1 . Facebook is a habit forming activity， but users who spend a lot of time on the site say they feel less happy with their lives.
Researchers from University of Gothenburg say that many users log in as soon as they turn their PCs on and that the behavior can develop into an“addiction”. People in low income groups and the poorly educated are particularly at risk. Up to 85% of users say that they use Facebook daily and half say they start up Facebook as soon as they open their web users. Half fear that they are not“on top of things”if they are not logged into the site, and 25% say they feel”ill at ease”if they can't log in regularly.
The Swedish survey showed the network had its dark side.“Face-booking may become an unconscious habit. A majority of the respondents(受访者) log in every time they start their web browser(浏览器). This may even develop into an addiction,” says Leif Denti, doctoral student of Psychology at the University of Gothenburg.
People with low income and low-educated individuals spend more time on Facebook. Women are generally more active than men on Facebook. Users with low income and low education use Facebook more than other groups. Within these groups，users who spend more time on Facebook also report feeling less happy and less content with their lives.
The other surprise about the network is that although a huge amount of personal “ news”is traded through the site,it tends to focus on the positive.“ Most of the content they share has something to do with major events, positive events and when feeling good,”says Leif Denti.
1. What is the main idea of the text?| A．Using Facebook may become an addiction. |
| B．Positive events are more welcome on Facebook. |
| C．Women spend more time on Facebook than men. |
| D．Spending more time on Facebook leads to less happiness. |
| A．Pleased. | B．Tired. | C．Annoyed. | D．Interested. |
| A．Half of the users use Facebook daily. |
| B．People tend to share good things on Facebook. |
| C．Men are more active than women on Facebook. |
| D．Well-educated people spend more time on Facebook. |
| A．A diary. | B．A novel. | C．A magazine. | D．A travel guide. |
2 . Suppose you are about to complete high school and are thinking about attending a college or university. After doing some research, you find a school you would like to attend, but have questions about the application process. So you go to the school’s website in the hope of finding a few answers.
Time goes by and you, a student, still do not have the answers. You almost feel like giving up. But today, as you can see, artificial intelligence is so advanced. You find a message appears on your computer or personal electronic device. It says something like: ''How can I help? '' Writing back to the website, you try to explain your problem. You possibly get a few questions to clarify what your concerns are. Then, almost immediately, the person with whom you are in contact provides the information you are seeking.
In fact, you are not actually communicating with a school official. You are not even dealing with a human being. You are in contact with a computer program, or chatbot. It is using artificial intelligence, AI for short, to understand and communicate with you. This might sound strange. But chances are that this would not be the first time you have communicated with a computer program without knowing it. In recent years, chatbots have become a common tool for banks and large companies around the world.
Having human beings available to answer people’s questions and complaints can be costly, requiring many workers. And in most cases, employees can only work for several hours in a day, increasing customers’ waiting time for a response, but the chatbot can work around the clock. So not only companies, but a growing number of universities have also begun using the chatbot technology.
Australia's University of Adelaide noted a major improvement in its service to student after employing a chathot to deal with application questions in 2018. It said that students received responses 13 times faster, and students’ approval of the quality of service increased by 60 percent. And just the speed of reacting to questions is the chatbot's major strength.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By assumption. | B．By comparison. |
| C．By definition. | D．By data. |
| A．To tell time and tide wait for no man. |
| B．To advise students should clarify their questions. |
| C．To present the communication convenience brought by Al. |
| D．To show the phenomenon that students are addicted to computers. |
| A．Its low cost. | B．Its ease of use. |
| C．Its short working hours. | D．Its quick response. |
| A．Artificial intelligence is developing rapidly. |
| B．Robots are gradually replacing human services. |
| C．Employees chat with robots without knowing them. |
| D．More universities use chatbots to communicate online. |
3 . Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn’t enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.
Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support. When students feel ignored or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to taper off. Professor Goel decided to do something to improve this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson.
Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn’t too great. But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students’ questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn’t know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn’t tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didn’t inform them about Jill’s true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.
The goal of Professor Goel’s virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence.
1. What problem did Professor Goel meet with?| A．Students’ questions were too many to deal with. |
| B．Teaching assistants were not professional at all. |
| C．Many students were lack of interest in his class. |
| D．He felt confused about how to teach online. |
| A．grow dramatically | B．increase sharply |
| C．decrease gradually | D．decline unreasonably |
| A．She could answer all questions without mistakes. |
| B．She turned out to be a great success. |
| C．Her performance was remarkable all the way. |
| D．Her true identity was still a secret to students. |
| A．A robot gives an online course. |
| B．Virtual assistant is getting popular in school. |
| C．Robots will replace humans in online classes. |
| D．One Georgia Tech’s teaching assistant isn’t human. |
4 . An extreme drought is threatening South Africa's wildlife industry. Farmers are keeping fewer animals and vacationers are visiting in smaller numbers. Parts of the country have been affected by repeated years of hotter than normal weather and below average rainfall. The conditions have burned feeding grass and dried up watering holes. In 2015, the area saw the driest year on record. The agency Wildlife Ranching South Africa ( WRSA) collets data on more than 9,000 wildlife ranches ( 牧场) in the nation. It estimates that the Northern Cape Province has lost more than .two thirds of its game over the last three years. WRSA is talking to ranchers around the country to gather information on animal loss and the financial impact the drought is having.
WRSA Chief Adri Kitshoff-Botha told Reuters News Agency the drought has continued for some time. “In some areas we've seen it has been going on for six years, ”she said. The wildlife industry brings money to South Africa's economy through tourism, hunting, breeding and meat production. Hunting —the shooting of carefully chosen animals in particular—made $ 140 million in 2016, topping the list of the four mentioned, above, breeding ranking the least, though.
In the past, the lodge (度假区) was home to around 4,500 wild animals—including 35 different species from antelope to rhino. But it has lost around 1 ,000 animals because of the drought. Now, dead animals sit in old and unused mines on the edge of the property. “The lodge has seen its spending rise as it buys more feed for animals for the sake of the drought. At the same time, hunters are paying less, and fewer tourists are visiting because the animals are in poor condition over the past year,” said WRSA’s Kitshof-Botha. The drought has also hit other parts of South Africa. In Botswana, more than 100 elephants died in two months in 2019. Botswana is home to almost one-third of Africa's elephants.
1. Which is the indirect result of the drought?| A．Economy is barely declining. | B．Feeding grass has been burned. |
| C．Watering holes have dried up. | D．Vacationers are becoming fewer. |
| A．Hunting. | B．Breeding. |
| C．Tourism. | D．Meat production. |
| A．some local species need more attending in hot weather |
| B．the animals in poor condition are dying out in the drought |
| C．the lodge has to offer animals more food due to the drought |
| D．dead animals' bodies need to be buried in' old and unused mines |
| A．South Africa's wildlife industry is under the threat of an extreme drought. |
| B．The rapid decreasing of national economy affects wildlife in South Africa. |
| C．Most wildlife ranchers in South Africa are suffering a lot from the drought. |
| D．Wildlife industry is playing a vital part in South Africa's national economy. |
5 . Elephants on the coast of Thailand are acting strangely. They stamp their feet and signal toward the hills. The sea draws back from the beaches. Fish fall heavily in the mud. Suddenly, a huge wave appears. This is no ordinary wave. It is a tsunami (海啸)!
Tsunami waves are larger and faster than normal surface waves. A tsunami wave can travel as fast as a jet plane and can be as tall as a ten-story building. Imagine dropping a stone into a pond. The water on the surface ripples (起涟漪). A tsunami is like a very powerful ripple. Tsunamis begin when the ocean rises or falls very suddenly. Large amounts of seawater are displaced. This movement causes huge waves.
If a tsunami happens, there must be some kind of force that causes the ocean water to become displaced. Most tsunamis are caused by underwater earthquakes. However, volcanoes, landslides (塌方), large icebergs, and even meteorites (陨石) are able to cause one of these giant waves.
Tsunamis are extremely powerful. Ordinary waves lose power when they break. Tsunami waves can remain powerful for several days. Because tsunami waves are so strong, they can kill people, damage property, and completely ruin an ecosystem in just one hour.
Scientists have no way of predicting when a tsunami will hit. However, if a powerful enough earthquake happens, scientists can send out a warning or a watch. A warning means that a tsunami will very likely hit soon. A watch means that conditions are favorable for a tsunami. When people are informed of a watch or a warning, they have more time to prepare. It is best not to get caught unaware when a tsunami is on the way!
1. Why are elephants acting strangely before the Tsunamis?| A．They dislike the huge wave. |
| B．They are afraid of the big fish. |
| C．They can sense something out of the ordinary. |
| D．They see the ocean drawing back from the beaches. |
| A．Moved out of normal place. | B．Pushed by human force. |
| C．Pulled to great heights. | D．Hung down quickly. |
| A．They are not familiar to most people. |
| B．They are very powerful and long-lasting. |
| C．They break on the coast, unlike normal waves. |
| D．They are caused by underwater earthquakes. |
| A．How to guard against tsunamis. | B．Differences between wave types. |
| C．What to do with tsunami waves. | D．Causes and effects of tsunamis. |
6 . “Birds” and “airports” are two words that, paired together，don’t normally paint the most harmonious picture. So it really raises some eyebrows when China announces plans to build an airport that is for birds.
Described as the world’s first-ever bird airport, the proposed Lingang Bird Sanctuary(保护区）in the northern coastal city of Tianjin is, of course,not an actual airport. Rather，it's a wetland preserve specifically designed to accommodate hundreds-even thousands-of daily takeoffs and landings by birds traveling along the East Asian-Australian Flyway. Over 50 species of migratory (迁徙的）water birds，some endangered, will stop and feed at the protected sanctuary before continuing their long journey along the flyway.
Located on a former landfill site，the 150-acre airport is also open to human travelers.(Half a million visitors are expected annually.) However，instead of duty-free shopping，the main attraction for non-egg-laying creatures at Tianjin’s newest airport will be a green-roofed education and research center, a series of raised “observation platforms” and a network of scenic walking and cycling paths totaling over 4 miles.
“The proposed Bird Airport will be a globally significant sanctuary for endangered migratory bird species, while providing new green lungs for the city of Tianjin.” Adrian McGregor of an Australian landscape architecture firm explained of the design. Frequently blanketed in smog so thick that it has shut down real airports, Tianjin is a city---China’s fourth most populous----that would certainly benefit from a new pair of healthy green lungs•
1. The underlined phrase “non-egg-laying creatures” in Paragraph 3 refers to?| A．Visitors. | B．Designers. |
| C．Endangered water birds. | D．Planes. |
| A．People cannot watch birds up close here. |
| B．It is located on a 150-acre landfill site. |
| C．It functions as an actual airport and a wetland preserve. |
| D．It provides migratory birds with food and shelter. |
| A．The airport will become a permanent home for birds. |
| B．Tianjin will win worldwide fame in the future. |
| C．Tianjin’s air quality will improve thanks to the airport. |
| D．Tianjin will be able to accommodate more people. |
| A．Airports shut down and open up. |
| B．China is to open the first Bird Airport. |
| C．Airports turn into green lungs. |
| D．Birds are no longer enemies to airports. |
