1 . “Now I just don’t believe that.” Surely all of us, at some point, have watched a movie and thought: It’s simply badly researched, or, the makers must think we’re idiots.
The British newspaper The Daily Telegraph ran a humorous piece on unconvincing tech moments from some top movies. Let’s see what they are all about.
The Daily Telegraph writer Tom Chivers’ first example is from the end-of-the-world movie Independence Day, in which a character comes up with a virus which destroys Windows, the computer system the alien spacecraft uses. “It’s a good thing they didn’t have Norton Anti-virus,” jokes Chivers.
It’s just one case of a movie that takes a lot of license with its science. Another one Chivers mentions is from Star Wars, where glowing beams of light traveling through space look very impressive. But the problem is that in space there are no air particles for the light to reflect off. In reality, they’d be invisible, which wouldn’t look so cool on the big screen.
Chivers’ second piece of Star Wars nonsense is the sound the fighters make in the movies:“the bellow (咆哮) of an elephant mixed with a car driving on a wet road”. But sound needs a medium to travel through, like air. In space, there wouldn’t actually be any sound at all.
Few people would deny that the mind-bending Matrix films are made for great viewing, but for Chivers, the science in the movies is a little silly.
And finally, as Chivers points out, DNA is not replaceable. But this bit of elementary genetics passed the makers of the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day by. In the film the bad man has “gene therapy” to change his appearance and his DNA, which is completely impossible in our real world.
1. What does the passage mainly deal with?| A．Plots of some famous movies. |
| B．Characters in space movies. |
| C．Popularity of space movies. |
| D．Mistakes made in some movies. |
| A．The newspapers. |
| B．Unconvincing tech moments. |
| C．Some top movies. |
| D．Heroes in the movies. |
| A．light looks very impressive |
| B．light seems like glowing beams |
| C．glowing beams cannot be seen |
| D．light can’t travel through space |
| A．Most people like Matrix films. |
| B．Most people suspect the truth of Matrix films. |
| C．Few people enjoy viewing Matrix films. |
| D．Chivers thinks science is not acceptable. |
2 . Several years ago, when someone used camera covers to protect against possible monitoring, it was not popular to talk about it. Today, people use various types of tapes to cover the web cameras and microphones.
There are many types of spyware that can dive into our devices and secretly spy on them, recording everything they do. Such programs may infect not only computers but also smartphones. Your data may be used by hackers who will try to request money for not exposing your private information or by companies like NSO Group who created the Pegasus spyware to “provide authorized governments with technology that helps struggle against terror and crime”.
In my opinion, the described protection technique is highly overestimated. Users tape cameras and microphones due to the lack of understanding of how their devices work and how malware(恶意软件)works. Hackers and even secret services do not have enough resources to monitor all victims using cameras or microphones. If they need to yet any information, they get it by sending a targeted malware to your device, which will not be stopped by the tapes. Such a virus will find what to steal -from personal photos and videos to passwords from social networks, browser history, bank accounts and much more.
It is unwise to believe that attackers will not be able to find a way to spy on you, even if the device, discharged to zero, can still deliver data about your location, using the smartphones of the surrounding people as signal repeaters. Let us face it. we live in an era when it is extremely difficult to hide something and a piece of tape is clearly not the most useful tool in the struggle for your privacy.
Again, to be able to spy on you, attackers need to plant malware in your device. To prevent malware from entering your device, do not click suspected links and email attachments. Use strong passwords for email, social media and online banking accounts.
1. What does the underlined word “them” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Cameras. |
| B．Types. |
| C．Programs. |
| D．Devices. |
| A．group of hackers. |
| B．A company developing spyware. |
| C．A group of terrorists and criminals. |
| D．A company fighting against crime. |
| A．People know little about their devices. |
| B．Hackers have no access to others. |
| C．It hardly prevents malware from getting privacy. |
| D．It can't cover the cameras completely. |
| A．Protecting privacy on devices. |
| B．Rising trend of using tapes. |
| C．Monitoring devices via cameras. |
| D．Avoiding clicking distrustful links. |
3 . As digital devices （设备）have taken over society, “keyboard activity is now often recommended as a substitute for early handwriting," a new study notes. The idea is that typing may be easier for young children.
“Some schools in Norway have become completely digital," notes Audrey Vander Meer, the new study's leader, who measures brain activity to better understand learning and behaviors. She works at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The human brain has developed to interact with the world in as many ways as possible, she notes. She believes that young children should learn to write by hand successfully, and, at the same time learn to manage a keyboard.
Using a pen involves more of the brain than using a keyboard, her new findings show. This is because writing and printing involve complex movements that activate more areas of the brain. The increased brain activity, "gives the brain more 'hooks' to hang your memories on," she explains.
Think about it. The same movement is required to type each letter on a keyboard. By comparison, when we write, our brain needs to think about and recover memories of the shape of each letter. We also need to use our eyes to watch what shapes we're writing. And we need to control our hands to press a pen or pencil to shape the different letters. All of this uses and connects more areas of the brain.
Along the way, these processes appear to “open the brain up for learning", says Vander Meer. So learning through only one format — digital — could be harmful, she worries.
Vander Meer also points out that taking notes by hand stimulates （激发）"visual notetaking". Rather than typing blindly, the visual note-taker has to think about what is important to write down. Then, key words can be "interlinked by boxes, and arrows, and supplemented by small drawings".
1. What is the main idea of the text?| A．Digital devices are popular with students. |
| B．Handwriting beats typing in taking notes. |
| C．The process of taking notes changes thinking. |
| D．The new study makes contributions to science. |
| A．Communicate with the world. | B．Rely on keyboard activity. |
| C．Learn to write by hand. | D．Master basic drawing skills. |
| A．By studying how the brain develops. | B．By observing social phenomena. |
| C．By assessing functions of senses. | D．By comparing ways of taking notes. |
| A．Relationship. | B．Fashion. |
| C．Culture. | D．Science. |
4 . Chinese scientists have created the world’s first light-based quantum（量子）computer named Jiuzhang. It is a milestone in which a quantum machine can solve a problem no classical supercomputer can tackle within a reasonable amount of time.
Experts recognized the Chinese machine as a “state-of-the-art experiment” Fabio Sciarrino, a quantum physicist at Sapienza University of Rome, told Science News that his first impression of the Chinese quantum computer was, simply, “wow”. Anton Zeilinger, noted quantum physicist and president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, said that, following this experiment, he predicts there is a very good chance that quantum computers may be used very broadly someday.
Quantum computers stand out at running simulations that are impossible for conventional computers. Quantum machines can take computational shortcuts when simulating extremely complex situations, while conventional computers have to force their way to a solution, taking significantly more time in the process. Moreover, it can perform an extreme calculation, called Gaussian boson sampling（高斯玻色取样）, in 200 seconds. The same task would take the world’s fastest classical supercomputer, Fugaku, around 600 million years.
Pan Jianwei, who is recognized as China’s top quantum scientist and one of the key researchers behind Jiuzhang, said the calculations they carried out can not only showcase the machine’s computing power but also demonstrate potential practical applications in machine learning and quantum chemistry.
“Quantum computing has already become a fierce competition area among the United States, Europe and other developed regions,” Pan said, adding that China’s quantum computational advantage took about 7 to 10 years to achieve, since the team first decided to tackle the problem around 2013.
However, Pan stressed that the quantum computer is a highly specialized machine, and is currently only programmed to do boson sampling. “It is not a general-purpose quantum computer,” he said. In the near future, scientists may increase Jiuzhang’s possible output states—a key indicator of computing power—from 10 to the 30th power to 10 to the 40th power.
1. What is the Anton Zeilinger’s attitude towards quantum computer?| A．Negative. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Satisfied. |
| A．By making contrasts. | B．By presenting reasons. |
| C．By analyzing figures. | D．By conducting experiments. |
| A．Capacity. | B．Programme. |
| C．Storage. | D．Specialization. |
| A．High recognition of Chinese experts in the world. |
| B．Fierce competition in Boson sampling all over the world. |
| C．Appearance of the world’s first light-based quantum computer. |
| D．Distinctions between quantum computer and conventional computer. |
5 . Different contexts affect food production, processing, trade, marketing and consumption. As a result of this, the food availability, accessibility, and affordability— as well as consumers’ dietary behaviour and nutritional status—vary. One possible picture is presented here to provide an idea on how COVID-19 might impact the global food system.
Consumer demand plays a crucial role in food production and their demands depend on purchasing power and preference. Because of the lockdown, there is no work for many people. As a result, they do not have enough money to buy adequate food for their families. The closure of restaurants, school meals and tourism businesses may reduce the demand for fresh food. People buy frozen. dried and canned food with longer shelf life. Energy-dense, less nutritious foods are often more affordable than fresh and nutritious one.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 is not likely to be transmitted through food. However, workers can get infected by each other if they do not maintain social distance properly. Shortage of labor can not only hamper food production, but also the processing of food.
Around the world, millions of people depend on international trade either for then- livelihood or food security. The virus outbreak might slow down global trade and marketing of food. As a result, countries depending on imported food can face difficulties. The closure of ports and other supply restrictions will hamper food supply. The price of transferring food within and outside of the country may get more expensive. It means import may get more expensive and export may bring less money. On the other hand, the restriction in transport and supply can be the cause of food loss particularly for fresh fruits and vegetables. Companies may face difficulties to import the ingredients for different products which may disturb the production.
1. The passage is mainly about ________.| A．why the food system is easily affected by COVID-19 |
| B．how the world may be affected by COVID-19 outbreak |
| C．what effect COVID-19 may have on the food system |
| D．what contexts affect food production |
| A．They are eating more fresh food. |
| B．Energy-dense food is not popular with them. |
| C．They buy more less nutritious food. |
| D．A balanced diet provides adequate nutrition for them. |
| A．gathering | B．trade | C．market | D．processing |
| A．Growing concern for food security. |
| B．Inadequate ingredients. |
| C．Increased processed food. |
| D．Limited transport and supply. |
6 . Smartphone Bans in School
Today's students all over the world are losing an hour a week of productivity due to their smartphone activity.
That is what two researchers from the London School of Economics are arguing with their new study that examined 130,000 students in 91 British schools that employed various smartphone-use policies. Then, they looked at how their respective students performed in 16-year-olds' national exams.
In what may not come as a surprise to some, researchers Richard Murphy and Louis-Philippe Beland found that as schools' phone policies evolved since 2001, with some choosing to completely ban smartphones, school test scores improved by an average of 6.4 percent. The increase in scores from underachieving students was even more significant as they saw their scores increase by an average of 14 percent.
“The results suggest that low-achieving students are more likely to be distracted by the presence of mobile phones, while high achievers can focus in the classroom regardless of the mobile phone policy," the researchers told CNN. "We found the effect of banning phones for these students was the same as an additional hour a week in school, or increasing the school year by five days."
Professor Murphy and Beland said their study does not mean that smartphones and other technology have no place in assisting learning.
“There are, however, potential drawbacks to new technologies," they told CNN, citing the temptation to text, play games or chat on social media. Therefore, smartphones will not be completely out of classrooms anytime soon. Smartphone ownership among young people and children has skyrocketed in the past few years. Pew Research and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University reported that as of 2013, 78 percent of teens aged 12 to 17 owned a cellphone, 47 percent of which were smartphones.
The use of smartphones in schools is a controversial topic. Parents want to be able to reach their children while teachers complain about the effect they have on classes.
In March, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ended a decade-long city-wide ban on smartphones in public schools and left them to make up their own rules.
But Murphy and Beland said the decision may not have a good result.
“Schools could significantly reduce the education achievement gap by prohibiting mobile phone use in schools. So by allowing phones in schools, New York may unintentionally increase the inequalities of outcomes.”
1. Which of the following is TRUE about the research?| A．It examined 130,000 underachieving students. |
| B．It proves that smartphones are no good for students' studies. |
| C．Smartphone ownership among teens aged 12 to 17 amounted to about 50 percent. |
| D．In schools with smartphone bans, scores of the underachieving students increased by 14%. |
| A．Improved. | B．Interested. | C．Assisted. | D．Affected. |
| A．lose about an hour every day |
| B．relatively lose five days for learning |
| C．increase their scores by an average of 6.4 percent |
| D．decrease their scores by an average of 14 percent |
| A．Smartphone bans in schools are beneficial. |
| B．Smartphones cause students many problems. |
| C．Some students use smartphones too much. |
| D．Heavy smartphone use can harm students' learning abilities. |
7 . The term "adulting" started as a sort of joke-whenever a millennial(千禧一代)would do something age-acceptable, this was an act of "adulting". Now, though, millennials obviously require training in being an adult.
Rachel Flehinger has founded an Adulting School, which includes online courses on simple sewing, conflict solution and cooking. The cause for such classes is that many millennials haven't left childhood homes-in America 34 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 still lived with their parents as of 2015, up from 26 percent ten years before.
There's a good deal of truth to this. If you're living at home,with Mom and Dad doing their best to spoil（溺爱）you, you're less likely to know how to do laundry, cook or make the bed. Dependency breeds enervation.
But living at home doesn't necessarily lead to dependency. As of 1940, more than 30 percent of 25-to-29-year-olds lived at home with parents or grandparents.They were adulting, even while living at home. Parents expected their kids to do chores, to prepare for life. Instead of blaming living at home, then, we have to blame our style of parenting. The truth is that we've simply become lazier as parents.
So what's the real problem?
We're more likely to let our kids lie on a sofa than tell them to get a job and pay rent. We don't push our kids to build families of their own, as life spending has increased. Americans aren't expected to start building a life, particularly middle-and-upper-class Americans, until they're nearing their 30s. Then the question is how we can encourage young people to "adult" in non-circumstance-driven fashion.
1. What does the last sentence "Dependency breeds enervation" in the third paragraph mean?| A．Present kids are too lazy to do housework. |
| B．Parents would like to do housework by themselves. |
| C．Kids depend on their parents. |
| D．Dependency makes kids unable to do things. |
| A．Millennials would like to be trained in being an adult. |
| B．Millennials don't adult because they still live in their childhood homes. |
| C．Parents are too lazy to do chores. |
| D．In the 1940s kids were adulting even when they were living at home. |
| A．Millennials should leave home early to adult. |
| B．"Adulting" is hard mostly because parents hardly push their children into society. |
| C．Americans aren't expected to start building a life until they're nearing their 30s. |
| D．Adulting schools with online courses are popular. |
| A．The government should put off the age of adulthood. |
| B．Parents should leave kids in charge of society. |
| C．Parents should put responsibility on young people. |
| D．Pushing kids to adult is painful for parents. |
8 . How can we possibly cope with the large amount of information about virus spread, canceled plans and uncertainty about the future? Some people are buried in the fear, anxiety and sadness, checking news sites and social media constantly. Others try to be prevented from knowing it all and ignore the outside world.
There's a third option, though. Rather than fully getting involved in the negative or ignoring it, we can do our best to experience joy alongside everything else that is sad in the world. In fact, research that and others have conducted suggests that allowing the two different emotions to coexist may actually benefit us in the long run.
Dr. Jeff Larsen and his colleagues invented an expression known as the “coactivation model of mixed emotions”, and the basic idea is that we may be able to deal with, and learn from negative emotions like sadness if we experience them concurrently with positive emotions like joy at the same time. Here, positive emotions provide a psychological buffer (缓冲),making it easier for people to deal with the things they don't want to face.
The comedian Mitch Hedberg proposed ananalogythat captures this essence quite well, noting that it would be cool if you could eat a carrot with an onion ring and they would travel down to your stomach. Then they would get there, and the carrot would say, “It's cool, he's with me.” Applied to our emotional lives, we could do a better job in digesting,processing gaining insight into the negative events in our lives if we could do so alongside the positive.
Several years ago, my partner Jon Adler and I set out to test this exact idea. Specifically, we looked at sample of adult volunteers who signed up for weekly mental , health therapy sessions. Between each week, they reported the feelings they were having and also took a few questionnaires that were meant to assess their overall health. This design allowed us to examine how different emotional experiences would impact mental health in a longitudinal fashion, over the course of 12 weeks.
It's worth noting first that everyone seemed to improve a bit as the weeks marched on:therapy helps and so does time. More to the point, though, mixed emotions at one time point were positively associated with improvements in psychological well-being at the next time point. The more of a mixture of, say, happiness and sadness someone experienced today, the better feeling they'd experience next week.
However, when we looked at mixed emotions that were experienced in a given week, they weren't associated with improved mental health in that same week.
The true benefit from mixed emotions may not happen immediately, but rather, likely happen sometime in the future.
1. What does the author recommend people do with a flood of bad news?| A．Take no notice of it at all. |
| B．Make better plans to fight against it. |
| C．Take in all of the negative emotions. |
| D．Get involved in the negative and enjoy happiness as well. |
| A．Mixed emotions remain to be proved. |
| B．The negative emotion is easy to deal with. |
| C．The positive emotion makes it easier for people to succeed. |
| D．Mixed emotions allow people to handle the negative better. |
| A．Exhibition. | B．Promotion. | C．Similarity. | D．Requirement. |
| A．To measure the volunteers health on the whole. |
| B．To record what the volunteers are experiencing. |
| C．To treat the mental diseases of the adults. |
| D．To over turn the theory co activation model of mixed emotions. |
| A．Ignore bad news completely to make you cutoff from outside and feel happy. |
| B．Make your negative emotions less severe by focusing on positive ones. |
| C．Negative emotions will eventually benefit people in the long run. |
| D．Positive and negative emotions can not coexist at the same time. |
9 . What is the nature of the scientific attitude, the attitude of the man or woman who studies and applies physics, biology, chemistry, geology, engineering, medicine or any other science?
We all know that science plays an important role in our societies. However, many people believe that our progress depends on two different aspects of science. The first aspect is the application of the machines, products and systems of knowledge that scientists and technologists develop. The second is the application of the special methods of thought and action that scientists use in their work.
What are these special methods of thinking and acting? First of all, it seems that a successful scientist is curious - he wants to find out how and why the universe works. He usually pays attention to problems which he notices have no satisfying explanation, and looks for relationships even if the data available seem to be unconnected. Moreover, he thinks he can improve the existing conditions and enjoys trying to solve the problems which this involves.
He is a good observer, accurate, patient and objective and uses the facts he observes to the fullest. For example, trained observers obtain a very large amount of information about a star mainly from the accurate analysis of the simple lines that appear in a spectrum(光谱).
He does not accept statements which are not based on the most complete evidence available. He rejects authority as the only basis for truth. Scientists always check statements and make experiments carefully and objectively.
Furthermore, he does not readily accept his own idea, since he knows that man is the least reliable of scientific instruments and that a number of factors tend to disturb objective investigation.
Lastly, he is full of imagination since he often has to look for relationships in data which are not only complex but also frequently incomplete. Furthermore, he needs imagination if he wants to guess how processes work and how events take place.
These seem to be some of the ways in which a successful scientist or technologist thinks and acts.
1. Which of the following statements about a curious scientist is TRUE?| A．He doesn't find confidence and pleasure in work. |
| B．He makes efforts to investigate potential connections. |
| C．He is interested in problems that are explained. |
| D．He looks for new ways of acting. |
| A．easily appreciate others' research work |
| B．easily believe in unchecked statements |
| C．always accept authority as the only basis for truth |
| D．always use evidence from observation to the fullest |
| A．Objective and careful. | B．Curious and casual. |
| C．Cautious and arrogant. | D．Subjective and down-to-death . |
| A．Key to a successful scientist. | B．Scientists’ ways of thinking and acting |
| C．Progress in modern society. | D．Application of modern technology. |
10 . It is not uncommon for close synonyms to be understood to share the same meaning. The difference between words like “hard”and “difficult”, for example, goes tragically unnoticed.
Take for example the following sentences: 1) The test was hard. 2) The test was difficult. Is there a noticeable difference between the at all? If not, what would be the point to having multiple words with the exact same meaning? While many close synonyms share similar, if not the same, dictionary definitions, the feeling or mood they convey is utterly singular, if there is indeed a difference between words like “hard” and “difficult”, what is it?
To begin, “hard” is pragmatic and realistic, firmly grounded in reality. On the other hand, “difficult” is civilized, willing to make the effort necessary to appear polite. Furthermore, “hard” is more likely to be used in casual, in formal circumstances. It is used without pretense, and does not maintain a feeling of being overly concerned. In terms of daily usage, “hard” may be employed by an exhausted brick mason (石匠) when posed with the question, “How was your day” Conversely, “difficult” may be used by a military general upon explaining to his or her superior the progression of a particularly taxing campaign.
Now, let’s look at the synonyms, “happy” and “glad”. Take for example the following sentences: 1) Tommy is happy because he got a new bike. 2) Tommy is glad because he got a new bike. Again, upon consulting a dictionary, one will find highly similar, if not the same, definitions. But these definitions lack the feeling, the unique emotional charge that these words convey. The word “happy” conveys a sense of a carefree attitude. The thought of someone who is “happy” conveys the image of a bright-eyed, ruddy, smiling face. One is “ happy” on the morning of his birthday, discovering a new puppy bounding into his bedroom. On the other hand, the word “glad” conveys a sense of relief or contentment. The thought of someone who is “glad” conveys the image of a man standing crossed-armed, nodding gently.
Granted, the notion that close synonyms can be used interchangeably is prevalent among English speakers. However, using the examples and insights described above, one may come to recognize these subtle, yet crucial,differences.
1. Which of the following statements best describes the main idea of this passage?| A．Close synonyms are difficult to comprehend, and are commonly used interchangeably. |
| B．Contrary to popular belief, important differences exist between come close synonyms. |
| C．The difference between the words “hard”and “difficult” is vague to most. |
| D．Most English speakers believe close synonyms can be used interchangeably. |
| A．just the same |
| B．quite the opposite |
| C．very similar |
| D．totally different |
| A．In English, we have multiple words with the exact same meaning |
| B．Close synonyms should not be used interchangeably |
| C．By saying “It was hard”, one tries to sound polite and formal |
| D．The difference between close synonyms are too subtle and thus unimportant |
| A．dictionaries are of little help when it comes to clarifying the differences between close synonyms |
| B．close synonyms like “happy” and “glad” are largely misused among English speakers |
| C．a military general would never use a word like “hard”or “happy” |
| D．It is impossible to recognize the real differences between close synonyms |
