1 . The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer simple questions and control smart appliances. Even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are being widely used in smart phones, too: Apple’s Siri handles over 2 billion commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?
Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touch screens, were welcomed as much easier ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for a “user interface(界面)” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, more powerful than people can imagine today.
Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is sure to account for a growing share of people’s interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate call centres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further breakthroughs and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.
Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user’s voice. Computer’s new ability to recognise almost anyone’s speech dependably without training is the latest manifestation (证明) of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial intelligence technique in which a software system is trained to use millions of examples, usually selected from the Internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerized translation systems are improving rapidly and text-to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms.
Although deep learning means that machines can recognize speech more reliably and talk in a more natural manner, they still don’t understand the meaning of language. That is the most difficult aspect of the problem and, if voice-driven computing is truly to flourish, one that must be overcome. Computers must be able to understand context in order to maintain a coherent conversation about something, rather than just responding to simple, one-off (一次性的) voice commands, as they mostly do today (“Hey, Siri, set a timer for ten minutes”). Researchers in universities and at companies are working on this problem, building “bots” that can hold more detailed conversations about more complex tasks, from searching information to making travel arrangements.
Many voice-driven devices are always listening, waiting to be activated(激活). Some people are already concerned about the implications of internet-connected microphones listening in every room and from every smart phone. Not all audio is sent to the cloud - devices wait for a trigger phrase (“Alexa”, “OK, Google”, “Hey, Cortana”, or “Hey, Siri”) before they start passing the user’s voice to the servers that actually handle the requests - but when it comes to storing audio, it is unclear who keeps what and when.
1. According to Paragraph l, the Amazon Echo ________.| A．has been sold out before Christmas |
| B．has been used by most American families |
| C．came on the market later than Apple’s Siri |
| D．is more useful than smart phones in dictating e-mails |
| A．It is vital to accurate identification of human voices. |
| B．It is almost the same as the computer-dictation system. |
| C．It has helped machines understand the meaning of language. |
| D．It has helped machines beat humans in accuracy and reliability. |
| A．The devices will be in charge of their life. |
| B．The devices need to be activated before working. |
| C．They are in the dark about their data’s ownership. |
| D．Their voices can be recognized by every smart phone. |
| A．Worried. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
2 . Great Activities for Nature Lovers
Hiking
One of the easiest and most accessible ways to get close to nature is by setting out on a good old fashioned hike. Hiking generally doesn't require any fancy equipment or special skills, just a piece of map and a thirst for adventure. This activity can be as relaxing as you make it.
Backcountry Camping
Why limit yourself to just a day hike when you can have a full weekend for a longer adventure? Backcountry camping involves packing your tent，sleeping gear ,food, and water on your back to set up camp in a remote location. I you’re an experienced hiker and camper ,this is an excellent way to test your survival skills and explore the wilderness.
Mountain and Road Biking
Unlike long hikes through the woods , biking allows you to cover more ground and travel farther in nature. Mountain biking typically involves riding up and down steep slopes , between trees , and over rocks. If this sounds too intense or your tires aren't suited for rugged terrain( 地形) , consider taking a road bike on paved trails through forest preserves or along country roads.
Gardening
Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to travel beyond your own backyard to experience the beauty of nature every day. If your personality is less adventurous or your mobility restricted, consider planting a garden to grow your own vegetables , fruit , herbs，or flowers. There's something truly satisfying about mixing up a salad with fresh ingredients you grow yourself. One of the best parts about spending time in gardening is that it doesn't have to break your budget and anyone can do it.
1. W hat do hikers need for hiking?| A．Practical skills. | B．Necessary equipment. |
| C．A useful map. | D．A relaxed mood. |
| A．You don't need to go far to enjoy the beauty of nature. |
| B．It gives you a sense of satisfaction when cooking with fresh ingredients. |
| C．It doesn't take any energy or money to do it. |
| D．I’s easy to start it for anyone who likes it. |
| A．Hiking. | B．Backcountry Camping. |
| C．Mountain and Road Biking. | D．Gardening. |
3 . Traveling with kids is 90 percent reminding yourself to live in the moment and 10 percent making up your mind to never again leave your house.
I have an uncanny ability to forget this as soon as we return home from a trip and I've finished washing piles of dirty clothes in our luggage and cleaning all the messy caused by the kids. Extremely tired and annoyed, I would actually begin to miss the place we just left!
Family travel is like childbirth, I suppose. Painful, loud, messy, sort of awful, actually, but also wonderful. And you remember only the wonderful—until you’re back on a plane and your kids are fighting over who gets the aisle seat. Then you remember the bad stuff.
Last weekend, my kids and I flew to Texas for a trip we would have nothing to complain(抱怨) about—big hotel, wonderful view.
And yet—we found things to complain about. The pool was bigger in that other hotel! Why do you get to shower first? They call this coffee?! Luckily, I’ve learned to put my metaphorical coat of armor (盔甲) on as soon as we land somewhere, and it forces complaints to bounce off me and land in a pile at my feet.
For three days, genuine fun was had and annoying complaints were heard and ignored. Until it was time to catch a plane and fly home.
Unfortunately, our flight was canceled. We spent hours finding a hotel room. We hit the hotel pool before bed and swam well into the night, my kids making up songs and laughing so hard at their silly lyrics (歌词) and their crazy good fortune to be swimming at 10: 30 on a school night.
And that was when it hit me that family travel is all those things I said before but it’s also a lot more. It’s taking your kids to parts of the world that will open their eyes and finding that actually, yours need opening too. It’s remembering that joy and memories are where you make them, not where you find them.
1. The underlined word “uncanny” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .| A．unknown. | B．uncertain. |
| C．unexpected. | D．unusual. |
| A．they both cause financial trouble and pain. |
| B．they are both hard as well as rewarding. |
| C．childhood memories come flooding back when they travel. |
| D．both of them need many preparations. |
| A．she tries to deal with the complaints more wisely and properly. |
| B．she turns those annoying complaints into a means to educate kids. |
| C．she has improved her language skills when handling the complaints. |
| D．she has succeeded in escaping kids’ fighting thanks to the armor. |
| A．family vacation benefits her kids as well as her. |
| B．joy and memories should be created rather than discovered. |
| C．the most unforgettable memory for her is about the complaints. |
| D．she has to spend some time on housework after the family vacation. |
4 . In the summer of 2016, I gave a talk at a small conference in northern Virginia. I began by admitting that I’d never had a social-media account; I then outlined arguments for why other people should consider removing social media from their lives. The event organizers uploaded the video of my talk to YouTube. Then it was shared repeatedly on Facebook and Instagram and, eventually, viewed more than five million times. I was both pleased and annoyed by the fact that my anti-social-media talk had found such a large audience on social media.
I think of this event as typical of the conflicted relationships many of us have with Facebook, Instagram, and other social-media platforms. On the one hand, we’ve grown wary of the so-called attention economy, which, in the name of corporate profits, destroys social life gradually and offends privacy. But we also benefit from social media and hesitate to break away from it completely. Not long ago, I met a partner at a large law firm in Washington, D.C., who told me that she keeps Instagram on her phone because she misses her kids when she travels; looking through pictures of them makes her feel better.
In recent months, some of the biggest social-media companies, Facebook and Twitter, in particular, have promised various reforms. In March, Mark Zuckerberg announced a plan to move his platform toward private communication protected by end-to-end encryption (端对端加密); later that month, he put forward the establishment of a third-party group to set standards for acceptable content.
All of these approaches assume that the reformation of social media will be a complex, lengthy, and gradual process. But not everyone sees it that way. Alongside these official responses, a loose collective of developers that calls itself the IndieWeb has been creating another alternative. They are developing their own social-media platforms, which they say will preserve what’s good about social media while getting rid of what’s bad. They hope to rebuild social media according to principles that are less corporate and more humane.
1. Why did the author feel annoyed when his video was spread online?| A．His video caused many arguments. |
| B．His video was shared without his permission. |
| C．His talk was opposed by a large amount of people. |
| D．His video’s popularity on social media is against his talk. |
| A．To prove that social media has some benefits. |
| B．To advise people to break away from social media. |
| C．To tell the negative effects social media may produce. |
| D．To describe people’s conflicted relationships with social media. |
| A．To attract more users. |
| B．To make more profits. |
| C．To improve network environment. |
| D．To provide more convenient service. |
| A．Develop new social-media platforms. |
| B．Set up principles of the use of social media. |
| C．Improve the existing social-media platforms. |
| D．Help social-media companies to make reformation. |
5 . A primary school art teacher has received a good deal of praise since her daughter posted photos of her special school project online.
Rebecca Bonner teaches at Mcauliffe Elementary School in Highland Village, Texas. In total, she hosts art classes for about 580 students who are aged from 3 to 11 years old. Bonner always tries to encourage her students to be creative by telling them to ''turn their mess-up into a dress-up''. So as a way of giving an example of her words, she invited all of her students to draw freely on a white dress that she brought to school. For two weeks, the young students used their pens to add their own little designs (设计) to the dress. The art teacher then showed their work by proudly wearing the dress for a school art show.
Her students were not the only ones happy to see their art come to life-Bonner's 20-year-old daughter Charlece Lake was so moved by her mother's project. Charlece took some photos of Bonner wearing the dress and posted them to Twitter, saying that her mom was ''the cutest art teacher ever''. Since posting the pictures, they have been shared thousands of times.
Though Bonner was surprised that her project had been widely known, she said that she was happy for the chance to serve as a good role model for art. ''I'm not worried about being famous of anything like that but I do think it's great to promote(推广) the arts, because art is not common among primary schools, '' Bonner said. ''I think it's really important for kids to have that place to create, and that freedom(自由) to create, '' she added.
1. What did Rebecca Bonner ask her students to do?| A．Wear beautiful clothes for an art show. |
| B．Draw whatever they like on a dress. |
| C．Bring white dresses to school. |
| D．Design their own clothes. |
| A．She wanted to promote the arts. |
| B．She wanted her mother to be famous. |
| C．She was proud of what her mother had done. |
| D．She wanted to win her mother more support. |
| A．Allowing students to create their own art works. | B．Helping more students go to primary school. |
| C．Becoming a good role model for art. | D．Promoting the arts in primary schools. |
| A．A teacher's photo became famous online. |
| B．A teacher attended her school's art show. |
| C．Mcauliffe Elementary School's school project. |
| D．Students like designing dresses for their teachers. |
6 . The world’s elderly population is increasing. The number of older people ---those age 60 years or older ---is expected to double by 2050 and is growing faster than all younger age groups across the globe. That comes with an increasing need for caregivers which can provide 24-hour care, not only at hospitals or nursing homes, but also at private homes.
Already, caregiving robots are programmed to ask questions a nurse would ask and can keep an eye on patients for falls. These robotic assistants are expected to become increasingly marketable and reach 450,000 by 2045 because of the expected caregiver shortage in the USA.
“Unluckily, the hard structure of present caregiving robots prevents them from a safe human-robot interaction(互动), limiting their assistance to only social interaction and not physical interaction,” said Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in Purdue’s College of Engineering . “After all, would you leave babies or old people in the hands of a robot?”
Recent advances in material science have enabled the production of soft robots with deformable (可变形的) bodies or the ability to reshape when touched , but today the complex design prevents the use of this technology at home .
However, Martinez and other researchers have developed a new design method which shows promise in enabling the production of soft robots using a 3D printer.
“The soft machines move like humans. Their ability to change their body structure and movement to adapt ( 适应 ) to a wide variety of environments will improve caregiving greatly,” says Martinez .
The researchers are looking for partners to test and bring their technology to market.
1. What does the underlined word “That” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The younger age group |
| B．The group of older people |
| C．The population across the globe |
| D．The growth of the elderly population |
| A．They can’t provide safe physical interaction |
| B．They can’t communicate with patients |
| C．They can’t watch patients for falls |
| D．They can’t provide 24-hour care. |
| A．It requires a special kind of 3D printer. |
| B．It makes the production of soft robots simpler. |
| C．It has been put onto the market. |
| D．It is hard for users to master. |
| A．The robot industry in the future |
| B．Effects of population ageing |
| C．Robots for the elderly created with 3D printers |
| D．The development of caregiving robots |
7 . 3D printing is a recent technological development that has started making its way into the marketplace. It is a way of making 3D objects from computer models. 3D printing works by adding together layers of material. This pattern is repeated until the layers form a shape for almost any purpose. The almost unlimited possibility of 3D printing is quickly leading to a revolution in how things are made and produced. As with most technology, 3D printing may help to create things that could benefit humans. However, it could also be used to create things that could harm other people.
One of the promising aspects (方面) of 3D printing is that it may help doctors treat patients in need. Currently, 3D printing is being used to create prostheses (假体) that helps replace missing noses and eyeballs, thus greatly cutting down on the usual wait time for a new prostheses. Dentists are also using 3D printers to create custom toothbrushes for patients’ teeth. The toothbrush fits a person's teeth well, which means that they get a much cleaner mouth than with regular toothbrushes. Many scientists see the potential for 3D printing to create replacement organs for people who need organ transplants. This would save lives as it remove the need for such patients to wait for an organ donation (捐献).
Although many people believe 3D printing is a positive technology that could help humans, it may also have the opposite effect. There is a recent controversy (争议) about the ability of 3D printing to produce arms such as guns. Recently, one organization announced the plans to produce a 3D plastic gun. Anyone with the proper technology and with the determination to make a gun could potentially do so. Will the future of 3D printing provide hope or danger to humans?
1. According to the article, how does 3D printing work?| A．It helps companies enter the marketplace. |
| B．It adds together layers of material together to make a shape. |
| C．It uses 3D objects to make computer models. |
| D．It uses printers to make different models of computers. |
| A．It may help to prevent deaths. | B．It can create controversy. |
| C．It can make a toothbrush. | D．It could produce computers. |
| A．Paragraph 1. | B．Paragraph 2. |
| C．Paragraph 3. | D．All of the above. |
| A．It is not yet known whether there will be more benefits than dangers in 3D printing. |
| B．Most of companies will start to use 3D printing technology in the future. |
| C．Soldiers will benefit greatly from advances in 3D printing. |
| D．The government will probably forbid 3D printing because it is too dangerous. |
8 . This summer there is plenty to keep you all busy from free movies at Regal Mayfaire stadium to free theater performance.
Free Movies
Free movies will be shown on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 a.m. at Regal Mayfaire stadium from June 14 to Aug 11. Call 9102563425 for more information.
Free Admission to Hundreds of Museums
This Saturday, July 25, hundreds of US museums are admission-free for the Smithsonian’s annual Museum Day.
Unlike previous Museum Day celebrations, you must sign up for a free ticket that allows two people to any of the participating museums. That means filling out a form and having the ticket emailed to you. Not bad for a free offer that will give you admission to museums such as the Adler Planetarium and the Air & Space Museum in Downtown Wilmington. Please see the website for the list of collections: http://www.mec.com.
Downtown Wilmington Concert
Downtown Sundown Concert Series will take place every Friday at 6 p.m. from June 16 to Aug.15. See the following link for a list of bands: http://www.wilmingtondowntown.com. Local performers will be performing “Much Ado about Nothing” at the newly built Greenfield Lake Amphitheater. All shows are free to the public.
Free Night of Theater
It’s the yearly run of the Free Night of Theater, when hundreds of theaters in 120 US cities give away thousands of tickets to local productions.
While the opening date is June 15, many of the theaters start giving away their free tickets by Oct. 1 or in waves during the month of June for performance dates throughout the month. Ticket seekers are limited to two tickets for one performance.
Find your city on the Free Night of Theater website (http://www.retheater.com) and check the listings for performances, their dates and their ticket giveaway times and locations.
1. You can go to watch a free movie on ________.| A．A Monday in June | B．A Thursday in July |
| C．A Sunday in September | D．A Wednesday in November |
| A．By getting the ticket in the participating museums. |
| B．By downloading and printing out a form by yourself. |
| C．By signing up and paying for the ticket on the website. |
| D．By filling out a form and having the ticket emailed to you. |
| A．They take place once a year. | B．They last for the same length of time. |
| C．The tickets can be used in any US city. | D．Their opening dates are the same. |
9 . Ask 9-year-old Annie what the worst thing was that ever happened in her house last year, and she won’t tell you that it was her parents divorcing, although they did. No, what Annie remembers most are the horrible fights leading up to the announcement about the divorce which was, as it turned out, and despite her parents anxiety about telling her, “not that big of a deal.” “I already knew they were not getting along well,” Annie says, “Every night after I went to bed, l would hear my parents fighting.” It made me really unhappy. When they finally decided to get a divorce, all of that stopped.
Annie's experience is more common than you might think, and there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that “staying together for the sake of the children” is not all it's cracked up to be, and may do more harm than good. According to psychologist Lynn Martingdale, hearing their parents argue is often more stressful for children than separation and divorce, and if you think that your children don’t know that there's trouble in family, then you're kidding yourself. The home life of children whose parents have an unhappy marriage is often far from ideal, and what's worse, parents will compound the problem by taking their unhappiness out on the children.
The Center for Moving Forward conducted a study in 2014 in which they followed 25families whose parents had been in marriage counseling. After tracking these families for 5 years, they found that the children of the parents who had eventually gotten divorced were not worse off than the children of those who had remained together, and in some cases had fared better. The study took into consideration, social and the children's general sense of well-being.
1. Why was Annie really unhappy according to paragraph 1?| A．Her parents fought every night. | B．Her parents finally got divorced. |
| C．Her parents decided to abandon her. | D．Her parents got along badly with her. |
| A．Separation and divorce will hurt the children most. |
| B．Keeping an unhappy marriage hurts children more. |
| C．Children can't understand their parents' marriage well. |
| D．Children can’t feel the unhappiness from their parents. |
| A．To give an example of divorce. |
| B．To support Annie's correct answer. |
| C．To further clear the author's view point. |
| D．To highlight the importance of the study. |
| A．Divorce Is Good for Children | B．Divorce Is Not the Worst Thing |
| C．Fighting Is Often Stressful | D．Staying Together Is for Children Only |
10 . Animals, including insects, do not have a language like ours. They do not talk to each other in words and sentences. But if we watch them, we can see that they do have ways of communicating with each other.
Can you see the rabbit’s tail? When rabbits see this white tail moving up and down, they run too. They know that there is danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal(信号).
Many other animals use this kind of language. When a cobra(眼镜蛇) is angry, it raises its hood(颈部皮褶) and makes itself look fierce. This warns other animals. When a bee has found some food, it goes back to its home. It cannot tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does a little dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.
Some animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for example, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs(咕噜叫) when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning. Sometimes we human beings speak in the same way. We make sounds like “Oh” or “Ah!” when we are frightened or pleased or when we drop something on our toes.
But we have something that no animals have-a large number of words which have the meanings of things, actions, feelings of ideas. We are able to give each other all kinds of different information in words and sentences, which no other animals can do. No other animals have so wonderful a language as we have.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．Animals do have a language like that of human beings. |
| B．Bees communicate with each other by dancing. |
| C．Some animals can use words. |
| D．Animals are brave. |
| A．warn other rabbits of danger |
| B．tell other rabbits where the food is |
| C．make itself look fierce |
| D．help it to run fast |
| A．rabbit | B．bee |
| C．bird | D．cat |
