I fell in love with a “flying Dutchman”…literally. In the summer of 2011, I moved to the Netherlands not knowing anyone except my husband, not knowing how to speak the language, and leaving behind my friends, family, and everything I knew that represented me. But as they say, “Love is blind. ”
In the beginning, I spent many months “alone in my head.” My mother-in-law didn't speak English（or Italian）. This, however, didn't stop her from trying to communicate with me. At first, sounds of vague meanings coupled with hand gestures was our way of having a conversation.
It wasn’t until I discovered she was a choral（合唱的）director for a women's group in the community that we then began communicating on a whole different level. From my early days in school, I was always part of a school choir for over a decade.
We shared a love of music! Dien（my mother-in-law’s name）taught me many beautiful Dutch songs. I sang in her choir throughout the years that followed. And then by chance, I came across a TED-Talk featuring you, Mr. Whitacre discussing your music and the virtual（虚拟合唱团）choir. Within minutes, I researched when the next project would start and to my surprise, it was Virtual Choir4“Fly To Paradise. ” I couldn't wait to tell my mother-in-law!
The next 2 weeks we spent practicing our parts and perfecting our video submissions. It was pure joy for us. Something we shared a love for, encouraging each other, spending hours together, and making a permanent bond as a mother and daughter-in-law.
Music has always been a part of my life. Its significance is greater than anything most people are aware of. Our participation in your virtual choir is one I will never forget. And it goes without saying, I am grateful for you, your music, and its ability to connect us all.
1. Which of the following best describes the author’s mother-in-law?| A．Talkative and humorous. | B．Active and caring. |
| C．Strict and determined. | D．Quiet and considerate. |
| A．She felt regretful about her marriage at the beginning. |
| B．She tried to avoid speaking to Dien due to language barrier. |
| C．She decided to join the virtual choir with Dien’s suggestions. |
| D．She developed a closer family bond by joining the virtual choir. |
| A．To give encouragement. | B．To offer help. |
| C．To express thanks. | D．To introduce a choir. |
2 . He lived his whole life as a poor man.His art and talent were recognized by almost no one.He suffered from a mental illness that led him to cut off part of his left ear in 1888 and to shoot himself two years later.But after his death, he achieved world fame.Today, Dutch artist Van Gogh is recognized as one of the leading artists of all time.
Now,150 years after his birth on March 30,1853, Zundert, the town of his birth，has made 2003 “The Van Gogh Year” in his honor.And the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam，home to the biggest collection of his masterpieces, is marking the anniversary with exhibitions throughout the year.The museum draws around 1．3 million visitors every year.Some people enjoy the art and then learn about his life.Others are interested in his life, which then helps them understand his art.
Van Gogh was the son of a pastor.He left school when he was just 15．By the age of 27, he had already tried many jobs including an art gallery salesman and a French teacher.Finally in 1880, he decided to begin his studies in art.
Van Gogh is famed for his ability to put his own emotions into his paintings and show his feelings about a scene.His style is marked by short, broad brush strokes (绘画笔法).“Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more freely, in order to express myself more forcibly，” he wrote in a letter to his brother in 1888．
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his short life.He relied heavily on support from his brother, an art dealer who lived in Paris.But now his works are sold for millions of dollars.His portrait of Dr.Gacher sold for $89．5 million in 1990．It is the highest price ever paid for a painting.“I think his paintings are powerful and the brilliant color in them are attractive to people，” said a Van Gogh’s fan.
1. All through his life Van Gogh ________.| A．depended on his brother |
| B．worked hard on art studies |
| C．was not recognized by people |
| D．expressed himself in paintings |
| A．the likeness between his paintings and the reality |
| B．the short time for him to complete a painting |
| C．the various styles mixed together |
| D．the special strokes he made |
| A．his powerful art came from his poor life |
| B．his fellow townsmen regret treating him unfairly |
| C．all his paintings were drawn in the last 10 years of his life |
| D．most of his paintings are kept in the museum of his hometown |
3 . Artists always treat businessmen people as money-obsessed bores. Or worse, many business people, for their part, assume that artists are a bunch of pretentious wasters. Bosses may stick a few modernist paintings on their boardroom walls. But they seldom take the arts seriously as a source of inspiration.
The prejudice starts at business school, where “hard” things such as numbers and case studies rule. It is reinforced by everyday experience. Bosses constantly remind their underlings that if you can’t count it, it doesn’t count. Few read deeply about art. Sun Tzu's The Art of War does not count while some tasteless business books are pleasing to them: consider Wess Roberts' Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun.
But lately there are welcome signs of a thaw (缓和) on the business side of the great cultural divide. Business presses are publishing a series of books such as The Fine Art of Success by Jamie Anderson. Business schools such as the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto are trying to learn from the arts.
Mr. Anderson points out that many artists have also been superb entrepreneurs. Damien Hirst was even more enterprising. He upturned the art world by selling his work directly through Sotheby’s, an auction (拍卖) house. Whatever they think of his work, businessmen people cannot help admiring a man who parted art-lovers from £ 75.5 million on the day that Lehman Brothers collapsed.
Studying the arts can help businessmen people communicate more effectively. Most bosses spend a huge amount of time “messaging” and “reaching out”, yet few are much good at it.
Studying the arts can also help companies learn how to manage bright people. Rob Goffee of the London Business School points out that today’s most productive companies are dominated by what they call “clevers”, who are the devil to manage. They hate being told what to do by managers, whom they regard as dullards. They refuse to submit to performance reviews. In short, they are prima donnas. The arts world has centuries of experience in managing such difficult people. Directors persuade actresses to cooperate with actors they hate. Their tips might be worth hearing.
1. What kind of person is Damien Hirst actually?| A．An artist whose works changed the art world. |
| B．A businessman who just cares about money. |
| C．An artist who is good at doing business. |
| D．A businessman who had prejudice toward the arts. |
| A．quite stupid | B．rather proud | C．really bright | D．very efficient |
| A．Good management takes skill and patience. |
| B．Artists should show respect for businessmen. |
| C．Painting is a special form of communication. |
| D．Businessmen have much to learn from artists. |
4 . The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier theatre, The Theatre, which had been built by Richard Burbage’s father, James Burbage, in Shoreditch in 1576. The first performance for which a firm record remains was Jonson’s Every Man out of His Humour — with its first scene welcoming the “gracious and kind spectators” — at the end of the year.
On 29th June 1613, the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry VIII. A theatrical gun, set off during the performance, misfired, burning the wooden beams and straws. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches (炮后膛) were put out with a bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year.
Like all the other theatres in London, the Globe was closed down by the Puritans in 1642. It was pulled down in 1644, or slightly later — the commonly cited document dating the act to 15 April 1644 has been identified as false — to make room for other buildings.
A modern reconstruction of the theatre, named “Shakespeare’s Globe”, opened in 1997, with a production of Henry V. It is an academic approximation of the original design, based on available evidence of the 1599 and 1614 buildings, and is located approximately 750 feet (230m) from the site of the original theatre.
1. How did the Globe Theatre begin to be on fire on 29 June 1613?| A．It was set fire to by a performer by design. |
| B．It caught fire by accident during a play. |
| C．A man put out breeches with a bottle of ale. |
| D．It was started by wooden beams and straws. |
| A．Time | B．Space | C．Importance | D．Flashback |
| A．James Burbage. | B．Every Man out of His Humour |
| C．Henry VIII. | D．Henry V |
| A．The popularity of the Globe Theatre. |
| B．The construction of the Globe Theatre. |
| C．The function of the Globe Theatre. |
| D．The history of the Globe Theatre. |
5 . For many Americans, regular exercise is a complicated commitment—one made at the beginning of January that fades out within weeks or months. Busy work schedules, a lack of motivation and unease towards exercising in public all contribute to the discouraging statistics that only around a quarter of adults exercise enough per week.
This month, enterptiser Trent Ward and designer Yves Behar are uncovering their design for a mirror fitness system, Forme. Forme is reflective like a mirror, uses machine learning to heighten workouts, and offers attachments including ankle belts, rope handles and a heart rate monitor. When not in use, the two arms that form the resistance pulley (滑轮) system fold behind it and the display screen disappears, turning Forme into a simple full—length mirror.
Interest in home exercise has particularly increased recently around the world. Home workout apps have seen a significant uptick in downloads, and trendy brands like Peloton have rolled out free virtual workouts for everyone stuck indoors. One French athlete who was kept away from others chose to run an entire marathon on his 23-foot balcony.
But beyond the new restrictions affecting daily workout routines, Ward and Behar are tapping into the same concerns that have made every home workout appealing：the ability to save time and sweat in the privacy of one’s home. In an age of personal metrics (衡量标准)--where one can measure their heart rate and sleep cycles with smart watches and train for marathons with AI smart sneakers----Ward and Behar want to improve exercise through machine learning. Forme evaluates performance and adjusts weights accordingly. Easy access to one’s own performance data also makes it easier to track that progress and stay motivated.
Though it’s too soon to tell if mirror gyms will be the trend of the late 2010s to 2020s, Behar explained that having a screen in the home can become the basis for more than just fitness, such as shopping or telemedicine.
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly focus on?.| A．The ways to operate Forme. | B．The features of Forme. |
| C．The reasons to develop Forme. | D．The theory behind Forme. |
| A．By offering them online workouts for free. |
| B．By raising their interest in marathon. |
| C．By keeping them far away from others. |
| D．By entertaining them with all kinds of downloads. |
| A．The better results than outdoor activities. |
| B．The fresher air at home. |
| C．The privacy of home. |
| D．The convenient access to mass data. |
| A．Can Forme Have More Powerful Functions? |
| B．Does Regular Exercise Keep up with New Technology? |
| C．Is the New Trend of Smart Machines at Home available? |
| D．Is this AI—Powered "Mirror Gym" the Future of Home Exercise? |
6 . British anthropologists Russell Hill and Robert Barton of the University of Durham, after studying the results of one-on-one boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling matches at the Olympic Games, conclude that when two competitors are equally matched in fitness and skill, the athlete wearing red is more likely to win.
Hill and Barton report that when one competitor is much better than the other, colour has no effect on the result. However, when there is only a small difference between them, the effect of colour is enough to tip the balance. The anthropologists say that the number of times red wins is not simply by chance, but that these results are statistically significant.
Joanna Setchell, a primate (灵长目动物) researcher at the University of Cambridge, has found similar results in nature. She studies the large African monkeys known as mandrills. Mandrills have bright red noses that stand out against their white faces. Setchell’s work shows that the powerful males—the ones who are more successful with females—have a brighter red nose than other males.
As well as the studies on primates by Setchell, another study shows the effect of red among birds. In an experiment, scientists put red plastic rings on the legs of male zebra finches and this increased the birds’ success with female zebra finches. Zebra finches already have bright red beaks (鸟喙), so this study suggests that, as with Olympic athletes, an extra flash of red is significant. In fact, researchers from the University of Glasgow say that the birds’ brightly coloured beaks are an indicator of health. Jonathan Blount, a biologist, and his colleagues think they have found proof that bright red or orange beaks attract females because they mean that the males are healthier. Nothing in nature is simple, however, because in species such as the blue footed booby, a completely different colour seems to give the male birds the same advantage with females.
Meanwhile, what about those athletes who win in their events while wearing red? Do their clothes give them an unintentional advantage? Robert Barton accepts that “that is the implication” of their findings. Is it time for sports authorities to consider new regulations on sports clothing?
1. According to their research, Hill and Barton conclude that _____.| A．the colour of clothing has an effect on most sport events |
| B．red should be the choice of colour for clothing in sports |
| C．red plays a role when competitors are equally capable |
| D．athletes perform better when surrounded by bright red |
| A．achieve | B．seek | C．keep | D．change |
| A．male birds use different body parts to draw attention |
| B．red is not the only colour to attract female birds |
| C．blue gives female birds the same advantage |
| D．blue can indicate how healthy a bird is |
| A．What Colour Implies More Power? | B．A Tip on Clothing. |
| C．Need to Change the Rules in Sports? | D．Red Is for Winners. |
7 . In 2012, Kim Stemple, a special-education teacher, found herself in a Boston hospital being treated for one of several diseases she had been diagnosed(诊断) with, including lupus and lymphoma. The normally confident Stemple was naturally getting very depressed. And then a friend gave her a medal.
Before she got too sick to exercise, Stemple had been a marathon runner. The medal came from a racing partner who had just finished a half marathon in Las Vegas and hoped the souvenir would act as a kind of feeling pick-me-up. It worked like a charm—and then some.
After Stemple hung the medal near her hospital bed, other patients said they wanted medals too. That got Stemple thinking. “A medal is a simple way to give a positive message,” she told pilotonline.com. And so was born her charity, We Finish Together, which collects medals from strangers—runners, dancers, swimmers, singers, and even spelling bee winners—and donates them to all sorts of people in need.
Those who received the medals have included hospital patients, residents of homeless shelters, and veterans. Part of the process involves the donor writing a personalized note on the ribbon. “This gives them a connection to someone,” says Stemple. “If they receive a medal, they know someone cares.”
Can a simple medal really make a difference? Yes, says Joan Musarra, who suffers from pulmonary fibrosis. “I opened my package containing my new medal and the notes of positive, warm thoughts, I was overwhelmed,” she wrote to Stemple. “At that moment, I was sitting on my couch breathing through life-support machine because my lungs have been worsening so badly. It means so much to me to feel that I am not alone.”
1. Why did Kim Stemple start We Finish Together?| A．To express a positive message to those in need. |
| B．To share medals collected from different people. |
| C．To show her sympathy to people in hospital. |
| D．To strengthen the relationship between the winners. |
| A．it was very effective |
| B．it was very charming |
| C．it added to her beauty |
| D．it attracted others immediately |
| A．Donating brings sunshine to both. |
| B．Sportsmanship can inspire people with hope. |
| C．People should help each other when in trouble. |
| D．The simple act of kindness really makes a person’s day. |
8 . When school closes, poor pupils lose the last social institution-one that educates, feeds, and sometimes clothes them-whereas richer pupils are gaining relatively more advantages. Disruptions to schooling tend to lower achievement while increasing inequality.
A new industry of"Learning Pod", where a group of families pool cash to pay for an in-person tutor, is deepening that inequality. Scoot Education, whose normal business is providing substitute teachers for schools, quickly developed a sideline in learning pods in California. For younger pupils, the total cost of a pod, shared among all parents, is $349 a day, which is beyond what a poor family can afford.＂Rich families can always find a way to educate their children, even if COVID-19 pandemic had not started," says Sarah Cohodes, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University.
Thus, if there would be no extraordinary interventions in the closing of schools, the long-run effects on those poor students are predictable.
A team of five education scholars recently calculated that American schoolchildren in 2020 learned 30% less reading and 50%less maths than they would in a typical year. Despite that, the top third of pupils posted gains in reading. Data from Opportunity Insights, an economic-research team at Harvard University, shows that after lockdowns began in March pupils from low-income neighbourhoods fell permanently behind on online maths coursework, while those from richer areas quickly rebounded.
Then there is the problem of access to online classes. Nearly half of native American pupils and 35% of black and Hispanic ones do not have access to either a computer or the internet at home, compared with 19%of whites. Worsening mental health among poorer families will also hurt achievement. Elizabeth Ananat of Barnard College and Anna Gassman-Pines of Duke University surveyed part-time workers in Philadelphia who had young children; half were showing their anxiety or depression for children's schooling.
1. What do we know about Learning Pod?| A．It was started as the key business by Scoot Education. |
| B．Families can afford this teaching model with$349 a day. |
| C．It is a long-existing method to find an in-person tutor. |
| D．It worsens educational inequality to some extent. |
| A．Learned maths in advance. | B．Performed poorly in maths. |
| C．Regained improvement in maths. | D．Showed permanent love to maths. |
| A．Effects of educational inequality. | B．Psychological problems of the pupils. |
| C．Opportunities to use online resources. | D．Low academic achievement of the poor. |
| A．a health magazine | B．an educational report |
| C．a science textbook | D．a learning guideline |
9 . Anyone who commutes(通勤)by car knows that traffic jams are an unavoidable part of life. But humans are not alone in facing potential backups.
Ants also commute—between their nest and sources of food. The survival of their habitats depends on doing this efficiently.
When humans commute, there’s a point at which cars become dense(稠密) enough to slow down the flow of traffic, causing jam. Researchers wanted to know if ants on the move could also get stuck. So they regulated traffic density by constructing bridges of various widths between a colony of Argentine ants and a source of food. Then they waited and watched, trying to find out at what point they are going to have a traffic jam.
But it appears that that never happened. They always managed to avoid traffic jam. The flow of ants did increase at the beginning as ants started to fill the bridge and then levelled off at high densities. But it never slowed down or stopped, even when the bridge was nearly filled with ants.
The researchers then took a closer look at how the behaviour of individual ants impacted traffic as a whole. And they found that when ants sense overcrowding, they adjust their speeds and avoid entering high-density areas, which prevents jams. These behaviors may be promoted by pheromones, chemicals that tell other ants where a trail is. The ants also manage to avoid colliding(碰撞) with each other at high densities, which could really slow them down.
Can ants help us solve our own traffic problems? Not likely. That’s because when it comes to getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, human drivers put their own goals first. Individual ants have to be more cooperative in order to feed the colony. But the research could be useful in improving traffic flow for self-driving cars, which can be designed to be less like selfish humans—and more like ants.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Surviving. | B．Commuting. | C．Finding food. | D．Avoiding jams. |
| A．Through closer observation. | B．By regulating their numbers. |
| C．By finding out the dense points. | D．By controlling the widths of their path. |
| A．They follow a special route. |
| B．They level off at high densities. |
| C．They never stop or slow down on the way. |
| D．They depend on their natural chemicals to adjust their speeds. |
| A．Traffic jams | B．Survival of an ant colony |
| C．Unavoidable? Not for ants! | D．Differences between human and ants |
10 . It’s common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting seems to look back at observers, following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.
A new studying that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle that’s 15.4 degrees off to the observer’s right-well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. It other words, said the study author, Horstmann, “She’s not looking at you.” This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person’s gaze (凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the “Mona Lisa effect”. That effect is absolutely real. Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person’s gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.
Horstmann and his co-author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial-intelligence avatars (虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long at the “Mona Lisa” and realized she wasn’t looking at him. To make sure it wasn’t just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the “Mona Lisa” on a computer screen.
So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn’t sure. It’s possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first coined the term “Mona Lisa effect” just though it was a cool name.
1. What is generally believed about the woman in the painting “Mona Lisa”?| A．She attracts the viewers to look back. | B．She seems mysterious because of her eyes. |
| C．She fixes her eyes on the back of the viewers. | D．She looks at the viewers wherever they stand. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．To confirm Horstmann’s belief. |
| B．To create artificial-intelligence avatars. |
| C．To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze. |
| D．To explain how the Mona Lisa effect can be applied. |
| A．Horstmann thinks it’s cool to coin the term “Mona Lisa effect”. |
| B．The Mona Lisa effect contributes to the creation of artificial intelligence. |
| C．Feeling being gazed at by Mona Lisa may be caused by the desire for attention. |
| D．The position of the viewer in the experiment will influence the viewers’ judgement. |
