1 . Maybe you’re depressed because you didn’t sleep well. Or you feel stuck when you read an email with some bad news that prevented your enthusiastic imagination. Whatever the case may be, you tell yourself working now is in vain (徒劳的), because you couldn’t possibly come up with anything inventive in this mood.
Several studies in psychology have shown that negative emotions narrow our vision and limit our thinking. However, positive emotions can improve creativity because they broaden our way of thinking by encouraging us to try new things or look at situations differently.
Creativity is the ability to produce and carry out both new and useful ideas. Creativity can result from a person’s own creative ideas and observations, or it can appear as a response to a direct assignment or problem as well.
Both positive and negative moods can lead to two different kinds of creativity that benefit different tasks. Research shows that the key factor influencing our creativity is not our mood itself, but the strength of our feelings and the motivation (动机) behind our work. For example, anger or anxiety can help us to focus our attention on producing effective results. Great excitement or joy, on the other hand, can encourage an instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear all of a sudden. In fact, one study even finds that while we’re 20 percent more likely to have creative abilities to understand mixed situations when we’re feeling good, people in a negative mood perform better when the quality of solutions—not quantity—matters most.
But of course, we are rarely entirely happy or entirely sad. More often, we experience mixed emotions. In psychology, these strong emotions whether they are positive or negative, lead to greater creative actions.
It comes as no surprise then that highly creative people tend to be very familiar with their emotions. They report experiencing very strong emotions more frequently than less creative people and are more willing to experience those emotions.
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?| A．To expect us to be creative. |
| B．To show the importance of creativity. |
| C．To tell us negative emotions exist everywhere. |
| D．To clarify how moods influence your creativity. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Critical. | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
| A．We should always try to keep ourselves in good mood. |
| B．People feel either very happy or very sad most of the time. |
| C．Strong emotions play an important role in creativity. |
| D．Creativity only results from creative ideas and observations. |
| A．Avoid negative moods totally. |
| B．Face up to inner feelings positively. |
| C．Try out new things cautiously. |
| D．Understand mixed situations clearly. |
2 . People with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic can spread the disease without any outward signs that they're sick. But a newly developed AI, with a keen algorithmic ear, might be able to detect asymptomatic cases from the sounds of people's coughs, according to a new study.
A group of researchers at MIT recently developed an artificial intelligence model that can detect asymptomatic COVID-19 cases by listening to subtle differences in coughs between healthy people and infected people.
Indeed, it is the Alzheimer's model that the researchers adapted in an effort to detect COVID-19.“The sounds of talking and coughing are both influenced by the vocal cords and surrounding organs.” co-author Brian Subirana, a research scientist in MIT's Auto-ID Laboratory said in a statement. “AI can pick up simply from coughs, including things like the person's gender, mother tongue or even emotional state. There's in fact sentiment strongly fixed in how you cough.”
First, they created a website where volunteers-both healthy and those with COVID-19-could record coughs using their cellphones or computers; they also filled out a survey with questions about their diagnosis and any symptoms they were experiencing. People were asked to record “forced coughs,” such as the cough you let out when your doctor tells you to cough while listening to your chest with a stethoscope.
Through this website, the researchers gathered more than 70,000 individual recordings of forced-cough samples, according to the statement, Of those,2,660 were from patients who had COVID-19,with or without symptoms. They then used 4,256 of the samples to train their AI model and 1,064 of the samples to test their model to see whether or not it could detect the difference in coughs between COVID-19 patients and healthy people.
The AI model correctly identified 98.5% of people with COVID-19, and correctly ruled out COVID-19 in 94.2% of people without the disease. For asymptomatic people, the model correctly identified 100% of people with COVID-19, and correctly ruled out COVID-19 in 83.2% of people without the disease.
But "whether or not this performs well enough in a real-world setting to recommend its use as a screening tool would need further study,"Lubinsky told Live Science."What's more,further research is needed to ensure the AI would accurately evaluate coughs from people of all ages,’’ he said.
1. How does the AI recognize people infected with COVID-19?| A．By observing outward sick signs. | B．By identifying sounds of coughs. |
| C．By copying the Alzheimer's model. | D．By talking to the healthy and the infected. |
| A．How people catch coughs. | B．How people perceive coughs. |
| C．How people make vocal sounds. | D．How people release their emotions. |
| A．Volunteers record coughs. | B．Volunteers fill out a survey. |
| C．Doctors ask for forced coughs. | D．Researchers train the AI model. |
| A．The limited age range. | B．Failure to evaluate coughs. |
| C．Inaccuracy of the statistics. | D．Low rate of identifying cases. |
3 . I Was the Doughnut Lady
In university I had a part-time job at a shop that sold doughnut s and coffee. Situated on a block where several buses stopped, it served the people who had a few minutes to wait for their bus.
Every afternoon around four o'clock, a group of school children would burst into the shop, and business would come to a stop. Adults would glance in, see the crowd and pass on. But I didn't mind if the children waited for their bus inside. Sometimes I would hand out a bus fare when a ticket went missing-always repaid the next day. On snowy days I would give away some doughnuts. I would lock the door at closing time, and we waited in the warm shop until their bus finally arrived.
I enjoyed my young friends, but it never occurred to me that I played an important role in their lives—until one afternoon when a man came and asked if I was the girl working on weekdays around four o'clock. He identified himself as the father of two of my favorites.
“I want you to know I appreciate what you do for my children. I worry about them taking two buses to get home. It means a lot that they can wait here and you keep an eye on them. When they are with the doughnut lady, I know they are safe.” I told him it wasn't a big deal, and that I enjoyed the kids.
So I was the Doughnut Lady. I not only received a title, but became a landmark. Now I think about all the people who keep an eye on my own children. They become, well, Doughnut Ladies. Like the men a t the skating rink, who let my boys ring home; Or the bus driver who drove my daughter to her stop at the end of the route at night but wouldn't leave until I arrived to pick her up; Or that nice police officer who took pity on my boys walking home in the rain when I was at work—even though the phone rang all the next day with calls from curious neighbors. “Was that a police car I saw at your house last night?”
That wasn't a police car. That was a Doughnut Lady.
1. According to the passage, the author sometimes ______.| A．sold bus tickets to the children | B．gave the children free doughnuts |
| C．did business with the children's help | D．called the children's parents to pick them up |
| A．she hadn't done anything significant |
| B．she hadn't spent much time with the children |
| C．she hadn't made a lot of money from the children |
| D．she hadn't found it hard to get along with the children |
| A．He took the boys to the police station. |
| B．He helped the boys look for their mother. |
| C．He drove the boys back home in a police car. |
| D．He managed to make sure of the boys' identity. |
| A．They called to comfort them. |
| B．They tried to make sure they were fine. |
| C．They wanted to confirm it was really a police car. |
| D．They wondered what the police brought them on such a rainy night. |
| A．running a business requires skill | B．taking responsibility is a moral virtue |
| C．devotion should be everything in life | D．there are always no small acts of kindness. |
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1. What progress has HlairMax company made in hair growth laser treatment recently?| A．You don't need to hold the device now. |
| B．You don't have to take any medicine now. |
| C．No surgical operation is required for hair regrowth now. |
| D．Many other related products are available now. |
| A．Activate hair follicles. | B．Speed hair growth. |
| C．Strengthen thinning hair. | D．Repair damaged hair. |
| A．215. | B．195. |
| C．175. | D．105. |
| A．You can solve all of your hair problems with the device. |
| B．The treatment is super-fast and the effect is obvious. |
| C．You can have a 5-month trial of the band with money back guarantee. |
| D．The company offers a full collection of devices and products for choice. |
| A．Jack, who has very thick hairs. |
| B．Tom, who always wants curly hairs. |
| C．Mary, whose hair is too thin. |
| D．Hellen, whose hair is too short. |
5 . One in four people around the world is at the risk of facing dangerous water shortages. Seventeen countries face “extremely high water stress” because they use 80 percent of their available water each year. The situation is made worse by a rise in dry periods linked to climate change, the World Resources Institute (WRI) said.
New information from WRI's Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas showed the countries suffering most are in and around the Middle East and North Africa. The Atlas helps governments, investors, and other users understand where and how water risks arise worldwide. It uses a special method and the best-available data to create customizable global maps of water risks.
Qatar is the most water-stressed country, followed by Israel. India ranks 13th among “extremely high” water-stressed nations. But with a population of more than 1.3 billion, it has more than three times the people in the other 16 countries combined, which means besides plenty of fresh water, much more is demanded for Indian daily life, agricultural development etc., resulting in the higher likelihood of water shortages for the country than the other 16.
India's city, Chennai, was the latest city worldwide to warn it could be without water, as water storage levels fell. “That followed a similar announcement from Cape Town last year. It’s good that there's just one city mentioned,” said Betsy Otto, Director of WRI's Global Water Program. “But more of these kinds of “Day Zeros” are round the comer. And soon, the situation will be different, with more people put in a tight spot.”
Many things threaten the worlds water supplies, from climate change to poor supervision, according to WRI. “High dependence on groundwater supplies, which are decreasing, is an added concern,” Paul Reig said. He leads work on the WRI Atlas. Reig noted groundwater supplies are difficult to manage because they're deep below the Earth’s surface. Nearly a third of fresh water is groundwater. “It's poorly understood. We have got to get down studying it deeply and quickly, working for more available fresh water?”
1. What does the WRI Atlas serve as?| A．A database about water storage and supplies. |
| B．A tool offering information about water risks. |
| C．A company collecting water-related information. |
| D．An institute concerning water-stressed countries. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Optimistic. | C．Doubtful. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Climate change threatens the world's water supply. |
| B．High dependence on groundwater is decreasing. |
| C．Further research is needed on groundwater. |
| D．New ways should be adopted for fresh water. |
| A．The situation of water stress and potential solutions. |
| B．The effects water stress has on each country. |
| C．The reason why water stress should be overcome. |
| D．The cause of global water stress. |
6 . Studying how people move to music is a powerful tool for researchers looking to understand how and why music affects us the way it does. Over the last few years, researchers at the Center for Interdisciplinary Music Research in Finland have used motion capture (运动捕捉) technology to learn that your dance moves say a lot about you, such as what mood you happen to be in, and even how much you understand other people's feelings. Recently, however, they discovered something amazing.
In fact, we weren't looking for this result, as we set out to study something completely different, explains Dr. Emily Carlson, the first author of the study. “Our original idea was to see if we could use machines to identify which category of music our participants were dancing to, based on their movements.”
The 73 participants in the study were motion captured dancing to eight different categories. The only instruction they received was to listen to the music and move any way they felt natural. The researchers then analyzed their movements using machine learning, trying to distinguish between the different kinds of music. Unfortunately, their computer algorithm (算法) was able to identify the correct kind less than 30% of the time. They were shocked to discover, however, that the computer could correctly identify which of the 73 individuals was dancing 94% of the time. Left to chance (that is, if the computer had simply guessed without any information to go on), the expected accuracy would be less than 2%.
“It seems as though a personas dance movements are a kind of fingerprint,” says Dr. Pasi Saari, co-author of the study and data analyst, “Each person has a unique movement signature that stays the same no matter what kind of music is playing.” Some kinds, however, had more effect on individual dance movements than others. The computer was less accurate in identifying individuals when they were dancing to Metal music.
1. What did the researchers originally intend to find?| A．What dance moves could say about people. |
| B．Whether computers could tell dancers' music category. |
| C．How dance movements reflected one's personality. |
| D．What effects music category had on dance moves. |
| A．Dance movements depend on the kind of music. |
| B．All participants don't have their specific dance moves. |
| C．Computers are better at recognizing music category. |
| D．A person's dance style almost remains unchanged. |
| A．To inform readers of the finding of a study. |
| B．To explain the link between dance and music. |
| C．To tell the differences in various music dances. |
| D．To show how powerful the computer is. |
| A．A scientific magazine. | B．A biology textbook. |
| C．A book review. | D．A health newspaper. |
7 . After my girlfriend, Liz, and I had dated for about a year, and a few years before we got married, she joined me, my parents and my sister's family on a ski trip in Stowe, Vermont. I was in my late 30s, it was the first family vacation I'd been on in years, and it was the first such holiday Liz had ever taken with my relatives.
But a ski vacation is only as good as the ski conditions, and that January was spring-like. To make matters worse, our rented cabin was close to the ski hills but far from anything else. There was no Internet, and the only entertainment was a few board games and a single television.
For a couple of days, while we waited for the snow to fall, we watched endless hours of CNN (mom's choice) and SpongeBob SquarePants (my six-year-old niece's), played Scrabble and drank. Cabin fever set in quickly. At one point, my mom literally fought my niece for the remote control, even sitting on her to wrest it from her hands. My brother-in-law was downing a bottle of port and a bottle of white wine nightly. Amazed, but also alarmed, Liz confronted me in our bedroom: “What is wrong with your family?” I remember well her crazed laughter as she said it.
Then it snowed, but only at the top of the mountain—a very tall and fearsome peak. We scrambled, drove to the lift, and took it up. But as we climbed higher into quiet, dense cloud, Liz began to look unusual. When I asked her what was wrong, she revealed that she had only ever been on a bunny hill, which is for beginners to ski down. When she said that, she took hold of my arm tightly. “A bunny hill!” The lift let us off at the summit of a professional ski run at the top of the mountain.
My family, without a look back, disappeared down the hill. Liz got off the lift and fell at the first attempt. She took off her skis and promptly got back on the lift, taking it back down to the lodge and the relative safety of a large glass of wine.
Did I say it was her first vacation with my family? It was also her last.
1. What can we know from the first two paragraphs?| A．It was the first time for Liz to attend a family vacation. |
| B．The ski conditions were very good when they reached Stowe. |
| C．Maybe it was a bit warm in that January. |
| D．The author's mother abused his niece for a remote control. |
| A．Someone got a high fever in the cabin in no time. |
| B．They felt bored and restless for staying in the cabin. |
| C．They made the cabin warm enough. |
| D．The life in the cabin was alive and interesting. |
| A．Because she was too excited to ski. |
| B．Because everything looked unusual. |
| C．Because she scrambled and climbed for a long time. |
| D．Because she was frightened at the thought of skiing there. |
| A．Without a look, the author's family didn’t care for Liz. |
| B．Liz's skiing experience was limited. |
| C．Liz went down to the hill without trying skiing. |
| D．The author and Liz broke up after that family vacation. |
8 . A table-waiting robot cat built by a Chinese technology firm can carry plates of food, navigate a restaurant, miaow at diners and even react to having its ears stroked (抚摸).
Making its debut at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the so-called BellaBot was built for Chinese restaurants lacking enough waiters.
It is the brainchild of the Chinese robotics and artificial intelligence firm PuduTech. It features four shelves in the centre of its tower-like body to carry plates. Having been loaded up with meals by its human colleagues, the cat-themed robotic waiter miaows when it delivers food to diners to encourage them to take their plates. If customers thank BellaBot by stroking its ears, it will respond with a look of pleasure on its on-board screen, which displays animations of a cat’s face. “The owner’s hand is so warm,” BellaBot has been programmed to respond.
However, much like a real cat, the robot’s reaction soon changes if it is petted for too long. “It gets mad to remind you not to interrupt its job,” the designers introduced. The BellaBot waiter robot is a more personality-rich update to PuduTech’s previous model, which featured a more utilitarian (实用主义的) design and user interface.
Both BellaBot and its predecessor were designed with a particular mind to Chinese restaurants which are often short of waiting staff.
In a real-world food-service setting, however, BellaBot may find it difficult to operate at peak times. Nevertheless, restaurants are expected to increase their reliance on automation whether in the form of robotic waiting staff or otherwise. Furthermore, improvements in technology will see consumer robot designs grow steadily better at communicating with humans and facing new activities.
1. The underlined word “debut” in the second paragraph probably means_____.| A．first production | B．first sale |
| C．first appearance | D．first design |
| A．load plates by itself and deliver food to diners |
| B．help diners find seats in a restaurant |
| C．react to diners with its ears stroked |
| D．remind diners not to pet it for too long |
| A．make an advertisement |
| B．introduce an updated invention |
| C．predict future robot designs |
| D．solve the problems Chinese restaurants are facing |
| A．Chinese robotics and artificial intelligence |
| B．A Chinese technology firm |
| C．Improvements in robot design |
| D．Table-waiting robot cat |
9 . In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.
It quickly attracted famous names such as Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Marlene Dietrich as well as the big symphony orchestras(交响乐团). It became a fixed event every August and now attracts 400,000 people yearly.
At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight uninvited theatre groups turned up in 1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house no longer used for years.
Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known playwrights(剧作家) in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
Today the “Fringe”, once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.
A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing(给……提供场地) 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.
1. What was the purpose of Edinburgh Festival in the beginning?| A．To bring Europe together again. |
| B．To honor heroes of World WarⅡ. |
| C．To introduce young theatre groups. |
| D．To attract great artists from Europe. |
| A．They owned a public house there. |
| B．They came to take up a challenge. |
| C．They thought they were also famous. |
| D．They wanted to take part in the festival. |
| A．Popular writers. |
| B．University students. |
| C．Artists from around the world. |
| D．Performers of music and dance. |
| A．has become a non-official event |
| B．has gone beyond an art festival |
| C．gives shows all year round |
| D．keeps growing rapidly |
10 . Energy independence．It has a nice ring to it．Doesn't it？If you think so，you're not alone，because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades，and never more so than in the past few years，when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession．
"Energy independence" and its rhetorical （修辞的） companion "energy security" are，however，slippery concepts that are rarely though through．What is it we want independence from，exactly？
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil．But there are reasons that we buy all that old from elsewhere．
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running．Yes，there is a trickle（涓涓细流）of biofuels available，and more may become available，but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction．
Second，Americans have basically decided that they don't really want to produce all their own oil．They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad．Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection．To what degree are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports？
Third，there are benefits to trade．It allows for economic efficiency，and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do，we benefit．And although you don't read about this much，the United States is also a large exporter of oil products，selling about 2million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90countries．
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and，in fact，relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy．When that flow is interrupted，we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices.At the same time，we get massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world．
1. What does the author say about energy independence for America？| A．It sounds very attractive． |
| B．It ensures national security． |
| C．It will bring oil prices down． |
| D．It has long been everyone's dream．． |
| A．It wants to expand its storage of crude oil． |
| B．Its own oil reserves are quickly running out． |
| C．Its own oil production falls short of demand． |
| D．It wants to keep its own environment undamaged． |
| A．It proves profitable to both sides． |
| B．It improves economic efficiency． |
| C．It makes for economic development． |
| D．It saves the cost of oil exploration． |
| A．To justify America’s dependence on oil imports. |
| B．To arouse Americans’ awareness of the energy crisis. |
| C．To stress the importance of energy conservation. |
| D．To explain the increase of international oil trade. |
