1 . Regardless of how famous they are, and despite the star treatment they receive, many celebrities make it a point to give back to charities. Some have even set up their own private foundations. Their widely publicised visits to troubled areas of the world help to raise awareness of issues such as famine and poverty. According to Jane Cooper of Unicef UK, celebrities have a unique ability to reach huge numbers of people, many of whom might not otherwise be engaged in charitable causes. She pointed out that famous faces had played a significant role in raising funds in recent years, and their energies had produced tangible results, such as enabling millions of children in poorer countries to attend school.
But in spite of these successes there is evidence to suggest that celebrity endorsement (代言) may be overrated. In a survey of members of the public to find out if celebrity involvement would encourage people to donate, researchers found that the impact was not as great as previously thought. When shown a list of well-known organisations and famous people who represent them, over half of respondents were unable to match the celebrity with the cause. What’s more, three quarters claimed that they didn’t respond to celebrity endorsement in any way. The survey also showed that a few names did stand out as being associated with particular charities. But the presence of a celebrity in a campaign, was not a significant factor when it came to a decision to donate time or money. Instead, the majority of people contribute because of personal connections in their lives and families which make a charity important to them.
In another study aimed at young people, most participants cited a compelling (无法抗拒的) mission as their main motivation to give. The second most important incentive was if a friend or peer recommended supporting a particular cause. Only two percent of respondents said they were motivated by celebrity endorsement. This seems to contradict the general assumption that teenagers are particularly influenced by famous people. One possible explanation is that there is a general fatigue (疲倦) with celebrity culture. There is also a suspicion that the stars are the one who benefit most when they offer to do charity work. Some critics have accused that celebrities might actually take attention away from issues by attracting more attention than the causes they represent.
So taking all these issues into account, is it time for charities to rethink their campaign strategies and look for alternative ways to reach new audiences? Whichever point of view you favour, there seems to be opportunities for more research into how charity campaigns might develop relationships with celebrities to maximise their potential. This in turn will open up more engagement, and better targeted campaigns-which can only benefit those who really matter — the people and animals that are in need of assistance.
1. What does the underlined word “tangible” in paragraph I probably mean?| A．Definite. | B．Complicated. | C．Limited. | D．Temporary. |
| A．they gain benefit from the charities |
| B．they are forced to finish a necessary task |
| C．they believe in the famous people they like |
| D．they are inspired by the people around them |
| A．what celebrities achieve in doing charities |
| B．How young people react to celebrity culture |
| C．why young people are hardly influenced by celebrities |
| D．who is to blame for taking attention away from charities |
| A．Objective. | B．Positive. |
| C．Negative. | D．Unclear. |
2 . An 8-year-old boy I know is small for his age, shorter and slighter than his friends, even smaller than his 5-year-old sister. Concerned about the increasing use and possible risks of growth hormone(生长激素), I asked his mother if she’d considered treating him with it. She replied, “Not really. He’s built like his father, who was short and slight as a boy and didn’t shoot up until college.”
His father, at 41, is now 6 feet tall, though still very slender. He recalls being a reasonably athletic child but without the physical power of his friends, making up for what he lacked in mass with speed and agility. “I enjoyed competitive sports and worked on skills others didn’t have,” he told me, and said he encourages his son to recognize and capitalize on the skills he has.
If only every parent with a short but healthy child approached the matter as sensibly. Experts estimate that 60% to 80% of children who are short for their age do not have a growth hormone deficiency(缺乏) or other medical condition that limits growth. But knowing there’s a therapy available to increase height, some parents seek a medical solution for a perceived problem, even when there is no medical abnormality. They should also know, however, that new research has linked growth hormone treatment to serious unfavorable health effects years later.
Dr. Adda Grimberg, a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, recalled that “Twenty years ago, families were focused on health. They came in with a child who was not growing right and wanted to know if there was an underlying disease. Now, more and more, they’re focused on height. They want growth hormone, looking for a specific height. But this is not like online shopping; you can’t just place an order and make a child the height you want.”
In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of recombinant human growth hormone for the condition known as “idiopathic short stature”, or short build of unknown cause, which is not a disease. But it has caused a growing number of parents to consider using the hormone to boost the height of their children.
The resulting rush to therapy reflects concerns about a widespread societal bias(偏见) against shortness, rather than a true medical need. Experts have noted that the practice backs up the belief that short stature is unacceptable, leading to an increasing demand for therapy. It is far better, Dr. Grimberg suggested, to help a short child develop coping skills than to buy inches through medicine.
1. As for the parents’ attitude to their 8-year-old boy’s shortness, the author is ________.| A．critical | B．tolerant | C．supportive | D．worried |
| A．They are eager to get the expected result. |
| B．They spare no effort to sort out the cause. |
| C．They feel disturbed by their children’s health. |
| D．They help develop their children’s coping skills. |
| A．It might be officially recommended. |
| B．It may fuel height discrimination. |
| C．It is pushed by a medical need. |
| D．It is targeted at certain diseases. |
| A．Shower the Short with Growth Hormones |
| B．Find Replacement for Growth Hormones |
| C．Assess the Effects of Growth Hormones |
| D．Weigh the Use of Growth Hormones |
3 . Human activity is changing the surface and temperature of the planet. But new research shows it is also changing the sound of the Earth’s oceans and seas.
Scientists say the changes in the sounds of our oceans and seas affect many marine(海洋) animals—from very small fish to huge whales. Sound travels “very far underwater,” Francis Juanes told the reporter. Juanes is an ecologist at the University of Victoria and co-writer of the recent research published in a magazine. “For fish,” he explained, “sound is probably a better way to sense their environment than light.”
Sounds help fish and other marine animals survive. They use sounds to communicate with each other. Sounds also help some ocean animals find food and avoid their hunters. Many ocean animals use sounds to find good places to give birth. However, increased noise from humans is making it harder for these animals to hear each other. The noise comes from shipping traffic, underwater oil and gas exploration, offshore construction, and other noisy human activity.
“For many marine species, their attempts to communicate are being masked by sounds that humans have produced,” said Duarte. The marine ecologist at the Red Sea Research Center co-wrote the paper with Juanes. The Red Sea, Duarte said, is one of the world’s most important shipping passages. It is full of large ships traveling to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Some fish and other animals, he said, now avoid the noisiest areas. Also, the overall number of marine animals has gone down by about half since 1970. In some parts of the ocean, scientists now record “fewer animals singing and calling than in the past—those voices are gone,” said Duarte.
Juanes and Duarte examined studies and research articles about changes in noise volume(音量) and frequency in the world’s oceans. Then they put together a detailed picture of how the ocean soundscape is changing and how marine life is affected.
Climate change, the researchers found, also affects physical processes that shape ocean sounds. These include such things as wind, waves, and melting ice.
Some studies suggest that noise may cause hearing loss of marine animals. Besides, many marine animals are showing higher levels of stress due to noise, which might also affect the immune(免疫) system.
Scientist Juanes says sound pollution may be easier to deal with than other ocean threats. “In theory,” he said, “you can turn down or turn off the sound immediately. It’s not like plastics or climate change, which are much harder to undo.”
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Sound noise may result in hearing loss of human beings. |
| B．Sound pollution killed most of the marine animals in the Red Sea. |
| C．Sound noise can influence the communication of marine animals. |
| D．Sound is unlikely to be a better way to sense their environment than light. |
| A．Channel. | B．Address. |
| C．Industry | D．Company. |
| A．what is the main cause of climate change |
| B．what should be done to reduce sound pollution |
| C．how to record changes in noise volume and frequency |
| D．how to enhance the immune system of marine animals |
| A．The Future of Oceans Exploration |
| B．The Changes in the Sounds of Oceans |
| C．Sounds Help Marine Animals Survive |
| D．Humans are Making Oceans Too noisy |
4 . Do you know you can learn to program computers at any age？ People might think you need a special mentality to learn computer programming， but anyone can learn. There are even programming languages created for kids. Scratch is a visual programming language developed by MIT. It is designed to teach kids aged 8 and up how to write code. They use easily combined block commands and start programming right away!
Today， even small computers can do complex calculations quickly， but they need clear commands in binary（二进制. form. A programming language is a series of commands with special syntax that is converted into binary， the machine language. Different programming languages are used to convert code into binary for different applications， like creating websites or controlling the brakes in your car.
There are many different ways to write code， but they all share some basic principles. Once you understand those principles， the sky is the limit. Bill Gates， the founder of Microsoft， started coding when he was 13. He created a simple program to play tic﹣tac﹣toe. According to Gates， all you really need to get started is a basic comprehension of addition and subtraction.
Programming is now used for everything from creating apps to running household appliances.
The demand for programmers is growing. To help people to create their own code， nonprofits like code.org and major companies like Google have created free resources to help teach basic programming. Using the popular game Minecraft or characters from Star Wars， anyone， even kindergarteners， can start learning how code works. But these resources aren't just for kids， people can start at any age.
Maybe you are thinking to yourself，"I'll never get a job as a programmer. Why should I learn to code？" There are a number of answers to that question. Above all， as technology becomes more and more prevalent， reading and writing code will be a way to understand how the world around you works.
Just like reading and writing in any language， the first things you learn will be simple and even crude. But stay diligent， learn a little every day， and soon you will find yourself programming a computer to do things you would never do by hand. Then you might just become a programming convert.
1. Even small computers can do complex calculations if they have________.| A．clear commands in the machine language |
| B．special syntaxes |
| C．a series of commands |
| D．different applications |
| A．ways of coding |
| B．success of Bill Gates |
| C．key to writing code |
| D．content of basic rules |
| A．Those who want to learn to program should have professional knowledge. |
| B．People can learn basic programming with some free resources. |
| C．Reading and writing code is a way to show how you understand the world. |
| D．Learning how to program computers will cost a lot of money. |
| A．To promote Scratch to kids. |
| B．To discuss the importance of programming. |
| C．To explain how to program a computer. |
| D．To encourage people to learn programming. |
5 . A unique positioning technology POINTER is being developed to pinpoint firefighters inside buildings where other positioning technologies fail.
“Even with all of the advances made in firefighting technology, we still lose far too many firefighters each year,” said Greg Price who leads S&T’s first responder research and development programs. “We want them to know that we have their backs, that we are working to give them the tools they need to ensure their own safety. POINTER is one of those life-saving solutions.”
Unlike positioning technologies such as GPS or radio-frequency identification, POINTER doesn’t use radio waves. Though radio waves offer a reliable means to determine your location in a relatively open space, they can become unpredictable if you go indoors or find yourself surrounded by high buildings. This may be minor annoyance when trying to find the location of an appointment, but it could be a life-or-death situation when trying to locate firefighters in a burning building.
The POINTER system is composed of three parts: a receiver, transmitter, and base station. The firefighter wears the receiver, which is currently the size of a cellphone but expected to become much smaller after further development. A transmitter that can be attached to emergency vehicles outside the building generates the MOS fields, which travel through the building, pinging any receivers located inside over range of about 230 feet (70 meters) in the current version of the system. This range can be extended but isn’t needed in most fire-service applications. The receivers detect the fields determine their 3D location, and then send that data back outside the building to a laptop (the base station). Visualization software shows where the firefighters are in 3D space within an accuracy of a few inches. Not only can POINTER help firefighting teams locate team members through walls, MOS fields can also determine the orientation of the receiver.
“This is a very exciting technology that adds another dimension to firefighters’ situational awareness,” said JPL’s Ed Chow, the POINTER program manager, “Firefighters can be tracked in real time and, if they become unresponsive, their team members can see if they are trapped under debris or if they are injured so a rescue can be mounted.”
The POINTER team is now planning to carry out a live webcast of a technical demonstration inside a two-level single-family home in Pasadena, California, near the campus of Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. Further field tests in a variety of firefighting scenarios are being planned through 2021, and a commercial version of POINTER will be made available to fire departments in 2022.
1. Why does the author quote what Greg Price said?| A．To emphasize the necessity and importance of developing POINTER. |
| B．To introduce the advances made in firefighting positioning technology. |
| C．To compare the advantages and disadvantages of POINTER and GPS. |
| D．To demonstrate the reliability of POINTER to locate firefighters inside buildings. |
| A．Sending messages to. | B．Adding dimension to. |
| C．Protecting the safety of. | D．Shutting the connection with. |
| A．how POINTER is tested | B．what POINTER is |
| C．why POINTER is developed | D．how POINTER works |
| A．It may be only a dream. | B．It will serve NASA only. |
| C．It will come into use soon. | D．It may have passed field tests. |
6 . Parents often tell kids that playing video games will harm their brains. But last June a study found the opposite — certain video games can give your brain help. Researchers from the University of Montreal, in Canada, asked a group of people to play Super Mario 64 for 90 hours over the course of about 10 weeks. They found that those people experienced growth in the part of the brain that is responsible for memory.
But many people think that there’s nothing good about looking at a screen for hours at a time. They say that playing sports, reading, and doing other activities can give you the same benefits that playing video games does. Plus, some video games can be harmful. The study from the University of Montreal also found that playing shooter games like Call of Duty has a different influence from playing Super Mario 64 — it causes the area of the brain that’s responsible for memory to shrink.
Here’s what two of our readers think.
Playing video games can be beneficial because it requires skills like problem-solving, strategic thinking, and sometimes teamwork. A study by researchers at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, found that playing video games improves your communication skills and ability to find ways to solves problems. Video games can also help you become more creative. For example, Minecraft requires you to think outside the box and build things with materials you never even knew existed. Yo can build your dream house! Some schools are even using Minecraft to teach topics like math and computer science.
—Mackenzle Reldy, Nebraska
Playing video games takes time away from other more important things. I used to spend a lot of time playing them. Sometimes that kept me from doing things I needed to do, like studying my spelling words. Playing video games can also be bad for your health. Last year, researchers studied kids and teens in Canada who play video games. They found a connection between playing video games for hours before going to bed and being overweight.
—Devin Lewis, Arizona
1. Compared with Call of Duty, Super Mario 64_______.| A．is more harmful to kids |
| B．is more popular among kids |
| C．can help develop gamers’ memory |
| D．requires gamers to be good at solving problems |
| A．It is very boring. |
| B．It is no easy task. |
| C．It is a waste of time. |
| D．It is good for his studies. |
| A．How to stop playing video games. |
| B．Whether video games are good for you. |
| C．How long you can spend playing video games. |
| D．Why video games are so attractive to kids and teens. |
7 . At the start, one gets the impression of being in a normal museum where you walk from room to room and look at things like paintings. The Museum of Broken Relationships, however, offers its visitors a chance to see a special part of people’s lives: both women and men from all over the world have sent in their personal belongings which they connect with past and broken relationships.
There is a surprisingly large number of things in the little museum that is set in the beautiful old town of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The things have been placed in different rooms, representing different kinds of break-ups. Some relationships lasted for a long time while others were only short ones.
A woman from the Philippines sent a newspaper from NYC where she and her boyfriend had been building up their careers. The newspaper stands for the hard work of becoming successful together; within a few years though, the couple took different roads in life.
As you walk through the museum you will laugh your head off one minute and find yourself reduced to tears during another. This might happen in the room of unintended break-ups, that is , relationships that fell apart because one partner died.
Poems and letters, or broken glass are common symbols for the end of a pleasant, but sometimes difficult time. People also sent wedding dresses, photos and things that helped them escape a relationship for good, like a bicycle or trainers.
This museum might not teach you anything about art, history or technology, but it shows a very humane side of life. Each story tell us that life will go on after a break-up. It might not be easy for a while but you will learn from your experience and grow stronger again.
Having visited a lot of “normal” museums, the Museum of Broken Relationships is a good second choice and a creative way of making people think about their lives.
1. What does the underlined word “they” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Visitors. | B．Women and men. | C．Personal belongings. | D．Broken relationships |
| A．Their relationship was close but short. |
| B．They took different positions on careers. |
| C．Their story was reported by a newspaper. |
| D．They helped each other in making careers. |
| A．lasted for a long time |
| B．produced both laughter and tears |
| C．ended when one person passed away |
| D．failed because of some misunderstanding |
| A．A special museum on relationships. |
| B．Ways to repair broken relationships. |
| C．How to develop healthy relationships. |
| D．Things connected with broken relationships. |
8 . William had worked hard to pass the exams to enter high school. When the term began, however, his father told him that there was no money to pay for his school fees because of the summer drought. Still, William wanted to learn.
He made the village library his school. One day, he found a book called Using Energy. On the book’s cover was a picture of windmills, tall steel towers with blades (叶片) spinning like giant fans. He learned that wind—something of which his hometown had plenty—could produce electricity.
He couldn’t help picturing his own windmill in mind, but collecting the parts and tools he needed would take months. In a junkyard, he dug through piles of used metal, old cars, and worn-out tractors, searching for anything that might help him construct his machine. He made four-foot-long blades from plastic pipe, which he melted over a fire, flattened out, and hardened with bamboo poles.
Earning some money, he paid a blacksmith to attach the piston (活塞) to the pedal sprocket (踏板链轮) of an old bicycle frame. This would be the axle (轮轴) of the windmill. When the wind blew, the spinning blades would turn the bicycle wheel and spin a small dynamo (发电机), donated by his friend.
When he had collected all the parts, William began putting them together. He fixed the blades to the tractor fan he found, using washers (垫圈) he’d made from bottle caps. Next he pushed the fan onto the piston joint to the bicycle frame. With the help of his two best friends, William built a 16-foot-tall tower from trunks of trees and lifted the ninety-pound windmill to the top.
The big moments eventually came. He climbed up the tower and connected two wires that held a small bulb. As the wind whipped around him, the blades began to turn, slowly at first, then faster and faster. The light bulb flickered (闪烁), then flashed to life. The crowd cheered from below. “Wachitabwina (well done)!”
William’s machine now powered his house. And the story of the boy who’d built a power-generating windmill to rescue his family from the drought spread across the Internet.
1. After reading Using Energy, what did William decide to do?| A．Make use of wind. | B．Enter a high school. |
| C．Build a village library. | D．Learn to survive a drought. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Determined. |
| C．Cooperative. | D．Friendly. |
| A．It was built by villagers. |
| B．It worked at the first attempt. |
| C．It took him years to complete it. |
| D．It was made from metal materials. |
| A．Winds Of Hope | B．Ideas Worth Spreading |
| C．Learning from Experience | D．Windmills for Villages |
9 . Every day, it seems that some new algorithm (算法) enables computers to diagnose a disease with unprecedented accuracy, renewing predictions that computer's will soon replace doctors. What if computers could replace patients as well? If virtual humans could have replaced real people in some stages of a coronavirus vaccine trial, it could have sped development of a preventive tool and slowed down the pandemic. Similarly, potential vaccines that weren't likely to work could have been identified early, reducing trial costs and avoiding testing poor vaccine candidates on living volunteers. These are some of the benefits of “in silico medicine”, or the testing of drugs and treatments on virtual organs or body systems to predict how a real person will respond to the therapies.
The modeling begins by feeding anatomical data drawn from noninvasive (非侵入式) high- resolution imaging of an individual's actual organ into a complex mathematical model of the mechanisms that govern that organ's function. Algorithms running on powerful computers resolve the resulting equations and unknowns, generating a virtual organ that looks and behaves like the real thing.
In silico clinical trials are already underway to an extent. Heart Flow Analysis, for instance, enables clinicians to identify CAD (冠心病) based on CT images of a patient's heart. The Heart Flow system uses these images to construct a fluid dynamic model of the blood running through the coronary blood vessels, thereby identifying abnormal conditions and their severity. Without this technology, doctors would need to perform an invasive operation to decide whether and how to intervene. Experimenting on digital models of individual patients can also help personalize therapy for any number of conditions and is already used in diabetes care.
The philosophy behind in silico medicine is not new. The ability to create and simulate the performance of an object under hundreds of operating conditions has been a cornerstone of engineering for decades, such as for designing electronic circuits, airplanes and buildings. Various obstacles remain to its widespread implementation in medical research and development.
The predictive power and reliability of this technology must be confirmed, and that will require several advances. Those include the generation of high quality medical databases from a large, ethnically diverse patient base that has both women and men; improvement of mathematical models to account for the many interacting processes in the body; and further modification of Al methods that were developed mainly for computer-based speech and image recognition and need to be extended to provide biological insights.
In recent years American and European regulators have approved some commercial uses of computer-based diagnostics, but meeting regulatory demands requires considerable time and money. Creating demand for these computer-based diagnostic tools is challenging as well. In silico medicine must be able to deliver cost-effective value for patients, clinicians and health care organizations to accelerate their adoption of the technology.
1. According to the text, “in silico medicine” might help ________.| A．discover the cause of an illness |
| B．quicken the creation of new medicine |
| C．recognize the symptoms of a disease earlier |
| D．avoid including unhealthy volunteers in trials |
| A．works effectively in CAD treatment |
| B．offers personalized therapies to patients |
| C．reduces the chances of invasive operations |
| D．builds models after identifying abnormal conditions |
| A．money and time from the regulators |
| B．replacement of old mathematical models |
| C．more proof of its effectiveness and dependability |
| D．progress in speech and image recognition technology |
| A．Looking to Al to End Experimental Study |
| B．In Silico Medicine Saved Millions of Lives |
| C．Exploring the Future of Algorithm in Medicine |
| D．Virtual Patients Could Revolutionize Medicine |
10 . The Rise of Voice Technology
Voice technology has come a long way. Just a few years ago, it would have been unusable. But now, those who follow the technology know that it has got considerably better.
Writing with your voice raises several interesting questions. How difficult is it actually? Human speech involves a lot more starting and stopping with errors and the need for repairing broken sentences than you may think. Even gifted speakers make mistakes. To turn the spoken word into reasonable writing requires lots of planning. You’ll need some kinds of notes or other organisers to make it work.
Another question turning speech into writing raises is the style. How would writing make the change that people speak their writing rather than type? Chances are that it would come up with many more short sentences and more concrete language, which is good. It would probably also rely on prepared phrases a lot more often, which is not available when you are speaking quickly.
To confirm this, a column was not written, but dictated (听写). It was composed from brief notes written down for structure only, and it was edited for length, with all of the original errors kept in. Here were the results. The first was that the literal accuracy was extremely high. There weren’t many cases where the software had heard one word incorrectly and written down another. But the other result was that the readability of this column was rather bad. Obviously, the blame is not with the technology at all, which turns out to be rather good. Speaking into writing relies on a better human brain than the one we currently possess. Writing is hard. There’s a reason it can’t be done at the speed of speech, in real time.
To clarify the matter, this time paragraph breaks were added after the whole writing. Punctuations (标点) had to be spoken aloud, and after a full stop, the first word in the new sentence was capitalized automatically. Some minor punctuation marks were added to make it clearer. To improve accuracy, people “trained” the software beforehand, reading a prewritten passage aloud. Actually it turns out to be more effective. All of these ensure the satisfactory completion of turning speech into writing.
Language is the most important tool for human interaction, and voice is one beautiful part of language. With the maturity of modern technology, it has given birth to a great change in the human-computer voice interaction.
1. According to the passage, which helps to turn speech into writing in terms of style?| A．There is careful planning in advance. |
| B．Errors and broken sentences are avoided. |
| C．People type words as fast as they say them. |
| D．The writing contains more prepared phrases. |
| A．processing errors in a column. |
| B．adding minor punctuation marks. |
| C．increasing the number of brief notes. |
| D．integrating short paragraphs in writing. |
| A．human brains are responsible for poor dictated writing. |
| B．writing with voice promises to improve the quality of writing. |
| C．writing is an unnatural act that can hardly be learned and improved. |
| D．technology has a long way to go in the human-computer voice interaction. |
| A．Why people fully intend to turn speech into writing. |
| B．What role voice technology plays in improving readability. |
| C．Where the human-computer voice interaction is at an advantage. |
| D．How voice technology enables the change from speech into writing. |
