1 . It’s hard to overstate just how much Writer’s Digest has survived to make it to its centennial. The Great Depression. World War II. The many wars and societal revolutions of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. The technological revolution and the creation of the internet. The shift from being family-owned business to a corporation with investors. And most recently, global pandemic(流行病).
It is because WD survived all that, that I view this anniversary issue as a love letter to every single person who has contributed to keeping WD alive over these amazing, and tough, and change-filled 100 years. Thank you to the Rosenthal family for starting a magazine—a community—like this. To the publishers, editors, and all the other behind--the-scenes folks who made sure each issue over the many decades was the best it could be, thank you for your hard work and long hours. To the absolutely incomparable list of writers who shared their wisdom, insights, and encouragement: This magazine was made better by your contributions.
But most of all, this is a love letter to our readers. You give the magazine purpose and the motivation to keep going. Without you, WD wouldn’t exist, so on behalf of all the current and former WD staffers, we offer our sincerest thanks.
You’ll see a collection of new columns coming in 2021. We are thrilled to have Bryan Washington, award-winning author of the short story collection Lot and the new novel Memorial, as our first guest columnist. The WD team started planning this issue more than a year ago and putting it together has been a joy. We hope you find as much pleasure and inspiration in reading it as we found in creating it. See you in year 101.
1. What does the underlined word “centennial” mean?| A．The first publication. | B．The collection version. |
| C．The 100th anniversary. | D．The opening ceremony. |
| A．It has a long list of guest columnists. |
| B．It was once a family-owned business. |
| C．It is financially supported by the community. |
| D．It contributed to the technological revolution. |
| A．She used to be a novelist. | B．She is with Writer’s Digest |
| C．She was a business owner. | D．She is one hundred years old. |
| A．To express gratitude. | B．To promote sales. |
| C．To introduce a magazine. | D．To employ new staff. |
2 . Sometime back, after a six-year-old lioness named Magigi repeatedly killed cattle, Botswana authorities caught and moved her into Central Kalahari Game Reserve, far from people. Magigi spent most of her time within the reserved protective boundaries, but after a year she escaped outside and was shot dead by a farmer. New research Maude and his colleagues have conducted confirms that Magigi's unfortunate story is common for many relocated lions. For decades, wildlife managers in a number of African countries have used such a kind way to deal with lions that repeatedly kill livestock (牲畜).But the new research shows that after lions are moved, most continue to kill livestock and endanger villagers' living.
Across Africa, lion numbers have fallen by 43 percent in the past two decades, to as few as 23,000 animals today. About 3,000 remain in Botswana. The sharp declines are primarily driven by development-lions now occupy just 8 percent of their historic habitat. With less space set aside for conservation, lions are more frequently coming into contact with humans. These are usually farms, expanding around the edges of the protected areas. The lions eat livestock, which negatively impacts the livelihood of the farmers in these rural areas. Without a proper way to prevent these attacks, the dinners often turn to deadly force, shooting or poisoning the lions, which has resulted in the decrease in lion population.
Rather than trying to move lions, wildlife conservationist Glyn Maude says, emphasis should be placed on reducing the chances of lions encountering and killing livestock in the first place. Many preventative measures are being tested in various African countries, including hiring lion guardians (护卫者) to monitor these big cats, creating lion-proof fences, sending out lion text alerts, and teaching herders to keep livestock away from high-risk areas.
1. Why was Magigi moved to a reserve?| A．To stop her from being caught. |
| B．To prevent her from killing cattle. |
| C．To get her to stay with her family. |
| D．To train her to get along with people. |
| A．Illegal wildlife trade. | B．Human-lion conflict. |
| C．A natural disaster. | D．The lack of food in their habitat. |
| A．Lions will be fenced in to avoid meeting people. |
| B．The relocation of lions has proven to be effective. |
| C．Prevention is the cure for lions' attacking livestock. |
| D．It's impossible for lions to live with humans in harmony. |
| A．Big Cats' Relocation Proving Deadly |
| B．Lions Shot Dead after Attacking a Man |
| C．The Tragic Story of a Magical Lioness |
| D．Conservation Status of the African Lion |
3 . In the magnificent range of mountains of northern California, 42 radio telescopes point towards the stars, scanning for signs of life. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence （SETI） Institute has been listening for a signal here since it was founded in 1984. Jill Tarter, its co — founder, says the programmed aim is not just to communicate with remote civilisations. It is also to remind human beings of its own modest, fragile （脆弱的）place in the universe. Thus, for the first time, SETI is cocking its ear towards Earth to look for a signal that can be sent into space to represent the species.
Felipe Perez Santiago, a Mexican musician and composer, has an idea of what might work.Since songs, like the human voices, are common to all languages and nations, he and Ms. Tarter have designed the “Earthling Project”-a call to people everywhere to upload extracts （精华）of song that he plans to melt into a collective human chorus. An initial composition will be launched into space this summer, recorded on a virtually indestructible disk. Future plans and dreams include an eventual landing on Mars.
Human music has been sent to the heavens in 1977. Distant beings can in theory already enjoy Peruvian panpipes, a Navajo chant, Bach, Beethoven and more. But no previous offering, and perhaps no composition undertaken anywhere, has tried to encompass the entire diversity of human song.
Mr. Santiago says he is thrilled about bringing together contributors from around the globe. Unlike other recordings sent into space, says Mr. Santiago, “Everyone's invited. You don't have to be one of the main composers of our history like Beethoven, just someone singing in their shower.” Download the “Earthling Project" app, sing up to three songs of 30 seconds each, and your voice will be sent into the sky.
1. Why does SETI look for a signal to be sent into space?| A．To stand for species on the earth. |
| B．To scan for other liveable planets. |
| C．To respond to the call of the universe. |
| D．To stress the importance of the earth. |
| A．It is a world music organization. |
| B．It intends to create a human chorus. |
| C．It tries to develop a universal language. |
| D．It aims to search for signals from space. |
| A．Include. | B．Appreciate. |
| C．Work out. | D．Relate to. |
| A．To inspire people to become composers. |
| B．To call on people to protect our planet. |
| C．To encourage people to explore space. |
| D．To invite people to join a programme. |
4 . After written art had to fight a tough battle for attraction during the first decade of social media, owing to a certain group of writers, it is now on a significant rise. How Instagram and Twitter have offered jumpstarts to careers of authors like Dean Cocozza sets a blueprint for thousands of ambitious writers.
Cocozza started writing lyrics for his music as a teenager. He immediately had to experience that translating art to social media is not as simple as posting whatever his pen put down.
“Anyone who uses the platform with an intent will quickly learn that you only have the glimpse of a moment to catch the viewer’s attention. So the work I shared shifted to be more to the point, often one-liners. Then stuff started to go viral.”
The success and demand for more poems resulted in his first book Zero Dark Thirty, which sold out quickly. Despite the book containing mostly short writings, even said one-liners, Cocozza emphasizes that he doesn’t write for social media. “It was a very personal project resulting from a certain period of time” in his life. There are much bigger things that he works on and plans to get involved in.
Dean Cocozza has brought back emotional depth. In-between monetized (货币化的) content, blatant (明目张胆的) advertising and “perfect lives”, social media holds a spot for a new generation of artists, including literature. Critical thinkers and authentic writers remind the app’s consumers of their emotional human nature. Art galleries and bookstores might have lost a big part of their audience to digital media — but the art itself will always find ways to survive.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Written art. | B．A tough battle. | C．Social media. | D．A group of writers. |
| A．To earn a living. | B．To draw readers’ attention. |
| C．To protect his personal life. | D．To show emotional depth. |
| A．Works with emotional depth are widely accepted on social media. |
| B．People with perfect lives like social media better. |
| C．Art galleries and bookstores will soon disappear. |
| D．Arts of emotion depth still hold value on social media. |
| A．Positive. | B．Carefree. | C．Doubtful. | D．Disapproving. |
5 . Approximately 90 percent of the young Chinese participating in the latest survey conducted by the Global Times Research Center believe China should not “look up to the West” anymore.
Chinese analysts said the sustainable and fast development of China is the core (核心的) reason why more Chinese are becoming increasingly confident, and some key elements have sped up the process such as the rise of Trumpism (特朗普主义) in the US.
The survey, titled “Changing attitudes toward the West among young Chinese people,” showed that there has been a significant change in attitude among young people toward Western countries, as a growing number of respondents see them as equals while many previously looked up to them.
The survey showed 37.2 percent of the participants said that five years ago, they still believed they should “look up to the West”, but now, only 8.1 percent of these people have the same view. Meanwhile, the people who “look down on the West” rose to 41.7 percent while only 18.4 percent of them held the same opinion as they did five years ago. About 48.3 percent of the participants believe they should see the West equally now.
The core reasons that have driven such changes are mostly concerned with China’s achievements in recent years. For example, 53.8 percent of interviewees chose “China’s successful epidemic (流行病) prevention and control amid the COVID-19 pandemic”, 40.5 percent selected “China’s cooperation with other countries under the Belt and Road Initiative”, 37.6 percent said “China is the only major economy that keeps growing when the world economy is in a shadow”.
Viewing the West equally does not mean that China will be proud or will oppose the West. The survey also shows that the participants are realistic and rational as they are aware that the West still has advantages over China in certain fields. For example, 64.6 percent of the participants said China should still learn from the West in the fields of science and technology.
1. According to the passage, why are more Chinese becoming increasingly confident?| A．Because Trumpism is rising in the US. |
| B．Because China has been developing rapidly and steadily. |
| C．Because there are few patients with the COVID-19 pandemic in China. |
| D．Because China cooperates with other countries under the Belt and Road Initiative. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By listing figures. |
| C．By making remarks. | D．By showing facts. |
| A．China will he the most powerful country in the world. |
| B．Most young Chinese are probably unwilling to go to the West. |
| C．Cooperation and win-win contributes to China’s development. |
| D．China’s economy is the strongest when the world economy is in a shadow. |
| A．Objective | B．Disapproving | C．Supportive | D．Subjective |
6 . Shetara Sims experienced some tough years. In 2012, her eldest daughter was murdered during an argument in Kansas City, Missouri. Last year, the single mother lost her job in the recession. She had only $7 in her pocket as she headed into the grocery store one day last July with her 12-year-old daughter, Rakiya Edmondson.
And then lady Luck finally cut Sims some slack. She and her daughter found a dollar bill in the parking lot. Maybe this was their day, they told each other. So they bought a lottery ticket and won $100.
But before they could spend their windfall, Rakiya had an idea. The news in Kansas City that week had been filled with stories about a police officer, Tyler Moss, who had been shot in the head in the line of duty. He was in critical condition. Rakiya and her mother had never forgotten how kind the police had been after their own family member was killed. “The detectives were really there for us.” Sims said, “They came to see my kids. They were fathers, therapists. They were everything.” Rakiya wanted to give their lottery winnings to Officer Moss’s family. Her mom readily agreed.
On July 10, Sims called the police and made an anonymous donation. Moved by her generous expression of thanks, the officers did what they could do best-they tracked Sims down. When she explained the family’s motivation, the officers could hardly believe it. “With her current financial hardship, we encouraged her to keep the money,” the department later explained. “She refused, saying the officer’s family needed it and the police needed to know they were supported.”
By then, that feeling of support was mutual. The police set up a GoFundMe page for Sims, whom they dubbed “The Woman with the Heart of Gold”. Their goal was $10,000. As of January 11,2021, they had raised $165,405. Even better: Officer Moss, who had a 1 percent chance of survival, is out of the hospital and recovering.
1. Why could the police hardly understand the family’s intention?| A．Because Sims was out of job. |
| B．Because Sims refused to keep the money. |
| C．Because Sims’s donation was not made public. |
| D．Because Sims was in financial difficulties at present. |
| A．They served as therapists and fathers. |
| B．They praised her for the act of kindness. |
| C．They established a GoFundMe page to raise money for Sim’s family. |
| D．They assisted Moss’s family with lottery winnings to get through hardships. |
| A．Kind-hearted and hardworking. | B．Creative and caring. |
| C．Grateful and kind. | D．Optimistic and devoted. |
| A．Just the Ticket. | B．Money isn’t Everything. |
| C．Story of Rakiya’s Family. | D．The Woman with the Heart of Gold. |
7 . The AI project intends to use artificial intelligence to create an innovative (创新的) theatrical performance, which is expected to premiere (首演) early next year. Head of the research team Rudolf Rosa said: “The main idea behind our study came from Tomáš Studeník, an innovator who noticed the centenary of the play ‘RUR’ is approaching. “This was a key moment for robotics, as the idea of a robot, including the word ‘robot’ itself, was invented by Karel Capek and his brother Josef wrote this play.
“Tomáš believed this should be properly celebrated and formulated the idea of turning the story around: 100 years ago, a man wrote a play about robots; what if today, robots wrote a theatre play about men?”
While there are now numerous papers focusing on machine-produced art, including some where computational techniques were used to produce dialogues or story ideas for plays, the automatic generation of an entire theatrical performance is an extremely complex task never-before attempted.
Rosa’s team decided to split the production of their play into several sub-parts. Although other research teams have used this approach to generate dialogues, few have attempted to produce an entire play. Dr Rosa said: “Thanks to the approaching anniversary, our main target is clear and fixed: by January 2021, we need to have a play ready for premiere. As it will be performed by a professional theatre group, we need to have the script ready in September, so that there is enough time for rehearsals (彩排).”
The researchers started experimenting with pre-trained language model called GPT-2. Once adequately trained, GPT-2 is able to complete unfinished texts using similar language and covering related themes. For example, if GPT-2 is fed the first paragraph of a news article, the model will try to continue to write a few additional paragraphs on the same topic, using the existing text for inspiration, while generating sentences about new concepts.
1. How did Rosa’s team plan to do the project?| A．By cooperating with other research teams. |
| B．By dividing their work into few small sections. |
| C．By exploring the possibility of creating dialogues using AI techniques. |
| D．By staging an entire play directly performed by professional theatre group. |
| A．The play will be on show in September. |
| B．GPT-2 can perform an entire play with ease. |
| C．Machines are still not smart enough to create art. |
| D．AI techniques have been applied to create dialogues for plays. |
| A．GPT-2 can practice continuation writing. |
| B．The play RUR was written by Karel Capek. |
| C．The idea of a robot was born half a century ago. |
| D．The word “robot” was coined by Tomáš Studeník. |
| A．“Robotre” Staged Successfully |
| B．“Mechatre” Trained Inadequately |
| C．“Mantre” Story Completed by Humans |
| D．“AItre” Play Written Entirely by Machines |
8 . In 2010, a terrible earthquake occurred in China’s Qinghai province, causing tremendous damages. With the aid of the central government and people throughout the nation, the rescue and recovery lifted the survivors further and further from hell.
But there was still much room for improvement. Qinghai taught me to create light when there seems to be none to be found—literally.
I started working on the highland region by installing solar panels in an isolated school without electricity. We also provided metric tons of clothes, computer labs, libraries food, medicine, coal and even yaks. Indeed, when first arrived in China, never imagined I’d’ end up buying, riding, milking and getting kicked by yaks-let alone harvesting their waste for fuel. Even there, on the “planet’s third pole”, Chinas’ poverty alleviation miracle means that the Qinghai I’ve returned to recently is different place than I first saw in 2011. Since the government has brought unthinkably rapid development, we’ve shifted toward providing surgeries for nomadic children and university scholarships for nomads.
One surgery was for girl with a severe cleft palate. She’d lived in such a remote area that she was amazed when she first rode an escalator in Beijing. She was shocked by the “stairs that move themselves”. A friend paid to fly her home after the surgery. She was amazed because she didn’t know that planes flew above the clouds. She felt like an angel. And I, too, felt closer to heaven.
My book, Closer to Heaven, published in English and Chinese by China Intercontinental Press, is the highlight of my life’s mission to contribute to and tell the story of China’s poverty alleviation miracle from the front lines.
These journeys have been adventures. They’ve brought me from the darkness of the quake zone toward the light, from the United States to the “roof of the world” and closer to heaven. And they’ve been firsthand exploration of how China, in turn, has lifted so many people from the hell that is poverty and closer to heaven, as it exists on this Earth.
1. What does Paragraph 2 tell us?| A．Electric breakdowns happened all the time. |
| B．In some remote areas, the sun actually never rises. |
| C．In some places, people had no access to electricity. |
| D．People suffered from power failure from time to time. |
| A．He flew above the clouds. | B．He wrote Closer to Heaven. |
| C．He lived on the planet’s third pole. | D．He was happy to bring happiness to others. |
| A．A science fiction, picturing China’s future high-tech development. |
| B．An adventure book, recording China’s tough battle against poverty. |
| C．A travel brochure, describing China’s breathtaking tourist attractions. |
| D．A personal diary, telling about the author’s lifelong experiences in the USA. |
| A．The author has never been to western China before. |
| B．Little has been done to improve people’s well-being. |
| C．The girl had an unforgettable experience during the Beijing trip. |
| D．The author has done little voluntary work while staying in China. |
9 . Large oceangoing vessels like oil tankers and cruise ships produce noise that travels long distances underwater. That audio pollution can disturb the sounds that marine mammals, fish and other animals use to communicate.
Emily Carter, a sensory ecologist from University of Exeter wondered whether ship noise might also be harmful to animals that don’t rely on sound for communication. For example, young shore crabs that use camouflage (伪装) to hide from predators. “So they can actually change their color to match whatever it is that they’re sitting on, basically to make it harder for predators to find them.” Carter explained.
She suspected that stress from ship noise might affect the change process. To find out, she and her colleagues collected shore crabs with dark shells and brought them back to the lab. They placed the crabs in tanks full of white small stones. An underwater speaker in each tank played quiet natural sounds at all times. One group of crabs also heard loud natural sounds every hour. But another group was subjected to hourly recordings of large ships.
Carter says shorebirds, which eat the crabs, can see UV light, so she used ultraviolet (紫外线) photography to determine how well the crabs blended into their new habitat over time.
“Through the eyes of a shorebird — so through bird’s perspective — were they camouflaged? Weren’t they camouflaged? How obvious would they be?”
After eight weeks, the crabs that heard only natural sounds had become much lighter and were well camouflaged. But the ones that were exposed to the ship noise didn’t change color as much. And then, as a result, they weren’t as camouflaged at the end of the experiment. So they’d be much more manifest to predator.
Carter says the stress caused by ship noise may affect hormones that regulate color change in crabs or destroy the energy needed to make the change efficiently. The research not only puts a spotlight on the unintended consequences of noise pollution, but is a reminder that too much stress isn’t just bad for people — it can also be deadly to wildlife that needs some peace and quiet.
1. Why is ultraviolet photography used in the experiment?| A．To scare away shorebirds. |
| B．To kill the bacteria in crabs’ new habitat. |
| C．To test the effectiveness of crab’s camouflage. |
| D．To monitor the shorebird population in nighttime. |
| A．Avoidable. | B．Noticeable. |
| C．Changeable. | D．Adjustable. |
| A．Carter conducted the experiment on her own. |
| B．The crab that heard natural sound lost some weight. |
| C．Carter created three kinds of living environment for crabs. |
| D．The crab that heard ship noise slightly changed their color. |
| A．Noises do harm to us people. |
| B．Wildlife needs a quiet environment. |
| C．Crabs aren’t camouflaged in new habitats. |
| D．Stress can change the hormones in humans. |
10 . At the beginning of my 8:00 a. m. class one Monday at my college, I cheerfully asked my students how their weekend had been. One young man said that his weekend had not been very good. He then proceeded to ask me why I always seemed to be so cheerful. His question reminded me of something I’d read somewhere before: “Every morning when you get up, you have a choice about how you want to approach life that day”, I said to the young man. “I choose to be cheerful”. “Let me give you an example”, I continued.
The other 60 students in the class ceased their chatter and began to listen to our conversation.
As soon as I got to my office, I called to ask for a tow truck(拖车). The secretary in the office asked me what had happened. “This is my lucky day”, I replied, smiling. “Your car breaks down and today is your lucky day?” She was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“I live 17 miles from here”, I replied. “My car could have broken down anywhere along the freeway. It didn’t. Instead, it broke down in the perfect place: off the freeway, within walking distance of here. I’m still able to teach my class, and I’ve been able to arrange for the tow truck to meet me after class. If my car was meant to break down today, it couldn’t have been arranged in a more convenient fashion.” The secretary’s eyes opened wide, and then she smiled. I smiled back and headed for class. So ended my story to the students in my economics class.
I scanned the 60 faces in the lecture hall. Despite the early hour, no one seemed to be asleep. Somehow, my story had touched them. Or maybe it wasn’t the story at all. In fact, it had all started with a student’s observation that I was cheerful. A wise man once said: “Who you are speaks louder to me than anything you can say”. I suppose it must be so.
1. What do we know about the writer according to paragraph 1?| A．He likes to tell stories. | B．He is strict with his students. |
| C．He remains cheerful in his life. | D．He always makes random choices. |
| A．Close to his school. | B．On the freeway. | C．Near his home. | D．On the campus. |
| A．Sensitive. | B．Observant. | C．Optimistic. | D．Troublesome. |
| A．A good beginning is half done. |
| B．A bad workman blames his tools. |
| C．All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. |
| D．Deeds take priority over words in education. |
