3 . AI could help us deconstruct the magic of music

We all know that music is a powerful influencer.     1     Fitness without a warm-blooded song would be boring. But is there a way to quantify these reactions? And if so, could they be reverse-engineered and put to use?

In a new paper, researchers at the University of Southern California mapped out how things like tone, rhythm, and harmony cause different types of brain activity, physiological reactions (heat, sweat, and changes in electrical response), and emotions(happiness or sadness), and how machine learning could use those relationships to predict how people might respond to a new piece of music. The results, presented at a conference on the intersections of computer science and art, show how we may one day be able to engineer targeted musical experiences for purposes ranging from therapy to movies.

    2     “Once we understand how media can affect our various emotions, then we can try to productively use it for actually supporting or enhancing human experiences,” says Shrikanth Narayanan, a professor at USC and the principal investigator in the lab.

The researchers first searched music streaming sites for songs with very few plays, tagged either “happy” or “sad.”     3     Two reliably caused sadness and one reliably caused happiness. One hundred participants who hadn’t heard the songs before split into two groups, listened to all three pieces, and either took a special scan or wore pulse, heat, and electricity sensors on their skin and rated the intensity of their emotions on a scale of 0 to 10. The researchers then fed the data, along with 74 features for each song, into several machine-learning mathematical steps and examined which features were the strongest predictors of responses. They found, for example, that the brightness of a song (the level of its medium and high frequencies) and the strength of its beat were both among the best predictors of how a song would affect a listener’s heart rate and brain activity.

The research is still in very early stages, and it will be a while before more powerful machine-learning models will be able to predict your mental and physical reactions to a song with any precision. But the researchers are excited about how such models could be applied: to design music for specific individuals, to create movie soundtracks easily arousing sympathy, or to help patients with mental health problems stimulate specific parts of their brain.     4     They want to start trying music-based therapies as well.

A．The research focuses on whether machine can learn to predict people’s preference of music.

B．The lab is already working with addiction treatment clinics to see how other forms of media could help patients.

C．A movie without a soundtrack doesn’t stimulate the same emotional journey.

D．Through a series of human testers, 60 pieces for each emotion were narrowed down to a final list of three.

E．The research is part of the lab’s broader goal to understand how different forms of media affect people’s bodies and brains.

F．The researchers are excited about how AI could be used to enhance the function of music in more fields.

4 . Virtual reality

Probably the most exciting tech development of recent times, virtual reality (VR) has arrived, with sufficient options available to the consumer who’s searching for an extra amount of high-tech fun. The cheapest way to get a high-end VR experience comes courtesy of Sony. Its PlayStation VR doesn’t require a tricked-out PC or expensive phone – it works with the Playstation 4 control board and comes with a few great games in its library. There is some equipment you can purchase to enhance the experience, but if you’ve already got a PS4 you can enter the world of VR for just $400. Other high-end offerings like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, as well as mobile options like Samsung’s Gear VR, will get your head in the game.

Wireless headphones

Combining ease of use with the ability to move wild around your home, gym or workplace, wireless headphones just make sense. And there are plenty of practical options to suit any budget. The Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones are definitely worth a test drive, though. The full-size, around-ear Bluetooth headphones highlight active noise cancellation and double as a headset for making phone calls. They’ve even earned the Editor’s Choice award at Cnet.com and can be purchased for less than $400 online.

Digital cameras

While your phone is a worthy assistant, there’s no substitute for a real camera when it comes to taking the perfect picture. And these days you can get quality specifications in a package that’s almost as small as your smartphone. The shiny design of the Fujifilm X70, $699, makes it the perfect companion, or you could go retro with the Olympus PEN-F ($1,200) that offers old school looks alongside cutting edge technology. Domestically, it’s worth checking out Xiaomi’s mirrorless Yi M1 for a more affordable option. With a high-end 20-megapixel (兆像素) sensor and the ability to host multiple lenses, it’s available from just 2,199 yuan.

1. Sony can provide high-tech fun at the lowest cost because________.

A．players can play free games online	B．PS4 owners don’t need any other device
C．it gives players adequate experience	D．players have purchased expensive PCs

2. What is Bose QuietComfort 35 wireless headphones’ selling point promoted in the passage?

A．They have various types to meet users’ needs.

B．Users can reduce noise manually.

C．They work better in the wild.

D．Users can make phone calls with the headphones.

3. If your friend, who favors everything in the styles of the past, plans to make perfect pictures with a new device, you will most probably recommend ________.

A．A smart phone.	B．Fujifilm X70.
C．Olympus PEN-F.	D．Yi M1.

5 . 听下面一段独白,回答以下小题。
1.

A．To concentrate for our quiet thought.

B．To give full attention to the driving.

C．To avoid being caught by the police.

D．To be as casual as possible in the driving.

2.

A．In an elevator.	B．At a special hall.
C．In a bathroom.	D．At a concert.

3.

A．By listening comprehensively and analytically.

B．By taking a sonic bath thoroughly.

C．By attending classical concerts frequently.

D．By listening to an emotional piece of music.

6 .

A．The woman enjoyed the movie very much.

B．The woman didn’t sleep well because of the movie.

C．The man asked the woman to be careful at night.

D．The man invited the woman to go to the theatre together.

7 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. criticize       B. desperately       C. establish       D. feature       E. focus       F. gratitude G. heartfelt       H. humanity       I. influence       J. present       K. touch

Letters Brought Back to Life

Letters as a way of communication have long given way to phone calls and WeChat messages. But a TV show, Letters Alive, is helping bring this old way to keep in touch back into the     1    .

Letters Alive took its idea from a UK program with a similar name, Letters Live. Both shows     2     famous actors and actresses, but there is no gossip, no eye-catching visual effects. Instead, it’s just one person walking up to a microphone and reading a letter.

But these are not just any letters. They vary greatly in time and subjects. There is, for example, a passionate letter that famous painter Huang Yongyu wrote to playwright Cao Yu 30 years ago to     3     his lack of creativity. There is also a(n)     4     note from Spring and Autumn Period written by two ordinary young soldiers to their elder brother to report their lives in the war zone.

Compared to published texts, letters also come with a personal     5    .

One example from Letters Live was a note of     6     from the mother of a dying child to JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. It read: “Mrs Rowling, cancer threatened to take everything from my daughter, and your books turned out to be the castle we so     7     needed to hide in.”

According to Guan Zhengwen, the director of Letters Alive, it is this kind of     8     behind every letter that strikes a harmony with the audience. “It’s a thing of the past that entertainment shows     9     themselves only with pretty faces,” Guan told Sohu News. “Entertainment industry is starting to switch to a(n)     10     on wisdom and intelligence.”

8 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

The way that people sit in chairs is not just by chance. If you are sitting with your arms and legs swinging, it is probably a sign     1     you are relaxed and feeling comfortable. If you     2     (position) on the edge of the chair with your legs stretched before you and your feet crossed, it can signal lack of interest.

Here is an example: in a country where the rules of behavior in court were very strict, a witness in a trial sat as     3     (describe) above, with one of his huge boots put on top of     4     , wearing a big coat and his arms crossed in front of his body. The judge said: “ Sit up straight and take your coat off,       5     I’ll hold you in contempt of court.” The man sat up straight in no time when he realized that he risked       6    (fine).

When people go to the dentist or wait for a job interview, they might be seated on the edge of their chair with their feet together. If it’s a woman, she’ll probably be hugging her handbag. Body tension spreads and makes you feel short of breath. When you are in such a position, it is easy to lose your head and simply run away if things take a turn for the     7     (bad).

You don’t believe that people     8     learn to control their body language completely; they will lose control at some point or other.

9 . Notice: Medical Alert

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1. Which of the following statements is true about the medical alert system?

A．The users of it will be given timely support on the phone.

B．All medical serious events can be avoided after using it.

C．Its service runs in the daytime and suspends at night.

D．People can buy it from hospitals at the same price.

2. Which of the following is included in an early bird deal?

A．No set-up fees.	B．Long-term contract.
C．Shipping fee discount.	D．A water-proof necklace.

3. This advertisement aims to ______________.

A．urge the government to cut medical expenses for seniors

B．provide advice to old people on how to prevent falls

C．alert people to the high risk of falls

D．promote a medical alert system.

4. Who might make a call after reading the advertisement?

A．a father who cares for his young daughter

B．a doctor who specializes in heart disease

C．a teacher who worries about his elderly father

D．a student who makes troubles at school

10 . I have just finished my 23rd year of teaching at universities. And there have been several ___________ in the way students approach their classes. The most noticeable is that when I started teaching, students took notes in notebooks, but now every desk has a laptop on it when I give a lecture.

There seem to be a lot of obvious ___________ of taking notes on a computer. For one, it is easy to save the notes in a place where you can ___________ them later. For another, you will be able to read your notes later especially if your handwriting is poor.

Before we go out and encourage every student to bring a laptop to class, _________, it is worth checking out a study by Pam Mueller and Danny Oppenheimer. They compared college students’ _________ in tests following exposure to material. The students were assigned either to take notes by hand or using a laptop.

In the first study, students took notes while watching a lecture. Then, they engaged in other activities for about 30 minutes. Finally, they were given a quiz about the lecture. The quiz contained factual questions as well as conceptual questions that required some _________ of the subject matter.

Students did about equally well on the factual question ___________ how they took notes. However, the students did much ___________ on the conceptual questions when they took notes by hand than when they took them using the laptop.

The experiments ___________ the content of people’s notes to the lecture and found that when people typed their notes on a laptop, they were much more likely to __________ what people said directly rather than writing their impressions of it. That is, people writing out their notes had to think more __________ about the content of what they heard than those people who were just typing.

Then, in the second study, the experiments told people using the laptops to take good notes rather than just taking down what they heard. Even when people were given these ____________, they still had a greater tendency to type what they heard than people who were taking notes by hand. As before, the people who used the laptops did more poorly on a test of ____________ knowledge than those who took notes by hand.

So there is real value in having to ____________ the material in the process of taking notes. It is because handwriting is slow and ____________ that people have to think more clearly about what they want to write down rather than copying down what is being said.

1.

A．challenges

B．changes

C．problems

D．projects

2.

A．approaches

B．benefits

C．equivalents

D．guidelines

3.

A．find

B．give

C．take

D．use

4.

A．additionally

B．finally

C．otherwise

D．though

5.

A．confidence

B．competition

C．expectation

D．performance

6.

A．description

B．experience

C．understanding

D．memorization

7.

A．owing to

B．regardless of

C．in the form of

D．in relation to

8.

A．better

B．faster

C．more poorly

D．more slowly

9.

A．offered

B．devoted

C．led

D．compared

10.

A．copy

B．remember

C．summarize

D．grasp

11.

A．cheerfully

B．positively

C．deeply

D．quickly

12.

A．administrations

B．foundations

C．instructions

D．restrictions

13.

A．detailed

B．experimental

C．established

D．conceptual

14.

A．come across

B．think about

C．put away

D．take down

15.

A．effortful

B．quiet

C．steady

D．casual