C．Methods to get a flexible work schedule. |
| D．The advantages of flexibility in work time. |
| A．Judgment. | B．Tendency. | C．Reaction. | D．Choice. |
| A．They will show their nature more easily. |
| B．They tend to suffer from sleep problems. |
| C．They tend to behave immorally in their work. |
| D．They will get more flexibility in working time. |
| A．The unemployment rate is increasing. |
| B．Employers are getting more free time. |
| C．Flexible working has been creating more jobs. |
| D．More employers adopt a flexible work schedule. |
6 . English Language Courses at ELC Los Angeles
At the English Language Center (ELC) Los Angeles you will find a variety of English courses and programs that meet the highest academic standards of any English language school in the United States. Through its 40 years of teaching students at all levels from all over the world, ELC has developed teaching and training techniques and programs that really work for everyone.
ENGLISH COURSES OFFERED AT ELC LOS ANGELES
● GENERAL ENGLISH COURSES
Intensive English Course
Semi-intensive Course
Individual Intensive Course
● TEST PREPARATION COURSES
Cambridge Preparation Course
TOEFL Preparation Course
● BUSINESS ENGLISH COURSE
Individual Executive Business English Course
ENGLISH CLASSES LOS ANGELES FACT FILE
● Length of lesson: 50 minutes
● Number of levels: 12
● Average number of students per class: 8-9
Maximum number of students per class: 10 (14 during July and August only)
ADDITIONAL SERVICES AT ELC LOS ANGELES
The ELC Los Angeles staff is eager to assist international students in achieving their long-term learning goals. ELC offers the following support services to ensure each student's time at ELC is enjoyable, effective and worry-free:
● Student Visa
ELC has been approved by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)to issue the SEVIS Form I-20. Students enrolling in a minimum 24-lesson-per-week course are eligible (有资格的) to receive an I-20 form in order to apply for an F-1 student visa in their country.
● English Level Evaluation with Multi-level- Placement
Each student benefits from our English level evaluation with multi-level placement. Our method means students usually have different teachers for different levels and ensures that students study English in the learning environment that is best for them.
● University Admission Services
ELC is pleased to offer free counseling and university placement services to all ELC students interested in continuing their education at an American college or university in California and around the United States.
1. Which course should you choose in order to improve your English in general?| A．TOEFL Preparation Course. | B．Individual Intensive Course. |
| C．Cambridge Preparation Course. | D．Individual Executive Business English Course. |
| A．8. | B．10. | C．12. | D．14. |
| A．To help achieve enough class hours. | B．To help start from the lowest level. |
| C．To help get into an appropriate level. | D．To help gain admission to university. |
7 . A living robot has been created out of frog skin cells. Xenobots, named after the frog species Xenopus laevis that the cells come from, were first described last year. Now the team behind the robots has improved their design and demonstrated new capabilities.
To create the xenobots, Michael Levin at Tufts University in Massachusetts and his colleagues obtained tissue from 24-hour-old frog embryos after very small physical operation. Where the previous version relied on the contraction of heart muscle cells to move them forward by pushing off surfaces, these new xenobots swim around faster. They also live between three and seven days longer than their previous generation, which only lasted about seven days, and have the ability to sense their surroundings to some extent, turning red when exposed to blue light.
“The fundamental finding here is that when you free skin cells from their normal context, and you give them a chance to build other things than what they normally build,” says Levin. “To me, one of the most exciting things here is that they are plastic. This idea that even normal cells, not genetically modified, are in fact capable of building something completely different.”
Because they are created from cells, the xenobots eventually break apart and are totally biodegradable, says team member Douglas Blackiston, also at Tufts University. He therefore hopes that they can be used for biomedical and environmental applications.
Previous attempts at creating living robots, such as a wirelessly controlled cockroach, have involved dealing with live animals, raising ethical concerns. Xenobots differ from these because they are made entirely of living cells. “The approach here is maybe ethically the least problematic because everything starts with cells. They have no neurons, so it's not an animal,” says Auke ljspeert at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne, who wasn't involved in the research. “It's really cells, so I find it maybe the cleanest way."
1. How were the new xenobots created?| A．By making use of frog embryos. | B．By relying on heart muscle cells. |
| C．By sensing similar surroundings. | D．By exposing them to blue light. |
| A．Fragile. | B．Stable. | C．Flexible. | D．Active. |
| A．The xenobots can't break down easily. | B．The xenobots need to be further perfected. |
| C．The xenobots can be applied in other fields. | D．The xenobots have already been widely used. |
| A．The new approach starts with some neurons. |
| B．Xenobots have raised least ethical concerns. |
| C．The wireless controlled cockroach is a failure. |
| D．Previous living robots involve few living animals. |
8 . Here are apps that can help you make a schedule and a budget, take better notes, organize a big project, and stay safe. Check out these apps to get a head-start on being on top of your life!
Flashcards Deluxe
Price: $3.99
Platform: IOS and Android
Flashcards can be a very effective way to study, and Flashcards Deluxe makes creating them very easy. You can input information right into the app, make cards with up to five sides, and even add pictures and sounds to cards. The app can be set to automatically turn off cards that you get correct so you can focus more on the ones you get wrong.
Circle of 6U
Price: free
Platform: Android, IOS
When you’re on a college campus, walking home late at night can be frightening. So, make sure to download Circle of 6U, which helps you feel more secure. Not only does it help you find your location, but it makes communicating with your trusted friends easier. Once you build a network of trusted contacts in the app, it lets you send a pre-edited group message, with your location, to all of them in two taps.
CampusBooks
Price: free
Platform: IOS, Android
The CampusBooks app helps you get the lowest price when you’re buying or renting textbooks, and helps you get the highest price when you’re ready to sell! If you need a book right away, you’ll be shown the closest stores and libraries that have your book in stock.
Dragon Dictation
Price: free
Platform: IOS
Dictating homework and emails to the Dragon Dictation app can save your time! You can send your dictation to a text, email, or paste it into any application. The included editor will suggest words, and the app will improve its accuracy over time as it gets to know your voice. It also works in many languages other than English.
1. Which app can you choose for safety concern?| A．Flashcards Deluxe. | B．Circle of 6U. |
| C．CampusBooks. | D．Dragon Dictation. |
| A．It can add pictures to your email. | B．It can save your money on books. |
| C．It can correct your spelling mistakes. | D．It can understand your voice. |
| A．Students. | B．Librarians. |
| C．Businessmen. | D．Programmers. |
9 . If your friend says she feels relaxed, but you see that she closes her hands into fists, you may doubt her words. Robots, however, might believe her. Body language says a lot, but robots have great difficulty in observing tiny body movements and can miss important social signals as a result.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed a body-tracking system that might help solve this problem. The system called OpenPose can track body movement in real time. One important quality of the OpenPose system is that it can track not only a person's head, body, arms and legs but also his fingers. To do that, the researchers used a dome （圆顶状物）lined with 500 cameras, where they recorded body movements at different angles and then used those pictures to build a data set.
They then passed those pictures through a keypoint detector to identify and label specific body parts. The software also learns to connect the body parts with different people, so it knows, for example, that a particular person's hand will always be close to his or her upper arm. This makes it possible to track multiple people at once.
The pictures from the dome were recorded in 2D. But the researchers used 3D technology to help the system understand how each movement appears from different angles. With all of this data processed, the system can determine how the whole hand looks even if some fingers cannot be seen.
Now that the system has this data set to draw from, it can run with just one camera and one computer. It no longer requires the camera-lined dome to determine body poses, making the technology mobile and accessible.
The researchers say this technology could be used for interactions between humans and machines. It could play a huge role in VR （虚拟现实）experiences, allowing finer detection of the user's physical movement without any added hardware. It could also help with more natural interactions with a home robot. You could tell your robot to “pick that up"， and it could easily understand what you're pointing at. By interpreting your physical gestures, the robot may even learn to read emotions by tracking body language. So when you' re silently crying with your face in your hands because a robot has taken your job, it might offer you a tissue.
1. What does the underlined words “this problem" in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Humans are addicted to technology. |
| B．Human-robot relationship is poor. |
| C．Robots show too much trust in humans. |
| D．Robots fail to interpret physical gestures. |
| A．It tracks one person at a time. |
| B．It can track slight body movements. |
| C．It uses a dome to recognize people. |
| D．It can take 500 pictures in one second. |
| A．The data set. | B．3D technology. |
| C．A powerful computer. | D．A camera-lined dome. |
| A．What robots are expected to do in the future? |
| B．Why is body language so important? |
| C．Robots learn to read body language. |
| D．Robots can and will change our lives. |
10 . Tommy, a 26-year-old chimp(猩猩),lives in a small cage in a used truck sales lot in New York. Retired from movie work and whatever else once occupied him, he has no chimp friends to keep him company — just a TV. He is worlds away from the rainforest of Western Africa, where chimps spend most of their lives in trees, hunting, and socializing together.
His owner hasn't broken any laws, but an animal rights group called the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) is trying to change the view. The group says chimps have such a humanlike intelligence that they should be recognized as “legal persons" and be placed in an animal shelter and wander free.
You've probably heard the term “animal rights”, but animals don't actually have rights in many countries. Animal-welfare laws punish people who mistreat animals, but that's not the same as chimps having a right to liberty or anything else.
NhRP's first step is to ask a judge to end people's unjust arrest on behalf of Tommy and other privately owned chimps. If the court decides to recognize chimps as legal persons, NhRP's next step will be arguing for what rights the chimps should be granted. "The right that we believe they should have most of all is the right to bodily liberty," says Wise, a NhRP group member. "They should be able to choose how to live their lives.”
Tommy's owner, Pat Lavery, says he rescued Tommy from a careless owner about a decade ago and denies the chimp is mistreated or unhappy. "He likes being by himself," he says.
“There's a danger in making a jump to say they're just like people," says Richard Cupp, a professor who writes about animals and the law. "If we' re really focused on chimps being very, very smart, then who knows if maybe someday we might …say, ‘Hey, here's a particular human being that's not very smart at all, maybe the chimps have higher status than this person.’”
1. What can we know about Tommy?| A．He is living a very lonely life. |
| B．He dislikes living in the rainforest. |
| C．He likes watching movies very much, |
| D．He was illegally bought by Pat Lavery. |
| A．Great progress has been made on improving animal rights. |
| B．Pat Lavery is thought to mistreat Tommy by NhRP. |
| C．Animal rights are going from bad to worse. |
| D．Animal rights have been admitted in western countries. |
| A．To ensure chimps' bodily safety. | B．To stop illegal hunting of chimps. |
| C．To help chimps find their families. | D．To help chimps enjoy their freedom. |
| A．Hopeful, | B．Uncaring. |
| C．Worried. | D．Supportive. |
