1 . Last night, I found my mother sit with her legs crossed on the sofa, looking through her iPhone with her glasses. This is not the first time I have caught her like this. My father once tapped (敲) away on his phone with a serious look on his face, saying the “I’ll be with you shortly” line. I have learned by now that this is to tell me to leave him alone for the next 10 minutes. Although they don’t like admitting it, both of my parents couldn’t go without their phones as I do.
Growing up, we are repeatedly reminded that we are those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them. We are ruining the English language because we like using heart-eyes emojis (表情符号) instead of spelling it out. And even though I can recognize myself as a social media (媒体) addict, I think parents should at least consider that not only the young generation (代), but also they like phones.
I get upset when I receive the “I’ll be with you shortly” line from a parent. But, at the same time, leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his “serious business” has now become the norm.
Whether you want to escape your noisy children for a while, or want to stay up late tapping through Twitter, all of these are common. But you should fully understand it. We—your children—know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to turn it off. So before calling us out and telling us to “put our phones away at the table” or even worse, saying how damaging social media can be to us, maybe you should lead by example and consider how much time you spend on the phone as well as how this is influencing your children and your relationship with them. Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.
1. What can we learn about the author’s parents?| A．They become addicted to phones like him. |
| B．They’ve been forced to use phones by him. |
| C．They like buying their phones online at home. |
| D．They often communicate with him by phone. |
| A．Having fewer chances to learn social skills. |
| B．Failing to express themselves in a right way. |
| C．Getting angry easily when facing their parents. |
| D．Giving up the ways of communicating directly. |
| A．Fixed tradition. | B．Accepted behavior. |
| C．Expected decision. | D．Unforgettable experience. |
| A．Behaving well in front of children. | B．Putting the phones away at the table. |
| C．Taking more time to stay with children. | D．Having good communication with children. |
2 . Ultrasound（超声）is used widely in medical imaging, but in recent years scientists have started developing it for another use: stimulating nerves to treat disease. In two new studies in mice, researchers focused the sound waves on nerves in the spleen（脾）that communicate with the immune system, reducing symptoms. If the approach proves safe and effective in people, it could serve as a treatment for diseases such as arthritis（关节炎）.
In one study, led by scientists at the Feistein Institute and GE Research, mice receiving a few minutes of ultrasound treatment to the spleen nerve had a diminished symptoms to an injected（注射）poison. In another study, researchers at the University of Minnesota and their colleagues reduces symptoms of arthritis in mice by stimulating their spleen nerves for 20 minutes every day for a week. “Zeroing in on the spleen may provide a more precise approach than focusing on the vagus nerve（交感神经）, which connects with the immune system via a second nerve that stimulates the spleen.” says Hubert Lin, lead author of the latter study. “When we’re targeting the spleen we have less of an effect all over the body.”
“Little is known about how repeated ultrasound affects the spleen or whether it has other harmful effects,” says neuroscientist Denise Bellinger of Loma Linda University, who was not involved in either study. An ongoing clinical trial aims to assess the treatment’s safety in humans with arthritis. A bigger unknown is how ultrasound activates in general. Scientists are now exploring the use of ultrasound on other parts of the nervous system, including the brain. “We know how to control nerves with electricity, and we’ve been doing it for more than 100 years,” neuroscientist Kevin Tracey says, “But the idea of controlling nerve signals with ultrasound is a brand-new field.”
1. What do scientists expect of the new application of ultrasound?| A．It'll be applied in medical imaging |
| B．It'll be used to activate nerves to treat disease. |
| C．It’ll be applied in spleen transplantation. |
| D．It'll be employed to rebuild immune system. |
| A．Complicated. | B．Worsened. |
| C．Decreased. | D．Associated. |
| A．Side effect. | B．Time length. |
| C．The procedure. | D．The cost. |
| A．Assessing the treatment' s safety on humans. |
| B．Activating nerves in general with ultrasound. |
| C．Exploring the use of ultrasound on the brain. |
| D．Controlling nerve signals with ultrasound. |
3 . Computer scientists have hoped to give robots technical skills to help them recognize, process and react to humor. But these attempts have mostly failed. AI (人工智能) experts say that in many cases, attempts to make robots understand humor end up producing funny results, but not in the way they were supposed to.
Tristan Miller studied more than 10,000 puns (双关语) in one research project. The pun is a kind of joke that uses a word with two meanings. For example, you could say, “Balloons do not like pop music.” The word “pop” can be a way of saying popular music; or can mean the sound a balloon makes when it explodes. But a robot might not get the joke. Tristan Miller says that is because humor is a kind of creative language that is extremely difficult for computer intelligence to understand.
Allison Bishop is a computer scientist and she also performs stand-up comedy. She explained that machines are trained to look for patterns. Comedy, on the other hand, relies on things that stay dose to a pattern, kit not completely within it. To be funny, humor should also not be predictable, Bishop said. This sets a great obstacle for a machine to recognize and understand what is funny.
Bishop says since robots have great difficulty understanding humor, she feels like it gives her better job security as a comedy performer. It even made her parents happy when her brother decided to become a full-time comedy writer because it meant he wouldn’t be replaced by a machine, she added.
Despite the difficulties, Darmstadt University’s Miller says there are good reasons to keep trying to teach humor to robots. It could make machines more relatable, especially if they can learn to understand sarcasm (讽刺), he noted. Humans use sarcasm to say one thing but mean another. But Kiki Hempelmann thinks differently. “Teaching AI systems humor may make them find it where it isn’t, and they may use it where it’s inappropriate,” he said. “Maybe bad AI will start killing people because it thinks something is funny,” he added.
1. What does the author most probably want to show in Paragraph 1?| A．Robots’ influence on the scientific development. |
| B．Robots’ challenges of making sense of humor. |
| C．Computer scientists’ devotion to technical skills. |
| D．Computer scientists’ concern about AI’s development. |
| A．prove robots do poorly in funny work |
| B．explain robots aren’t as intelligent as humans |
| C．describe language is complex and changeable |
| D．show language can’t be taught in a set pattern |
| A．Barrier. | B．Record. |
| C．Message. | D．Possibility. |
| A．It will end up in vain. |
| B．It may be a double-edged sword. |
| C．It may help improve humans’ humor. |
| D．It will attract more computer scientists. |
4 . After achieving huge success in the past two seasons, Letters Alive returns with more surprises. The show is performed first on China’s major video platform, v.qq.com, and then is aired on Heilongjiang Satellite TV on Saturdays. Letters penned by celebrities (名人) ages ago, or modern ordinary people, are chosen and then read by today’s stars, striking a chord (引起共鸣) with audiences by presenting human stories.
According to Guan Zhengwen, the show’s chief director, the letters offer a view into universal values. “There is only one standard in our selection. That is, these letters deserve to be seen by more people,” the director said.
“Different cultural backgrounds do exist in the world, but human nature can bridge different cultures. People’s understanding of themselves, others and society can be understood through writing, and that’s the power of letters,” the director said. “Chinese letters are still the mainstay of the program, but the addition of classic letters from abroad is certain to bring more tastes to it,” he added.
As a rule, the 12-episode (一集) culture program has invited many well-known Chinese celebrities. In comparison with the former two seasons, more young artists are taking part this time. “Our program’s viewers under the age of 29 account for more than 75 percent of the total. However, the popularity of celebrities among the young generation is not our selection preference,” Guan said.
Also it is worth noting that the program has added a comment time. Each time a letter is read, a famous commentator sits in the studio and shares his feelings toward the letter and tells viewers the stories behind letters. “The commentators’ views do not stand for the truth, as there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes,” the director said. “But they, based on their vision and experience, will express positive social energy to viewers.”
1. What does the underlined word “aired” probably mean in the first paragragh?| A．Advertised. | B．Broadcast. |
| C．Sold. | D．Made. |
| A．To make the show more colorful. |
| B．To attract more young audiences. |
| C．To bring more fashion to the program. |
| D．To cover the shortage of Chinese letters. |
| A．Foreign artists will be invited for the first time. |
| B．More stars favored by the young will be chosen. |
| C．There will be an explanation after the reading is finished. |
| D．Viewers will have a chance to read their own letters in the show. |
| A．In an advertisement. | B．In a history textbook. |
| C．In a fashion magazine. | D．In a news report. |
5 . “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. |
