1 . More than a decade ago, cognitive scientists John Bransford and Daniel Schwartz, both then at Vanderbilt University, found that what distinguished young adults from children was not the ability to retain facts or apply prior knowledge to a new situation but a quality they called “preparation for future learning.” The researchers asked fifth graders and college students to create a recovery plan to protect bald eagles from extinction. Shockingly, the two groups came up with plans of similar quality (although the college students had better spelling skills). From the standpoint of a traditional educator, this outcome indicated that schooling had failed to help students think about ecosystems and extinction, major scientific ideas.

The researchers decided to go deeper, however. They asked both groups to generate questions about important issues needed to create recovery plans. On this task, they found large differences. College students focused on critical issues of interdependence between eagles and their habitats. Fifth graders tended to focus on features of individual eagles (“How big are they?” and “What do they eat?”). The college students had cultivated the ability to ask questions, the cornerstone (最重 要部分)of critical thinking. They had learned how to learn.

Museums and other institutions of informal learning may be better suited to teach this skill than elementary and secondary schools. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco, we recently studied how learning to ask good questions can affect the quality of people's scientific inquiry. We found that when we taught participants to ask “What if?” and “How can?” questions that nobody present would know the answer to and that would spark exploration，they engaged in better inquiry at the next exhibit-asking more questions, performing more experiments and making better interpretations of their results. Specifically, their questions became more comprehensive at the new exhibit. Rather than merely asking about something they wanted to try，they tended to include both cause and effect in their question. Asking juicy questions appears to be a transferable skill for deepening collaborative inquiry into the science content found in exhibits.

This type of learning is not confined to museums or institutional settings. Informal learning environments tolerate failure better than schools. Perhaps many teachers have too little time to allow students to form and pursue their own questions and too much ground to cover in the curriculum. But people must acquire this skill somewhere, Our society depends on them being able to make critical decisions about their own medical treatment, say, or what we must do about global energy needs and demands. For that, we have an informal learning system that gives no grades, takes all comers，and is available even on holidays and weekends.

1. What is traditional educators interpretation of the research outcome mentioned in the first paragraph?

A．Students are not able to apply prior knowledge to new problems.

B．College students are no better than fifth grader in memorizing facts.

C．Education has not paid enough attention to major environmental issues.

D．Education has failed to lead students to think about major scientific ideas.

2. College students are different from children in that_____ ?

A．they have learned to think critically.

B．they are concerned about social issues.

C．they are curious about specific features.

D．they have learned to work independently.

3. What is the benefit of asking questions with no ready answers?

A．It arouses students’ interest in things around them.

B．It cultivates students’ ability to make scientific inquiries.

C．It trains students’ ability to design scientific experiments.

D．It helps students realize not every question has an answer.

4. At the end of the passage the author seems to encourage educators to ____.

A．train students to think about global issues

B．design more interactive classroom activities

C．make full use of informal learning resources

D．include collaborative inquiry in the curriculum

2 . Summary Writing

Are Emails and Text Messages Destroying the language?

Technology has undoubtedly brought about a revolution in communication. Most people would agree that this has been a positive development. Recently, however, there has been concern over the negative effect that modern methods of communications are having on the English language.

On one hand, the increasing use of e-mails and text message is changing the way we use grammar. By this in mean that certain words are dropped in order to keep message short. In my view, this cannot be avoided. In a text message, for instance, there is neither the time nor the space to write complete sentences. The same applies to e-mails, which are supposed to be a shorter, more direst form of communications. In both cases, the need to be brief often means that the grammar is changed in some way.

On the other hand, it is fashionable nowadays to shorten the spelling of words, particularly in text message. One example of this is when people write ‘CU later’ instead of ‘see you later’. To purists or to it simply shows that the language is changing in much the same way as it has done for centuries.

In my opinion, writing English correctly is not so important as getting the message across. If, for example, you send someone an e-mail or a text message telling them to meet you in a specified place at a certain time, making yourself understood is much more important than your grammar and spelling. As far as I am concerned, we should allow a certain amount of flexibility. Not everyone has a perfect command of the language but that should not stop them from being able to communicate.

To sum up, the effect that e-mails and text messages are having on written English is a significant one. This may , in the future, result in major changes to the language. However, we should not let rules get in the way of communication. After all, isn’t that the reason language was developed in the first place--- so that we could communicate?

3 . AI that Sees like Humans

For most of the past 30 years computer-vision technologies have struggled to perform well, even in tasks as boring as accurately recognizing faces in photographs.     1    . Companies are already selling products that exploit the technology, which is likely to take over or assist in a wide range of jobs that people now perform.

Recent progress in a deep- learning approach known as a convolutional neural network(CNN) is key to the latest progress.     2     While human can easily distinguish between a cat and a dog, CNNS allow machines to categorize specific breeds more successfully than people can.

CNNS do not need to be programmed to recognized specific features in images--- for example, the shape and size of an animal’s ears.     3     To train a CNN to separate an English springer spaniel (斯柏林格斯班尼犬) from a Welsh one, for instance , you start with thousands of images of animals, including examples of both breeds. Like most deep-learning networks, CNNS are organized in layers. In the lower layers, they learn simple shapes and edges from the images. In the higher layers, they learn complex and abstract concepts--- in this case, the more detailed aspects of ears, tails, tongues, fur textures, and so on.

CNNS were made possible by the tremendous progress in graphic processing units and parallel processing in the past decade. But the Internet has made a big difference as well by feeding CNNs’ appetite for digitized images.     4     The technology is making self-driving cars safer by enhancing the ability to recognize pedestrians. Insurers are starting to apply these tools to assess damage to cars. In the security camera industry, CNNS are making it possible to understanding crowd behavior, which will make public places and airport safer.

A．Once trained, a CNN can easily decide whether a new image of an animal shows a breed of interest.

B．Instead, they are taught to spot features such as these on their own.

C．Recently, though, breakthroughs in deep learning have finally enabled computers to interpret many kinds of images as successfully as, or better than, people do.

D．To give a simple example of its power, consider image of animals.

E．Computers-vision systems powered by deep learning are being developed for range of applications.

F．It excels because it is better able to learn, and draw inferences from telling patterns in the images

4 . “YOU may smile, but it will come,” said Henry Ford in 1940, predicting the arrival of a machine that was part-automobile and part-aeroplane. For decades flying cars have obsessed technologists but eluded their mastery. Finally there is reason to believe. Several firms have offered hope that flying people in small pods for short trips might become a reality in the next decade. These are not cars, as most are not fit to drive on land, but rather small vehicles, which can rise and land vertically, like quiet helicopters.

There are at least a dozen firms experimenting with making small flying vehicles in different guises, including Airbus, an aerospace giant, in partnership with Italdesign Giugiaro, a division of Volkswagen, a carmaker. Many plan to have a certified pilot in command at the beginning and then move on to an autonomous set-up when regulations allow.

No matter which manufacturer is quickest to gain velocity, Uber, a ride-hailing firm, aims to be at the centre of things. On April 25th it held an event in Dallas to announce its plan to offer a service where people can hail an electric “vertical takeoff and landing” vehicle and ride it quickly to destinations that would otherwise take hours in heavy traffic. Uber does not want to build these aircraft or landing pads itself, just as it does not own its own cars. Instead, it plans to collaborate with other companies. But Jeff Holden, Uber’s chief product officer, does not exclude the possibility that the firm may at the outset own some aircraft, which he estimates will cost around $1m each.

The firm plans to have a prototype of its service ready by 2020. It will launch it first in Dallas and in Dubai, both cities where the authorities have deep aviation expertise and where people commute long distances. The firm rather optimistically promises that the cost per aerial mile for passengers will be roughly that of its low-cost car service, UberX.

There is plenty for manufacturers and services like Uber to overcome beyond gravity. For battery-powered models, range is limited and the charging rate remains slow. Manufacturers will need to ensure that vehicles can take off and land quietly, if this new form of transport is to stand a chance in cities. How to oversee and license the new aircraft, which are subject to much tougher rules than cars, will be a subject of intense debate among rule-makers, who tend to move slowly and are just getting to grips with drones. Drivers of flying vehicles are also likely to require a pilot’s license, albeit perhaps a simplified “sports” license. The journey ahead will be a long one.

1. By “ eluded their mastery” ( paragraph 1) , the author means that ___________.

A．technologists were unable to make flying cars a reality.

B．Flying cars were what technologists knew well.

C．technologists found it feasible to produce flying cars.

D．flying cars used to be something too good to be true.

2. What can be learned about Uber from the passage?

A．It is looking for some substitute for Uber X.

B．It doesn’t own any car or aircraft at present.

C．It has launched its flying car service in Dubai

D．It plans to cut down on passengers’ pay for rides.

3. The phrase “ getting to grips with” ( in the last paragraph) is closest in meaning to ___________.

A．getting along well with

B．realizing the need to produce

C．becoming aware of the harm of

D．starting to take action to deal with

4. According to the writer, what problem do manufacturers need to solve concerning flying cars?

A．The noise they may make

B．The high cost of its production

C．The lack of popularity among users.

D．The effect that they have on the environment.

5 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

The meaning of silence varies among cultural group. Silence may be     1    , or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in a conversation may also show stubbornness, uneasiness, or worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; therefore attempts may be made to fill every     2     with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person’s needs. Many native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of     3     among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person from one of these culture is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be     4     is that the person wants the listener to consider what has been said before continuing. In these cultures, silence is a call for     5    .

Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with     6         among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show     7     between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may use silence when instructions are given by a person in authority rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.

Nurses and other care-givers need to be aware of the     8     meanings of silence when they come across the personal anxiety their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient’s silence is not     9       too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing     10    of silence can use this understanding to assist in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.