1 . Background noise—like the chatter in a coffee shop or the drone of passing traffic—might slow our reading speed, but according to a study of Russian readers, it doesn’t _________ how our brain understands written text.

_________, if you’re wondering whether you should be listening to podcasts or music while working, the study has some interesting points to make. In particular, it examined how we might change our reading style to compensate for auditory noise and visual distractions such as typos or poor formatting.

“Overall, previous studies reported a harmful effect of both auditory and visual noise on reading fluency and _________, though their results varied,” write linguistics researcher Nina Zdorova and colleagues. “So far, none of the studies exploring the influence of noise _________ it in the framework of the language processing theories.”

One of the language processing theories examined was the noisy channel model, which proposes that our brain deals with noise by looking at the meaning of _________ words more and at entire sentences less. We then use a bit of smart guesswork to _________ the overall meaning and relationships between words.

The second theory is the good enough model; that’s when our brains aren’t analyzing every single detail of a text but instead only grabbing enough words for a ‘good enough’ understanding. By focusing less on the precise words, our brains can _________ some cognitive resources to deal with noise.

To see how reading was affected by noise _________ these models, the researchers ran two experiments: one on auditory noise (71 participants) and one on visual noise (70 participants). When it came to the auditory noise test, background chatter from overlapping podcasts caused people to spend longer looking at the key section of sentences before completing their reading. This extra time could _________ the noise, meaning sentence comprehension isn’t affected by it. In the visual noise test, comprehension remained the same while reading speed __________. That’s a bit __________ considering previous studies, but the researchers think people just wanted to finish the task, with the visual noise an uncomfortable distraction.

“In both experiments, we observed that longer total reading time was __________ with an accuracy increase for incorrect sentences,” write the researchers.

There’s a lot going on in this study, but overall it’s a bigger win for the good-enough language processing theory and an indication that auditory and visual noise doesn’t make us __________ any more or less on any particular comprehension method while we’re reading.

With so many variables to measure in terms of what’s being read and what the __________ noise is, further study is required to learn more. __________ potential distractions may not interrupt your reading as much as you think.

1.

A．reinforce

B．estimate

C．affect

D．interpret

2.

A．First of all

B．For example

C．Above all

D．To start with

3.

A．context

B．efficiency

C．comprehension

D．device

4.

A．evaluated

B．identified

C．established

D．employed

5.

A．individual

B．different

C．new

D．unfamiliar

6.

A．confirm

B．imply

C．refer

D．infer

7.

A．exploit

B．spare

C．commit

D．consume

8.

A．on account of

B．regardless of

C．in regard to

D．in contrast to

9.

A．make up for

B．live up to

C．catch up with

D．put up with

10.

A．declined

B．shrank

C．expanded

D．increased

11.

A．embarrassing

B．depressing

C．puzzling

D．annoying

12.

A．associated

B．compared

C．replaced

D．mixed

13.

A．take

B．set

C．rely

D．base

14.

A．accompanying

B．strange

C．deafening

D．distant

15.

A．Therefore

B．However

C．Instead

D．Otherwise

2 . Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of such intellectual stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. Our view of such unique contributions to science often _________ the person’s prior experience and the efforts of their lesser-known predecessors (前任者).

_________ such greats as Darwin and Einstein—whose remarkable contributions are duly celebrated — we suggest that innovation is more a process of trial and error, where two steps forward may sometimes come with one step back, as well as one or more steps to the right or left. This evolutionary view of human innovation weakens the idea of _________ genius and recognizes the accumulative nature of scientific progress.

Consider one _________ scientist: John Nicholson, a mathematical physicist working in the 1910s who assumed the existence of ‘proto-elements’ in outer space. By combining different numbers of weights of these proto-elements’ atoms, Nicholson could recover the weights of all the elements in the then-known periodic table. These successes are all the more noteworthy given the fact that Nicholson was _________ about the presence of proto-elements: they do not actually exist. Yet, amid his often fanciful theories and wild guesses, Nicholson also _________ a new theory about the structure of atoms. Niels Bohr, the Nobel prize-winning father of modern atomic theory, _________ this interesting idea to come up with his now-famous model of the atom.

What are we to make of this story? We propose that science is constantly _________, much as species of animals do. In biological systems, organisms may display new characteristics that _________ random genetic mutations (变异). In the same way, random or accidental mutations of ideas may help pave the way for __________ in science. __________ mutations prove beneficial, the animal or the scientific theory will continue to thrive and perhaps reproduce.

__________ for this evolutionary view of behavioral innovation comes from many domains. Consider one example of an influential innovation in US horseracing. The so-called ‘acey-deucy’ stirrup (马镫) placement, in which the rider’s foot in his left stirrup is placed as much as 25 centimeters lower than the right, is believed to give important speed advantages when turning on egg-shaped tracks. It was developed by a relatively unknown jockey named Jackie Westrope. Had he __________ the speed advantage that would be provided by riding acey-deucy? No. He suffered a leg injury, which left him unable to fully bend his left knee. His __________ just happened to coincide with enhanced left-hand turning performance.

Plenty of other stories show that fresh advances can arise from error, misadventure, and also pure serendipity — a happy __________. The time seems right for abandoning the naive notions of intelligent design and genius, and for scientifically exploring the true origins of creative behavior.

1.

A．overlooks

B．enriches

C．questions

D．reflects

2.

A．Aiming at

B．Longing for

C．Holding back

D．Setting aside

3.

A．native

B．creative

C．subjective

D．sensitive

4.

A．stressed

B．unrecognized

C．celebrated

D．respected

5.

A．suspicious

B．concerned

C．wrong

D．guilty

6.

A．tested

B．rejected

C．accepted

D．proposed

7.

A．got rid of

B．made room for

C．jumped off from

D．put up with

8.

A．struggling

B．reversing

C．evolving

D．shrinking

9.

A．result from

B．contribute to

C．depart from

D．relate to

10.

A．priorities

B．trials

C．advances

D．obstacles

11.

A．If

B．Until

C．While

D．Unless

12.

A．Responsibility

B．Prejudice

C．Dislike

D．Support

13.

A．doubted

B．neglected

C．foreseen

D．exceeded

14.

A．motivation

B．modification

C．dedication

D．publication

15.

A．occasion

B．life

C．accident

D．ending

3 . On a bright sunny day, I stared my day off by volunteering at the L. A. Food Bank. My reason for volunteering at the food bank was to satisfy my need to help others and leave a _________, however small a difference it is, in someone’s world. As I_________the food bank, there were lots of people there. The room appeared to be _________as people waited in lines to _________with coordinators (协调员). Everybody volunteering began heading quickly to their given _________ after checking in. Coordinators _________ me to repackage donated food items (物品) from local food drives after being sorted and _________ by other volunteer. When I _________ the donated food items, each bag had to _________ the correct amount of food items. As a team. we effectively worked similarly to a __________assembly (装配) line as the items continuously moved down the __________to volunteers. We __________placed the food items into bags before the table would get overcrowded. My __________ was that all this hard work and effort would be worth it by allowing us to __________ those in need. My task required a lot of __________ when trying to work swiftly with my hands while ensuring that items placed in bags were correctly __________·Here I had a chance to communicate with a variety of people while improving my __________ skills .We worked together as a team to __________ that our task was going effectively.

By helping pack food items. I was able to make as significant impact on my community by helping people fight __________ and giving them hope for a better life. After this experience, I feel a sense of __________within me which does not usually happen.

1.

A．change

B．message

C．blank

D．chance

2.

A．established

B．examined

C．entered

D．equipped

3.

A．shabby

B．steady

C．tidy

D．noisy

4.

A．check in

B．give up

C．show off

D．move out

5.

A．aid

B．duties

C．awards

D．test

6.

A．appointed

B．begged

C．forced

D．persuaded

7.

A．consumed

B．inspected

C．searched

D．replaced

8.

A．abandoned

B．delivered

C．packed

D．explored

9.

A．represent

B．shelter

C．deserve

D．contain

10.

A．studio

B．factory

C．museum

D．theatre

11.

A．bank

B．list

C．step

D．row

12.

A．quickly

B．secretly

C．casually

D．anxiously

13.

A．burden

B．thought

C．regret

D．interest

14.

A．recognize

B．welcome

C．help

D．visit

15.

A．focus

B．respect

C．wisdom

D．ambition

16.

A．understood

B．counted

C．led

D．heard

17.

A．leadership

B．technical

C．social

D．business

18.

A．prove

B．discover

C．stress

D．guarantee

19.

A．fear

B．loneliness

C．hunger

D．doubt

20.

A．direction

B．identity

C．belonging

D．satisfaction

4 . Biology is making it clearer that a man’s health and well-being have a measurable impact on his future children’s health and happiness. This is not because a strong, responsible man has a greater ______ of being a good dad—or not only for that reason—or because he’s probably got good genes. Whether a good man’s genes are good or bad(and whatever “good” and “bad” mean in the context)，his children’s bodies and minds will reflect ______ choices he has made over the years, even if he made those choices ______, he ever imagined himself strapping on a baby Bjorn.

Doctors have been telling men for years that smoking, drinking and recreational drugs can lower the ______ of the sperm(精子). What doctors should probably add is that the health of unborn children can be affected by what and how much men eat; the toxins(poisonous substances)they ______, the traumas(unpleasant experiences)they endure, their poverty or powerlessness; and their age at the time of conception(怀孕). ______, what a man needs to know is that his life experience leaves ______ traces on his children. Even more astonishingly, those children may pass those traces along to their children.

Lately scientists have been obsessed with(着迷于)a means of ______ that isn’t genetic but isn’t non-genetic either. It’s epigenetic,“Epi”,in Greek, means “above” or “beyond”. Think of epigenetics as the way our bodies modify their genetic makeup. Epigenetics describes ______ genes are turned on or off, in part through compounds that get on top of DNA—or else jump off it—______ whether it makes the proteins that tell our bodies what to do.

In the past decade or so, the study of epigenetics has become so ______ that it is practically a craze. Psychologists and sociologists particularly like it because gene expression or suppression(抑制)is ______ affected by the ______ and plays at least as large a role as genes do in the development of a person’s characteristics, body shape and tendency to disease. I’ve become obsessed with epigenetics because it ______ me as both game-changing and terrifying. Our genes can be switched on or off by three environmental factors, among other things: what we ingest(food, drink, air, toxins)，what we ______(stress, trauma)，and how long we live.

1.

A．passion

B．likelihood

C．opportunity

D．value

2.

A．lifestyle

B．genetic

C．habitual

D．parental

3.

A．long before

B．long after

C．as long as

D．shortly after

4.

A．quantity

B．quality

C．value

D．size

5.

A．release

B．produce

C．absorb

D．consume

6.

A．Moreover

B．On the contrary

C．In other words

D．On the other hand

7.

A．vital

B．potential

C．distinct

D．biological

8.

A．inheritance

B．growth

C．development

D．breeding

9.

A．where

B．why

C．when

D．how

10.

A．regulating

B．determining

C．defining

D．testing

11.

A．serious

B．popular

C．significant

D．sensitive

12.

A．at the most

B．at the least

C．in general

D．to some degree

13.

A．intelligence

B．culture

C．environment

D．psychology

14.

A．shocks

B．strikes

C．discourages

D．inspires

15.

A．experience

B．suffer

C．support

D．comprehend

5 . With advances in electronics and neuroscience, researchers have been able to achieve remarkable things with brain implant devices. In addition to restoring physical senses, scientists are also seeking innovative ways to ____ communication for those who have lost the ability to speak. A new “decoder” receiving data from an electronic device implanted inside the skull, for example, might help paralyzed patients speak using only their minds. Researchers from the University of California developed a two-stage method to turn brain ____ into computer-synthesized speech.

For years, scientists have been trying to control and use neutral inputs to give a voice back to people whose neurological damage prevents them from talking. Until now, many of these brain-computer interfaces have ____ a letter-by-letter approach, in which patients move their eyes or facial ____ to spell out their thoughts. But these types of interfaces are very slow - most max out producing 10 words per minute, a fraction of human’s average speaking speed of 150 words per minute.

The brain is undamaged in these patients, but the neurons - the pathways that ____ your arms, or your mouth, or your legs are broken down. These people have high cognitive functioning and abilities, but they cannot accomplish ____ tasks like moving about or saying anything, “says a co-lead author of the new study and an associate research specializing in neurological surgery at UCSF.” We are essentially by passing the pathway that’s broken down.“

The researchers started with high-resolution brain activity data collected from five volunteers over several years. These participants - all of whom had normal speech function - were already undergoing a ____ process for epilepsy(癫痫)treatment that involved implanting electrodes(电极)directly into their brains. The research team used these electrodes to ____ activity in speech-related areas of the brain as the patients read off hundreds of sentences.

From there, the UCSF team worked out a two-stage process to recreate the spoken sentences. First, they created a decoder to ____ the recorded activity patterns as instructions for moving parts of a virtual vocal tract(声道). They then developed a synthesizer that used the ____ movements to produce language.

Other research has tried to decode words and sounds directly from neural signals, ____ the middle step of decoding movement. However, a study the UCSF researchers published last year suggests that your brain’s speech center focuses on how to move the vocal tract to produce sounds, ____ what the resulting sounds will be.

Using this method, the researchers successfully reverse-engineered words and sentences from brain activity that ____ matched the audio recordings of participants’ speech. When they asked volunteers on an online crowd-sourcing platform to attempt to ____ the words and sentences using a word bank, many of them could understand the simulated(模拟的)speech, though their ____ was far from perfect. Out of 101 synthesized sentences, about 80 percent were perfectly transcribed(记录)by at least one listener using a 25-word bank.

1.

A．offer

B．facilitate

C．initiate

D．influence

2.

A．signs

B．consciousness

C．signals

D．waves

3.

A．featured

B．neglected

C．rejected

D．missed

4.

A．expressions

B．muscles

C．languages

D．masks

5.

A．contribute to

B．communicate with

C．match with

D．lead to

6.

A．daily

B．delicate

C．repetitive

D．tough

7.

A．growing

B．producing

C．checking

D．monitoring

8.

A．track

B．map

C．organize

D．design

9.

A．copy

B．transform

C．follow

D．interpret

10.

A．physical

B．virtual

C．individual

D．external

11.

A．considering

B．creating

C．skipping

D．moving

12.

A．other than

B．aside from

C．regardless of

D．rather than

13.

A．roughly

B．barely

C．similarly

D．formally

14.

A．spell

B．identify

C．parallel

D．invent

15.

A．version

B．fluency

C．pronunciation

D．accuracy

7 . Looking on the Bright Side with Moon Worship

According to Cheshire psychic Claire Stone, a growing number of women are looking to the moon to increase their health, power and wealth. Daily Mail reporter Samantha Brick recently ______ a full moon ceremony hosted by Ms. Stone in a field near Hale. She joined a group of females dressed in white as they stood in a circle holding hands.

“There is drumming and chanting,” wrote Ms. Brick, “then ______ as each woman engraves her hopes and ambitions for the coming month on a white or silver candle.” They were told to ______ what they wanted to attract into their lives. “We ‘see’ it coming true in our minds,” said Ms. Stone. “The ______ is amplified by the energy of the moon and those in the circle.”

Ms. Stone said that wishing on the moon helped her move into her ______ home, a £l.4 million farmhouse, which she shares with her husband and two daughters.

Ms. Stone was initially attracted to complementary sources of ______ as a teenager suffering from anxiety. “I started looking for something to help make me happier,” she said. “I first joined a couple of local groups where women would ______ once a month on the full moon when I was in my 20s. It seemed like a natural and ______ thing to do.” The paper commented: “Claire, who drives a black Mercedes GLE coupe, was so ______ by her early experiences of moon circles that she decided to hold her own monthly ceremonies outside her home.

They have been a(n) ______ success: at various times more than 3,000 women have come along. Her circles —priced at £22.00 for a two-hour session—______ for up to 100 women at a time online, and 50 at a time in person. Several famous and powerful women have announced their interest in moon worship. Friends actor Jennifer Aniston is said to ______ moon circles where women sit and share their experiences and dreams. Lady Carole Bamford, described in the press as a “billionaire eco entrepreneur” explains on her website. “Our bodies are made up of 70 per cent water, so it’s no wonder that the moon, which controls the ______, has the power to affect us all in different ways as well.”

The report ended with veterinary nurse Victoria Twist, who ______ the moon for her return to full health after spinal surgery. Ms. Twist is also convinced that ______ attending moon circles, she was also able to manifest her dream home.

1.

A．witnessed

B．covered

C．attended

D．broadcast

2.

A．discussion

B．silence

C．dance

D．ceremony

3.

A．convince

B．share

C．visualize

D．pray

4.

A．imagination

B．intention

C．impression

D．illustration

5.

A．country

B．holiday

C．family

D．dream

6.

A．researching

B．studying

C．disturbing

D．healing

7.

A．call up

B．build up

C．meet up

D．line up

8.

A．normal

B．pleasant

C．magical

D．attractive

9.

A．obsessed

B．inspired

C．fascinated

D．affected

10.

A．astonishing

B．progressive

C．immediate

D．puzzling

11.

A．appeal

B．attempt

C．call

D．cater

12.

A．host

B．participate

C．favor

D．attend

13.

A．winds

B．nights

C．tides

D．temperatures

14.

A．celebrates

B．claims

C．concerns

D．credits

15.

A．apart from

B．regardless of

C．thanks to

D．instead of

8 . “It will be marvelous. It will be spiritual.” This is the ________ tagline that Virgin Galactic used in 2004 to attract potential customers to its planned space tourism services. It promised that, within five years, it would take a total of over 3,000 passengers on life-changing trips in its spaceships. On July 11, 2021, after a last 90-minute delay, Virgin Galactic finally began its fulfillment of that original ________. For four minutes, its six temporarily weightless passengers, including the firm’s British co-founder, Sir Richard Branson, saw the planet against the blackness of outer space.

Back on the ground, Sir Richard called the experience “magical”. He may have ________ the fact that he was able to reach space earlier than Jeff Bezos, a fellow billionaire but much wealthier. On July 20, Bezos would go slightly higher, for slightly less time, in a vehicle that had been built by his own spacefaring company, Blue Origin.

The two tycoons (大亨) are among a growing number of ________ who believe that space tourism’s time has come. Suborbital (亚轨道的) tourism is part of a broader space economy that has rapidly grown over the past decade ________ technological advances. However, it is highly ________ that this will be true.

For now, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic will offer ________ suborbital flights to paying customers. Blue Origin is focusing much more on the development of a large new rocket that will be used for the launching of satellites, on selling advanced rocket engines to other companies, and on bidding (投标) on NASA contracts such as the recently announced plan to send humans back to the moon. ________, Bezos doesn’t see Blue Origin as a provider of services to adventure-seekers.

Even this 4-minute suborbital travels have a(n) ________, apparently. A major survey found that nearly two in five people with a net worth of over five million dollars would consider paying $250,000, Virgin Galactic’s current price, for a ticket. The business could be ________, once regular flights begin to offset (抵消) the rockets’ development costs. But how fast and by how much is ________. Without tourist-friendly destinations to visit (the capacity of the International Space Station is strictly limited), orbital tourism, with its far higher ticket prices, will not be a huge earner.

Another challenge — and the industry’s biggest remaining uncertainty — relates to ________. History has shown that a disaster, ________ in the early stages of an industry, can set progress back by years. NASA ________ its plan to send the untrained to orbit in 1986 after a school teacher was killed along with the rest of the crew in the Challenger tragedy. It was another 15 years before the next untrained person would ________ the journey on a Russian craft.

1.

A．modest

B．demanding

C．motivational

D．unclear

2.

A．obligation

B．commitment

C．requirement

D．survey

3.

A．felt ashamed of

B．kept an eye on

C．felt content with

D．got upset with

4.

A．optimists

B．opponents

C．experts

D．objectors

5.

A．thanks to

B．but for

C．apart from

D．in spite of

6.

A．impossible

B．undoubted

C．probable

D．favorable

7.

A．long-lasting

B．inexpensive

C．automatic

D．brief

8.

A．On the contrary

B．What’s more

C．In the long run

D．Above all

9.

A．shortcoming

B．limitation

C．advantage

D．appeal

10.

A．profitable

B．uneconomic

C．eco-friendly

D．globalized

11.

A．predictable

B．essential

C．irrelevant

D．uncertain

12.

A．development

B．security

C．stability

D．novelty

13.

A．particularly

B．critically

C．precisely

D．unforeseeably

14.

A．initiated

B．drafted

C．modified

D．suspended

15.

A．brave

B．abandon

C．steer

D．pause

10 . Picture yourself driving down a city street. Suddenly you see something in the middle of the road ahead. A torn paper bag, a lost shoe, or something else? You'll quickly determine the actions that best fit the _______-what humans call having“common sense”.

However, _______ “obstacles” that no human would ever stop for, AI self-driving vehicles are likely to apply the brakes unexpectedly.The challenges for self-driving vehicles won’t be solved by giving them more training data or rules for what to do in unusual situations. To be trustworthy, these vehicles need common sense to solve the object-in-the-road problem: broad _______ about the properties of objects and an ability to _______ adapt that knowledge in new circumstances. You can predict, _______, that while a pile of glass on the road won’t flyaway as you approach, birds likely will. From this _______ the term “common sense” seems to _______ exactly what current AI systems cannot do.Their lack of a _______ of commonsense makes them susceptible to unpredictable errors, which humans will never make.

Today’s AI systems use neural networks, algorithms(算法) trained to spot patterns, based on data gathered from extensive collections of human-labeled examples.This _______ is very different from how humans learn. We humans seem to come into the world with inborn knowledge of certain basic concepts--including the ideas of objects and events and the nature of space. We aren’t even ________ that we have it, or that it forms the basis for all future learning. A big lesson from decades of AI research is how hard it is to teach such ________ to machines.

The history of planting common sense in AI systems has largely focused on cataloging human knowledge: manually programming and ________ stereotyped(模式化的)situations. But all such attempts face a possibly fatal ________. Much of our instinctive knowledge is unwritten,unspoken,and not even in our conscious awareness.

A US AI research agency recently launched a programme. It challenges researchers to create an AI system that learns from “experience” in order to acquire the cognitive abilities of an 18-month-old baby. It might seem strange that ________ a baby is considered a grand challenge for AI, but this reflects the gulf between AI's success in specific fields and more general intelligence. If we can figure out how to get our machines to learn like children, perhaps after some years, these young “commonsense agents” will finally become teenagers--ones who are sufficiently sensible to be ________ with the car keys.

1.

A．situation

B．environment

C．context

D．regulation

2.

A．inspecting

B．locating

C．tracking

D．spotting

3.

A．horizon

B．mind

C．knowledge

D．control

4.

A．casually

B．flexibly

C．routinely

D．mechanically

5.

A．as a result

B．in a word

C．for example

D．in the meantime

6.

A．perspective

B．conclusion

C．condition

D．inference

7.

A．diagnose

B．analyze

C．specify

D．capture

8.

A．prediction

B．foundation

C．definition

D．motivation

9.

A．process

B．experience

C．tendency

D．strategy

10.

A．content

B．confident

C．conscious

D．concerned

11.

A．approaches

B．procedures

C．skills

D．concepts

12.

A．registering

B．presenting

C．uncovering

D．reviewing

13.

A．obstacle

B．prejudice

C．consequence

D．error

14.

A．training

B．raising

C．delivering

D．matching

15.

A．burdened

B．rewarded

C．entrusted

D．honored