1 . Albert Einstein’s 1915 masterpiece “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity” is the first and still the best introduction to the subject, and I recommend it as such to students. But it probably wouldn’t be publishable in a scientific journal today.
Why not? After all, it would pass with flying colours the tests of correctness and significance. And while popular belief holds that the paper was incomprehensible to its first readers, in fact many papers in theoretical physics are much more difficult.
As the physicist Richard Feynman wrote, “There was a time when the newspapers said that only 12 men understood the theory of relativity. I do believe there might have been a time when only one man did, because he was the only guy who caught on, before he wrote his paper. But after people read the paper a lot understood the theory of relativity in some way or other, certainly more than 12.”
No, the problem is its style. It starts with a leisurely philosophical discussion of space and time and then continues with an exposition of known mathematics. Those two sections, which would be considered extraneous today, take up half the paper. Worse, there are zero citations of previous scientists’ work, nor are there any graphics. Those features might make a paper not even get past the first editors.
A similar process of professionalization has transformed other parts of the scientific landscape. Requests for research time at major observatories or national laboratories are more rigidly structured. And anything involving work with human subjects, or putting instruments in space, involves piles of paperwork.
We see it also in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Nobel Prize of high school science competitions. In the early decades of its 78-year history, the winning projects were usually the sort of clever but naive, amateurish efforts one might expect of talented beginners working on their own. Today, polished work coming out of internships(实习) at established laboratories is the norm.
These professionalizing tendencies are a natural consequence of the explosive growth of modern science. Standardization and system make it easier to manage the rapid flow of papers, applications and people. But there are serious downsides. A lot of unproductive effort goes into jumping through bureaucratic hoops(繁文缛节), and outsiders face entry barriers at every turn.
Of course, Einstein would have found his way to meeting modern standards and publishing his results. Its scientific core wouldn’t have changed, but the paper might not be the same taste to read.
1. According to Richard Feynman, Einstein’s 1915 paper ________.| A．was a classic in theoretical physics |
| B．turned out to be comprehensible |
| C．needed further improvement |
| D．attracted few professionals |
| A．Unrealistic. | B．Irrelevant. |
| C．Unattractive. | D．Imprecise. |
| A．The application of research findings. |
| B．The principle of scientific research. |
| C．The selection of young talents. |
| D．The evaluation of laboratories. |
| A．What makes Einstein great? |
| B．Will science be professionalized? |
| C．Could Einstein get published today? |
| D．How will modern science make advances? |
2 . Should schools report a student’s health to parents?
As if grades weren’t enough to worry about, some students now have weight on their minds too. The number of overweight children in the United States has more than doubled in the past 20 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As a result, schools in several states, from California to Pennsylvania, have started sending home "BMI report cards". Those schools send home a report of a student’s body mass index (BMI). BMI is a calculation of weight and height that tells whether a person is overweight for his or her age.
Some lawmakers say BMI reports warn parents of their children s health problem help fight against obesity. In 2003, former Arkansas Governor. Mike Huckabee helped launch the first program to report students’ BMI.
| A．Should schools send home BMI reports? |
| B．Obesity rates in that state have since stopped increasing. |
| C．Since then children with heart disease have received the reports. |
| D．Not everyone thinks that reporting students’ BMI is a good idea. |
| E．Schools agree that more activities are required for students to control weight. |
| F．Being obese, or severely overweight, can lead to health problems later in life. |
| G．Some people argue that schools that label students overweight are acting unfairly. |
3 . Elizabeth Spelke, a cognitive (认知的) psychologist at Harvard, has spent her career testing the world's most complex learning system-the mind of a baby. Babies might seem like no match for artificial intelligence (AI). They are terrible at labeling images, hopeless at mining text, and awful at video games. Then again, babies can do things beyond the reach of any AI. By just a few months old, they’ve begun to grasp the foundations of language, such as grammar. They’ve started to understand how to adapt to unfamiliar situations.
Yet even experts like Spelke don’t understand precisely how babies — or adults, for that matter — learn. That gap points to a puzzle at the heart of modern artificial intelligence: We're not sure what to aim for.
Consider one of the most impressive examples of AI, Alpha Zero, a programme that plays board games with superhuman skill. After playing thousands of games against itself at a super speed, and learning from winning positions, Alpha Zero independently discovered several famous chess strategies and even invented new ones. It certainly seems like a machine eclipsing human cognitive abilities. But Alpha Zero needs to play millions more games than a person during practice to learn a game. Most importantly, it cannot take what it has learned from the game and apply it to another area.
To some AI experts, that calls for a new approach. In a November research paper, Francois Chollet, a well-known AI engineer, argued that it’s misguided to measure machine intelligence just according to its skills at specific tasks. “Humans don’t start out with skills; they start out with a broad ability to acquire new skills,” he says. “What a strong human chess player is demonstrating is not only the ability to play chess, but the potential to fulfill any task of a similar difficulty.” Chollet posed a set of problems, each of which requires an AI programme to arrange colored squares on a grid (格栅) based on just a few prior examples. It’s not hard for a person. But modern machine-learning programmes-trained on huge amounts of data — cannot learn from so few examples.
Josh Tenenbaum, a professor in MIT's Center for Brains, Minds & Machines, works closely with Spelke and uses insights from cognitive science as inspiration for his programmes. He says much of modern AI misses the bigger picture, comparing it to a cartoon about a two-dimensional world populated by simple geometrical (几何形的) people. AI programmes will need to learn in new ways — for example, by drawing causal inferences rather than simply finding patterns. “At some point — you know, if you’re intelligent — you realize maybe there's something else out there,” he says.
1. Compared to an advanced AI programme, a baby might be better at _______________.| A．labeling images | B．identifying locations |
| C．playing games | D．making adjustments |
| A．Stimulating. | B．Measuring. | C．Beating. | D．Limiting. |
| A．AI is good at finding similar patterns |
| B．AI should gain abilities with less training |
| C．AI lacks the ability of generalizing a skill |
| D．AI will match humans in cognitive ability |
| A．What is exactly intelligence? |
| B．Why is modern AI advanced? |
| C．Where is human intelligence going? |
| D．How do humans tackle the challenge of AI? |
4 . To increase your chances of landing an assignment for a travel guidebook, you need to find out what the publishers are looking for．Here are links to their submission guidelines with a few special requirements and tips．
Fonor's
Fonor's is a publishing company of both travel guidebooks and online content covering thousands of destinations worldwide．Visit Fonors．com/about-us, and near the bottom of the page you'll find "Write for Us" with information for submitting articles．Do remember to attach a copy of one of your other works when contributing．
☆TIP: Fonor's always hires writers who live in the destinations they cover．So, it's good to remember: While you may want to write about a foreign destination, more than likely you're closer to being an expert about the place where you live．
Workman
Workman publishes unique and unexpected travel guides such as 1, 000 Places to See Before You Die, and The Food Lover's Guide to Paris．Consider them if you're interested in writing a nontraditional travel guide．You can find their submission guidelines at workman．com/work-with-us．They require a typical nonfiction book proposal with a suggested table of contents and author information．A chapter of your other books is also required．Send your submissions to submissions@workman.com．
☆TIP: If they don't accept your article, you might be lucky enough to get feedback about why．
Lonely Planet
Writers can get in touch with Lonely Planet by visiting their "Become a Contributor" page at LonelyPlanet.com/contribute．At that page you'll find a form asking for a resume（简历）and links to your other writing, but there's also space for more travel-related information such as geographical knowledge and level of fluency in relevant languages．
☆TIP: You'll find they also accept articles for "Travel News"．If they say yes, you may get another chance for a bigger job such as a guidebook．
For more information on publishers, please visit ContributorsDigest.com．
1. This passage is mainly for _______________．| A．guides | B．writers |
| C．travelers | D．publishers |
| A．Fonor's． | B．Workman． |
| C．Lonely Planet． | D．Contributor's Digest． |
| A．Geographical knowledge． | B．Nontraditional ideas． |
| C．Overseas experience． | D．Previous writing． |
5 . Julia Koch began her second year as a first grade teacher in a virtual classroom last September.
One afternoon, she received a
The quick response from Koch
“If it weren’t for the teacher, I wouldn’t be here,” said Phillips from her hospital bed.
| A．letter | B．prize | C．gift | D．call |
| A．sound | B．sing | C．argue | D．laugh |
| A．recognized | B．gathered | C．recorded | D．marked |
| A．gradually | B．immediately | C．recently | D．eventually |
| A．risked | B．saved | C．ruined | D．improved |
| A．pains | B．mistakes | C．damage | D．failure |
| A．Effective | B．Individual | C．Virtual | D．Diverse |
| A．happier | B．closer | C．richer | D．smarter |
| A．even though | B．so that | C．except that | D．in case |
| A．identified | B．rejected | C．responded | D．hesitated |
6 . Last week, I drove to Joe’s Hardware to get a few items. Upon returning to my
After this fact sank in, I was about to call the bank and have them
So I held back and I was going to give it a day. Then, early that evening, I was surfing the Internet for a new wallet when I heard a knock on the door. There was a man who I did not
After we exchanged greetings, he
He told me his
David, thank you so very much for returning my wallet and reinforcing my belief that there are some good and
| A．car | B．home | C．bank | D．shop |
| A．broken | B．empty | C．stolen | D．missing |
| A．recovered | B．recorded | C．retraced | D．reduced |
| A．loan | B．send | C．show | D．pass |
| A．Come on | B．Cheer up | C．Slow down | D．Look out |
| A．doubt | B．recognize | C．admire | D．remember |
| A．awarded | B．found | C．brought | D．handed |
| A．happened | B．decided | C．intended | D．hesitated |
| A．age | B．hobby | C．name | D．job |
| A．decent | B．courageous | C．cautious | D．humble |
7 . Parents may fear that if their high school student isn’t motivated (有动力) to do well in classes, there’s nothing that will change that. But a new study found that students’ learning motivation often did change and usually for the better.
1,670 students from grades 9 to 11 took part in the study in two school years, during which they completed several surveys that assessed their motivation. After each survey, the students were placed into six different profiles (档案), from worst — those who were not motivated at all, to best — those who had an inner desire to learn.
The study found about 67 % students did change their profiles during the two years and there was an overall positive change in students’ motivation. For example, 8% of the students were in the best profile — autonomously motivated — in the first year, and that increased to 11.4% in the second year. The worst profile, the not motivated, described 2.8% of the students in the first year, dropping to 2.1% in the second year.
“The other good news in the study was that if we can find better ways to motivate students, if we can get them in a better profile, they tend to stay there,” said Kui Xie, lead author of the study and professor of educational studies at the Ohio State University.
Why did students move in a positive direction? One reason may be simply because they’re a year older and more mature (成熟).
But the study did find two factors that impacted how likely they were to become more motivated. One was the previous achievement. Students who had higher grade the first year were more likely to remain in better profiles in the second year of the study. The other factor was school belongingness, with students who felt they were more a part of their school in the first year being more likely to move to or stay in a better profile in the second year.
“This may be one area where we can help students become more motivated,” Xie said. “Belongingness is something schools can change. They can find ways to help students feel like they are part of the school community.”
1. What did Kui Xie’s study discover?| A．Students’ willingness to study can be improved. |
| B．Teenagers’ inner desire to learn can be assessed. |
| C．Students from grades 9 to 11 are easy to be inspired. |
| D．Teenagers’ learning motivation is parents’ most concern. |
| A．The background of the study. |
| B．The influence of the study. |
| C．The purpose of the study. |
| D．The process of the study. |
| A．Their average ages. |
| B．Their previous scores. |
| C．Their personal profiles. |
| D．Their motivated schoolmates. |
| A．Schools should put students in better profiles. |
| B．Students should have their own assessment plan. |
| C．Schools should use motivation strategies to inspire students. |
| D．Students should improve their communication with their parents. |
8 . An 8-year-old boy I know is small for his age, shorter and slighter than his friends, even smaller than his 5-year-old sister. Concerned about the increasing use and possible risks of growth hormone(生长激素), I asked his mother if she’d considered treating him with it. She replied, “Not really. He’s built like his father, who was short and slight as a boy and didn’t shoot up until college.”
His father, at 41, is now 6 feet tall, though still very slender. He recalls being a reasonably athletic child but without the physical power of his friends, making up for what he lacked in mass with speed and agility. “I enjoyed competitive sports and worked on skills others didn’t have,” he told me, and said he encourages his son to recognize and capitalize on the skills he has.
If only every parent with a short but healthy child approached the matter as sensibly. Experts estimate that 60% to 80% of children who are short for their age do not have a growth hormone deficiency(缺乏) or other medical condition that limits growth. But knowing there’s a therapy available to increase height, some parents seek a medical solution for a perceived problem, even when there is no medical abnormality. They should also know, however, that new research has linked growth hormone treatment to serious unfavorable health effects years later.
Dr. Adda Grimberg, a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, recalled that “Twenty years ago, families were focused on health. They came in with a child who was not growing right and wanted to know if there was an underlying disease. Now, more and more, they’re focused on height. They want growth hormone, looking for a specific height. But this is not like online shopping; you can’t just place an order and make a child the height you want.”
In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of recombinant human growth hormone for the condition known as “idiopathic short stature”, or short build of unknown cause, which is not a disease. But it has caused a growing number of parents to consider using the hormone to boost the height of their children.
The resulting rush to therapy reflects concerns about a widespread societal bias(偏见) against shortness, rather than a true medical need. Experts have noted that the practice backs up the belief that short stature is unacceptable, leading to an increasing demand for therapy. It is far better, Dr. Grimberg suggested, to help a short child develop coping skills than to buy inches through medicine.
1. As for the parents’ attitude to their 8-year-old boy’s shortness, the author is ________.| A．critical | B．tolerant | C．supportive | D．worried |
| A．They are eager to get the expected result. |
| B．They spare no effort to sort out the cause. |
| C．They feel disturbed by their children’s health. |
| D．They help develop their children’s coping skills. |
| A．It might be officially recommended. |
| B．It may fuel height discrimination. |
| C．It is pushed by a medical need. |
| D．It is targeted at certain diseases. |
| A．Shower the Short with Growth Hormones |
| B．Find Replacement for Growth Hormones |
| C．Assess the Effects of Growth Hormones |
| D．Weigh the Use of Growth Hormones |
9 . A Labrador has been doing an important job to help people stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eight-year-old Roby runs through the streets of the hilly city of Medellin several times a day with a
“He helps us to maintain social distancing,” said Roby’ owner, Sherry Botero. “And people
Roby wasn’t always a star. He was accepted into the family
But Ms Botero quickly
Roby can’t read
“He knows the names of five or six of our customers,” Ms Botero said, “So I send the goods with a receipt in the basket, and my customers
Roby might not know that he’s become an
| A．bag | B．chain | C．basket | D．stick |
| A．respect | B．love | C．follow | D．notice |
| A．gifted | B．returned | C．lent | D．donated |
| A．intentionally | B．regretfully | C．immediately | D．unwillingly |
| A．adopt | B．train | C．adore | D．walk |
| A．got away | B．kept in touch | C．caught up | D．fell in love |
| A．minds | B．addresses | C．numbers | D．receipts |
| A．treat | B．help | C．pay | D．impress |
| A．essential | B．honest | C．optimistic | D．adventurous |
| A．spend | B．calculate | C．collect | D．increase |
10 . Vaccines(疫苗) may soon make their first film appearance. Led by expert Maria A. Croyle, researchers have developed a thin sheet that preserves vaccines for long periods without refrigeration. This means the carefully cooled small bottles now used to ship vaccines could potentially be replaced by lightweight films that can be mailed in an envelope and stored on a shelf.
Croyle’s laboratory began developing the technology in 2007. Inspired by amber’s ability to preserve the DNA of insects, the researchers set out to create their own version of the substance by mixing “a lot of sugar and a little bit of salt, much like hard candy,” Croyle explains. The vaccine-containing film is administered by mouth—sweet news for many who dislike needles.
The film is tailored to suit each specific vaccine candidate and provide a protective coating. “We’ve learned over time that the key to really stabilizing whatever the film holds is to have it intermixed with all the components,” Croyle says, adding that the process is quick and uses affordable, standard equipment. “We really wanted to come up with something that would be transferable to developing countries.”
Immunization(免疫) programs depend heavily on keeping vaccines cold(2℃-8℃) as they are transported, sometimes over thousands of kilometers to far-away locations. Delivery can be difficult and costly, and transport disruptions can cause the vaccines to be ineffective.
But this new product can store live viruses, bacteria and antibodies for several months at 20℃. In a paper published in Science Advances, the scientists show that the live viruses in one vaccine were preserved in the film even after 36 months. They also find that a flu vaccine suspended in their film compares favourably with a traditional flu shot(流感预防针). “The study demonstrates early proof of concept for an exciting platform for vaccine product development,” says Lisa Rohan, a pharmacologist, who was not involved in the study. She also notes that each vaccine type would need a custom formulation(配方) for future stages of development.
Finding partners to mass-produce for clinical trials is the researchers’ most pressing problem, Croyle says. They are also exploring packaging methods to keep their films stable up to 40℃.
Size is a major advantage—a letter-sized sheet of the film can carry more than 500 doses(剂) of vaccine, about 1⁄900 the weight of the same amount of traditional doses. By making it easier and cheaper to ship and preserve vaccines efficiently, Croyle says, the technology could vastly improve immunization rates the world over, particularly in middle- to low- income countries.
1. What can we learn about the film?| A．It contains animal’s DNA. | B．It will replace vaccines. |
| C．It comes in different flavours. | D．It can hold bio-products. |
| A．key component | B．development schedule |
| C．possible advantages | D．transportation requirements |
| A．advise personalizing vaccines |
| B．suggest the product is promising |
| C．prove the study is supported widely |
| D．stress the functions of a new platform |
| A．Advertising the film worldwide. | B．Improving the film’s capacity. |
| C．Reducing the shipping cost. | D．Seeking ideal manufacturers. |
