1 . If maths is the language of the universe, bees may have just uttered their first words. New research suggests these busybodies of the insect world are capable of addition and subtraction (减法) — using colors in the place of plus and minus symbols.
In the animal kingdom, the ability to count — or at least distinguish between differing quantities — isn’t unusual: It has been seen in frogs, spiders, and even fish. But solving equations (方程式) using symbols is rare, so far only achieved by famously brainy animals such as chimpanzees and African grey parrots.
Building on previous research that says the social insects can count to four and understand the concept of zero, researchers wanted to test the limits of what their tiny brains can do.
Scientists trained 14 bees to link the colors blue and yellow to addition and subtraction, respectively. They placed the bees at the entrance of a Y-shaped maze (迷宫), where they were shown several shapes in either yellow or blue. If the shapes were blue, bees got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one more blue shape (the other end had one less blue shape); if the shapes were yellow, they got a reward if they went to the end of the maze with one less yellow shape.
The testing worked the same way: Bees that “subtracted” one shape when they saw yellow, or “added” one shape when they saw blue were considered to have aced the test. The bees got the right answer 63% to 72% of the time, depending on the type of equation and the direction of the right answer — much better than random guesses would allow—the researchers report today in Science Advances.
Though the results came from just 14 bees, researchers say the advance is exciting. If a brain about 20,000 times smaller than ours can perform maths using symbols, it could pave the way to novel approaches in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Just don’t ask the bees to do your homework anytime soon.
1. Why do the scientists conduct the research?| A．To teach them maths. | B．To test the power of tiny brains. |
| C．To explain the meaning of colors. | D．To get access to machine learning. |
| A．Given up. | B．Entered for. |
| C．Got through. | D．Checked over. |
| A．Language acquisition. | B．Arithmetic learning. |
| C．Protection of animals. | D．Development of AI. |
| A．Bees “Like” Counting |
| B．Bees “Tell” Colors Apart |
| C．Bees “Perform” Maths Using Shapes |
| D．Bees “Get” Addition and Subtraction |
2 . A small dairy（乳制品）farm that floats on waterways is being tested in the Netherlands as a way to bring animal products closer to the cities and save space.
Dutch businesswoman Minke Van Wingerden looks proudly at her 32 cows at an automated milking station on an unusual farm: a platform located on one of the waterways in Rotterdam port. She is one of the developers of the “Floating Farm,” testing whether dairy farming like this is feasible in the heart of one of the world’s most urban, industrial areas.
“This idea started in 2012. My partner Peter was involved in a project in New York and then Hurricane Sandy hit New York very badly, so it was flooded and after two days there was no fresh food on the shelves anymore,” she said, “So then we realized, ‘Why not produce fresh food on the water close to the city?’, and that’s where the idea came up.”
The cows can rest on the upper level of the structure. Milk and waste processing facilities are located on the lower deck, as well as the visitors’ entrance and store. The top level of the structure is used to collect rainwater. Power for the farm comes from a solar panel floating nearby.
“The amount of arable（可耕的）land is decreasing and the world population is growing. So how can we produce enough healthy food in the future?” Ms. Van Wingerden said. “Why not use water to produce fresh healthy food near to the consumers?”
The whole farm is equipped with the latest dairy tech such as an automated feeding system, waste-moving robots, self-serve cleaning stations, and the smartphone app. It sells some bottles of raw milk on-site to visitors, while the rest is turned into milk. It is sold to customers nearby via an online grocery, Picnic, known for its small, electric delivery trucks.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “feasible” in paragraph 2?| A．Disgusting. | B．Practical. |
| C．Enjoyable. | D．Flexible. |
| A．It was once flooded by a hurricane. |
| B．It is powered by the waterways nearby. |
| C．It was originally invented in New York. |
| D．It has three floors for different functions. |
| A．picnic deals mainly with dairy products |
| B．electric equipment is being tested on the farm |
| C．modern tech has been applied to farm management |
| D．visitors prefer bottles of raw milk to farm-made milk |
| A．New Food Farm Solves Problems of the Public |
| B．“Floating Farm” Creates Local Dairy for Cities |
| C．Latest Invention Contributes to Food Shortages |
| D．Less Arable Land Threatens World Population |
3 . In March, 2016, the pride of humankind was crushed by a computer. Google's AlphaGo defeated the South Korean Go master Lee Sedol four games to one, as the world looked on with shock and awe. Artificial intelligence had suddenly reached a new and unexpected height.
But as smart as AlphaGo is, it's no longer the best Go "player" in the world. Google's artificial intelligence group, DeepMind, has created the next generation of its Go-playing program, called AlphaGo Zero. The new AI program is unique in the way it learned to play Go. Instead of learning from thousands of human matches, as its predecessor (前任) did, AlphaGo Zero mastered Go in just two days without any human knowledge of the game and defeated AlphaGo by day three, reported The Guardian. It then went on to defeat AlphaGo 100 games to zero.
To learn how to play Go, AlphaGo Zero played millions of matches against itself using only the basic rules of the game to rapidly create its own knowledge of it. Like the previous version, it used "reinforcement (增强) learning to become its own teacher," according to DeepMind's website.
"It's more powerful than previous approaches," David Silver, AlphaGo's lead researcher, told The Guardian, "because by not using human data, or human expertise in any fashion, we've removed the constraints of human knowledge and it is able to create knowledge itself."
AlphaGo Zero's approach to self-learning is a significant advancement in AI that could be applied to help solve some of the world's biggest problems, according to a recent research report published in the journal Nature. For example, DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis argues that AlphaGo Zero could probably find cures for a number of serious diseases within weeks, according to The Telegraph. Indeed, the AI is now being used to study protein folding, which is connected to diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
So now that AI has gone beyond the bounds of human knowledge, perhaps the question is not about what AI can learn from humans, but what humans can learn from AI. We can only wait and see.
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．AlphaGo defeated Lee Sedol five games to zero. |
| B．AlphaGo Zero defeated AlphaGo within one day. |
| C．AlphaGo Zero has become the new best Go player. |
| D．AlphaGo Zero is the first program to defeat a human at Go. |
| A．advantages | B．disadvantages |
| C．restrictions | D．regulations |
| A．Treating diseases. | B．Making new Go rules. |
| C．Solving math problems. | D．Creating new proteins. |
