1 . Vast numbers of copyrighted books appear to have been memorized by ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4, posing questions about the legality of how these large language models (LLMs) are created.
Both artificial intelligences were developed by private firm OpenAI and trained on huge amounts of data, but which texts make up this training data is unknown. To find out more, David Bamman at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues looked at whether the AIs were able to fill in missing details from a selection of almost 600 fiction books, drawn from sources such as nominees (被提名者) for the Pulitzer prize, and The New York Times’s bestsellers lists over the same time period.
The team picked 100 passages from each book that contained a single, named character. The researchers then blanked out the name and asked the AI to fill it in. This task was designed to expose if the AIs could return the exact right answer. “It really requires knowledge of the underlying material in order to be able to get the name right,” says Bamman.
Both AIs completed the task with high accuracy—as much as 98 percent for passages from Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — which is out of copyright — and 76 percent for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which is not. The researchers say this suggests the AIs were trained on significant proportions of both books.
These AIs don’t produce an exact duplicate of a text in the same way as a photocopier, which is a clearer example of copyright infringement. “ChatGPT can recite parts of a book because it has seen it thousands of times,” says Andres Guadamuz at the University of Sussex, UK. “The model consists of statistical frequency of words. It’s not reproduction in the copyright sense.”
“The use of copyright works without permission in training data sets for large language or image models has already emerged as one of the most pressing legal challenges to this novel industry,” says Lilian Edwards at Newcastle University, UK.
Bamman says that, ultimately, the legal system in each country will have to determine whether LLMs are infringing (侵犯) copyrights. “I think that’s an open question that a lot of court cases are going to decide for us in the coming months,” he says.
Regulation is also likely to play a key role: the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, which has been two years in the making, will include a requirement that companies making generative AI tools need to disclose any copyrighted material used to train their models. That was a late change, added to the draft law in April, according to Reuter.
1. Bamman and his colleagues designed the task to_________.| A．compare the accuracy rate of ChatGPT and GPT-4 |
| B．test the range of knowledge of ChatGPT and GPT-4 |
| C．show how ChatGPT and GPT-4 memorize many books |
| D．check what ChatGPT and GPT-4’s training data consist of |
| A．AIs were trained more on copyrighted works than those out of copyright. |
| B．Guadamuz thinks what AIs have done is a kind of copyright infringement. |
| C．AI companies need to uncover copyrighted materials used as training data. |
| D．The permission for the use of copyright works becomes a legal challenge. |
| A．The training process of AIs. | B．The legal uncertainty of AIs. |
| C．The future regulation of AIs. | D．The training materials of AIs. |
For centuries, people
Emotional intelligence is the ability
Robots help us in many ways — from assembly lines to looking after the elderly. Now they’re turning their attention to coping with climate change by helping to plant trees.
Milrem Robotics, an Estonian company, has developed an autonomous robot forester. The new robot forester can plant a hectare of forest in less than six hours. The robotic planters are equipped with Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) which uses laser pulses to build up a three-dimensional image of the robots’ surroundings and global positioning (GPS) to navigate precisely. The position of each sapling is recorded in a database as it is planted, which means that a specialized brush cutter version of the robot forester can reduce competitive growth without harming the young trees.
The robot forester is designed for working in commercial forests and it could be used to restore natural forests, too. Deforestation (滥伐) contributes 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Conservationists say, “We lose 10 million hectares of trees every year to agriculture and logging and we need to plant a trillion trees to reverse forest cover loss to help slow down climate change.” A mature tree can capture an average of 0.62 metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime — equivalent to the carbon emissions from driving a car 2,400 kilometres. Tree planting is just one of a range of measures needed to fight climate change and scientists say it’s important to plant the right trees in the right place for it to be effective.
These robotic planters are just one of the many new solutions beginning to surface in time for the decade of delivery on climate change. We can do a lot to help in our daily life.
1. What can the robot forester do?2. According to conservationists, how can we help slow down climate change?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Milrem Robotics designed the robot foresters to help speed up deforestation.
4. What else can you do in your daily life to help slow climate change? (In about 40 words)
Skyscrapers (摩天大楼) are the ultimate symbol of urban life. By 2050, almost 80 percent of the earth’s population could live in cities. The human population could increase to 9.1 billion people yet the amount of land available for farming will be the same. How to meet the increasing food needs of our planet could be a big problem.
Vertical farms, where urban farmers could grow crops in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, could be the solution. In spite of concerns over high costs, experts want to make these urban farms a reality and use these skyscrapers to grow crops. They believe that we can increase food production by changing our thinking from out to up.
Vertical farms would have many advantages, experts say. The food would be grown with minimal effects on the environment. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming would not force animals out of their habitats by taking over large areas of land, nor would it pollute the air with the use of heavy farming equipment. Those farms would also reduce the cost and negative effects of transporting food over long distances. These have been well recognized.
Growing prosperity has led to many people demanding that all foods are available all year round. Indoor farming could produce crops constantly and crops would not suffer from weather-related problems like drought or flooding. In addition, the use of agricultural chemicals for controlling insects would be minimal.
Experts agree that new farming practices are needed to support the planet’s need for more and more food at affordable costs, both to the farmer and to the consumer. Vertical farms may be a small-scale answer, but the best ideas could be yet to come.
1. According to this passage, what could be a big problem?2. What would be the advantages of vertical farming?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Vertical farms could meet people’s demand for available food all year round, because it could produce crops constantly and crops would not be affected by any problems.
4. In addition to vertical farms, what else do you think can help solve the food shortage? (In about 40 words)
6 . Emojis are everywhere. They offer effective and fun ways to interact with others. Used well, they can become an engaging and creative addition to communication.
One well-chosen emoji can replace many words of text.
Emojis are clear, colorful, and designed to convey a single message memorably — which has been shown to increase interest and engagement. They stand out among text, especially when the recipient is working quickly or on the move.
Many emojis mean the same thing to everyone, everywhere.
Emojis can help you to show your human side, making you seem friendlier and more approachable. What’s more, the brain reacts to images of faces, and to real faces, in a very similar way.
Alongside all the potential benefits of emojis that we’ve listed above, there are also dangers you’ll need to guard against.
| A．Here are some of the reasons why emojis are so popular. |
| B．Many employees in some western countries are using emojis at work. |
| C．An emoji is often easier and quicker to understand than a written explanation. |
| D．So they can break through language barriers, and promote easy communication. |
| E．For example, you could select an emoji of a house to set your status as “working from home.” |
| F．A poorly chosen emoji can cause problems, because some of the images are not universally understood. |
| G．For example, the crossed fingers emoji means good luck in some places, but it’s seen as an impolite sign in others. |
7 . A person could be forgiven for believing 20 years ago that the Internet would soon revolutionise academic publishing, because it became possible for publishers to spread scholarly work at the click of a button — much cheaper than the traditional subscription-based (订阅) model. Recognising the opportunity, many scholars and librarians started to advocate a new, open access model, in which articles are made freely available online to anyone. The result would be a true online public library of science.
However, more than two decades later, the movement has made little progress, and the traditional subscription-based model remains entrenched.
Fortunately, things are changing. A big shoe dropped when the University of California (UC) Libraries, on of the biggest library systems, declined to renew its contract with Elsevier, a leading scientific publisher. Elsevier wanted the libraries to pay two fees: one for its package of licensed journals and the other for the use of Elsevier’s open access model. UC Libraries wanted the licensed journals fee to cover the open access fee; they also wanted open access to all UC researches published in Elsevier journals. When the two sides couldn’t come to terms, the libraries walked away.
Actually, the open access revolution is more likely to be led by research funding agencies, who can use their purse power to promote open access. A team of funders, Coalition S, insisted that any research they fund should be published in a journal that makes all of its articles freely and immediately available to the public, which is called Plan S.
Now that some librarians and funders are flexing their muscles, what should academics do? The worst response would be to complain that Plan S deprives (剥夺) them of academic freedom. Some thoughtful academics might worry that a shift to open access would affect their promotion. After all, subscription journals are more familiar and more prestigious (有威望的) in the current system. However, if enough academics support open access, the system could reach a tipping point beyond which subscriptions no longer signal prestige. Reaching that point would take considerable time and efforts, but it is possible.
When the journal system started in 1665, it was kind of a form of open access. Journals allowed academics to learn openly from one another. It was only in the 1900s that the journal system became thoroughly commoditized (商品化). Now is the time to bring it back to its roots.
1. What does the underlined word “entrenched” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Unpopular. | B．Unfixed. | C．Unchanged. | D．Unknown. |
| A．The number of published researches. |
| B．The charge for open access model. |
| C．The duration of the contract. |
| D．The way of payment. |
| A．Academics think open access model will help them get promoted. |
| B．Publishers are willing to abandon the subscription model gradually. |
| C．Establishing a true online public library of science requires joint efforts. |
| D．Open access model will soon take the place of subscription-based model. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent. | C．Doubtful. | D．Supportive. |
8 . Making use of the wind, the water or, for more than half of all plant species, animals, plants disperse (散播) seeds far and wide. Frugivores — animals such as gibbons that feed on the fleshy fruits of plants — eat and then excrete (排泄) seeds away from the original tree. The African savanna elephant can carry seeds up to a record-breaking distance of 65 kilometres. This ability to shift geographical ranges will be crucial to plants when it comes to surviving climate change. However, just like all gibbon species, the African savanna elephant is endangered, its population down by 60 percent over the past 50 years.
Researchers in Denmark and the USA have published a new study into how the loss of seed-dispersing animals could affect the resilience (恢复力) of forests and other natural ecosystems. They found that, historically, the decline of seed-dispersing animals has had the greatest influence on plants across the temperate (温带的) regions of North and South America, Europe and southern Australia. “Our temperate ecosystems have lost a lot of the natural seed-dispersal function that they would have had,” explains Evan Fricke, lead author of the study, referring to large mammals that were once widespread in these regions.
Nevertheless, the poor conservation status of many seed-dispersing tropical animals puts plants in regions such as Southeast Asia and Madagascar most at risk today. Without the preservation of such animals, global seed dispersal could decline by a further 15 percent. “The direct implication of this decline is that many plant species will be unable to keep pace with a changing climate,” says Fricke. “That means the potential loss not only of plant biodiversity but of the ecosystem functions that those plants provide.”
As wildlife is lost, plants can no longer adapt and survive and forests become less sustainable, which reduces the amount of carbon they can store. They also lose their ability to support wildlife. Whole ecosystems are disrupted. The conclusion, Fricke says, is clear: we must conserve currently endangered species and restore the populations of important seed dispersers. “Independent of climate change, rewilding has the potential to benefit our ecosystems, but in a changing climate, it has the added benefit of increasing the climate resilience of those ecosystems,” he says.
1. The author mentions the African savanna elephant in Paragraph 1 to ________.| A．provide a solution | B．predict the ending |
| C．express an opinion | D．highlight the problem |
| A．They are vital and endangered. |
| B．They are being well conserved. |
| C．They are unrelated to whole ecosystems. |
| D．They are widespread across the temperate regions. |
| A．Seed-dispersing animals play an important role in preventing climate change. |
| B．The loss of seed-dispersing animals has hardly affected temperate regions. |
| C．Rewilding can promote the climate resilience of our ecosystems. |
| D．Plants disperse seeds by way of animals excreting them. |
9 . When I was little, my dad would let me sit beside him o the porch while he painted. He would tell me how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.
I understood what he was saying, but I never felt what he was saying until one day when I was up in the sycamore tree to rescue a kite stuck in the branches. It was a long way up, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I started climbing. Then I looked down. And suddenly I got dizzy and weak. I was miles off the ground! But the kite was still beyond my reach. I caught my breath and forced myself to concentrate on the kite as I climbed up.
When I had the kite free, I needed a minute to rest. That’s when the fear of being up so high began to lift, and in its place came the most amazing feeling that I was flying. Just soaring above the earth, sailing among the clouds.
Then I got to notice how wonderful the breeze smelled. It seemed like sunshine and wild grass and rain! I couldn’t stop breathing it in, filling my lungs again and again with the sweetest smell I’d ever known.
I never got over the view. I kept thinking of what it felt like to be up so high in that tree. I wanted to see it, to feel it, again. And again.
It wasn’t long before I wasn’t afraid of being up so high and found the spot that became my spot. I could sit there for hours, just looking out at the world. Sunsets were amazing. Some days they’d be purple and pink, some days they’d be a blazing orange, setting fire to clouds across the horizon.
It was on a day like that when my father’s notion (观念) moved from my head to my heart. The view from my sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined.
1. Why did the author climb up the sycamore tree?| A．To practice climbing skills. | B．To get a trapped kite. |
| C．To prove her courage. | D．To play in the tree. |
| A．well-planned and interesting | B．adventurous but rewarding |
| C．competitive and imaginative | D．unusual but painful |
| A．she could enjoy more than good views |
| B．her father encouraged her to do so |
| C．it could help her to concentrate |
| D．the tree had the sweetest smell |
| A．The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. |
| B．Beautiful things don’t ask for attention. |
| C．Positive action leads to happiness. |
| D．Practice makes perfect. |
10 . Immersive Van Gogh
From the creators of the blockbuster show in Paris seen by over two million visitors and still wowing crowds in Toronto, the west coast premiere (首场) of the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit will bring the art of Vincent to life in Los Angeles.
Immersive art is not just a technical way to represent video and audio in huge spaces. The word immersive indicates a deep commitment of intentions which connect images and sounds in a way that the audience able to experience a different way of the art.
True to its name, this exhibition transforms the iconic (标志性的) paintings of Vincent Van Gogh into moving, wall-filling projections. “Immersive Van Gogh” promises half-a-million cubic feet of projections that pull from some of the post-impressionist’s most recognizable pieces, including The Bedroom, Sunflowers and, yes, The Starry Night.
You will experience art like never before — lose yourself in entrancing, moving images that highlight brushstrokes, detail, and color — truly illuminating (照亮) the mind of the genius.
LOCATION
The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit is located at a secret place situated in the heart of Los Angeles. To be announced before the exhibit opens, existing ticket holders will receive an email with the place name and location once it is made public.
TICKET PRICES
| VIP TICKETS — $99.99 ●Priority access ●Van Gogh carpet (a gift for you) ●Limited edition poster | PREMIUM TICKETS — $59.99 ●Van Gogh carpet (rental) ●Limited edition poster |
| BASIC TICKETS — $54.99 ●Admission only | CHILD TICKETS — $29.99 ●Ages 6-16 (children 5 and under do not require a ticket) ●Admission only ●Child tickets are not subject to change of date fees |
Tickets are available online at www.vangoghla.com.
GIFT SHOP
Stop by our Exhibit Gift Shop to take the magic of Van Gogh home with you! From clothing and jewellery to home decor, children’s books, and so much more, you will find unique and thoughtful souvenirs at the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit. Also be sure to check out at our online store!
Experience the organic landscapes of Van Gogh’s imagination, and journey through his brilliance and madness in a completely new and unforgettable way.
1. According to the passage, the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit ______.| A．presents Van Gogh’s art in a modern way |
| B．begins a journey to Van Gogh’s hometown |
| C．displays Van Gogh’s paintings on moving walls |
| D．designs projects on Van Gogh’s learning experience |
| A．The gift shop. | B．A website. |
| C．The ticket office. | D．An email. |
| A．$109.98. | B．$154.98. | C．$184.97. | D．$114.98. |
| A．To attract audiences to visit the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit. |
| B．To introduce the historical significance of Vincent Van Gogh’s art. |
| C．To promote the sale of unique and thoughtful souvenirs to visit. |
| D．To provide a platform for artists to experiment with new technologies. |
