1 . Like many other small boys, I was fascinated by cars, especially because my oldest brother was a bit of a car guy and subscribed to cool magazines like Car and Driver and Motor Trend.
Every so often, one of those magazines would run an article on the “Cars of the Future”.
But guess what?
Better than systems to minimize injury in the event of an accident, however, are systems that minimize the likelihood of an accident happening in the first place ? Future cars may be able to remove many of the major causes of accidents, including drunk-driving, and tailgating (与前车距离过近) . Cars could be equipped with sensors that can detect alcohol in a driver’s system and prevent the car from being started, for example. As early as next year, you’ll be able to buy cars with radar-equipped control systems. If the radar determines you’re closing too quickly with the car in front, it will ease up on the throttle (油门).
Scientists are now working on a system that can brake, accelerate and steer a vehicle down a highway on its own.
| A．Will cars eventually be able to drive themselves ? |
| B．Magazine featuring future cars sell especially well. |
| C．Airbags aren’t the be-all and end-all in safety. |
| D．Crazy fans look forward to the launch of future cars. |
| E．All of these things are likely to change in the not-so-distant future. |
| F．They featured unconventional things like small nuclear reactors as power sources. |
2 . Lidar, short for “light detection and ranging”, involves directing a rapid series of laser pulses- between 100,000 and 400,000 per second—at the ground from an airplane or a drone. Software captures the time and wavelength of the pulses reflected from the surface and combines it with GPS and other data to produce a precise three-dimensional(三维的)map of the landscape below. These high-tech explorations have revealed long-buried Mayan cities, including Tikal, in the dense jungle of Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize.
In recent years, lidar exposed an ancient city in western Mexico called Angamuco. The discovery of this long-lost Mexican city is especially significant. Built by the Purepecha, who were enemies of the Aztecs, Angamuco was a major civilization in the early 16th century, before Europeans arrived.
“To think that this massive city existed in the heartland of Mexico for all this time and nobody knew it was there is kind of amazing,” says Chris Fisher, an archaeologist(考古学家)at Colorado State University who led the exploration.
The city extended over ten square miles before it was covered by a lava(岩浆)flow. “That is a huge area with a lot of people,” says Fisher. “You are talking about 40,000 building foundations, which is [about] the same number of building foundations that are on the island of Manhattan.”
Archaeologists were surprised when they saw Angamuco’s city plan. The Purepecha’s monuments were largely concentrated in eight zones around the edges rather than being located in one large center. Why this almost Los Angeles-type sprawl(随意)? Historians want to know the answer to that too.
The revelation of Angamuco is an example of the power and promise of lidar. Archaeologists discovered signs of the buried city in 2007 and initially attempted to explore it using a traditional “boots on the ground” approach. But the team soon realized that with the rugged terrain(畸岖的地形)，it would take at least a decade to outline the entire metropolis.
In 2011, they began using lidar to map nearly 14 square miles, revealing some astonishing features, from pyramids and temples to road systems, garden areas, and even ball courts. This gave them the “map” they needed to know where to explore further. So far, Fisher and his team have verified more than 7,000 architectural features over a 1.5-square-mile area, with digging undertaken at seven locations.
All told, researchers now believe that more than 100,000 people lived in Angamuco from about AD 1000 to AD 1350. That makes it the biggest city in western Mexico at the time―or at least the biggest city we know about so far
“Everywhere you point the lidar instrument, you find new stuff,” says Fisher. ”Right now, every textbook has to be rewritten, and two years from now, they’re going to have to be rewritten again.“
1. Which of the following statements is true of Angamuco?| A．It was constructed by Aztecs. |
| B．It is a major civilization of Mexico. |
| C．It was destroyed in the early 16th century. |
| D．It came into existence before Europeans arrived. |
| A．Its long history. |
| B．Its being unknown for long. |
| C．The number of building foundations in it. |
| D．The competition between Aztecs and it. |
| A．The reason for Angamuco’s city plan. |
| B．The reason why Angamuco disappeared. |
| C．The role Angamuco played in history. |
| D．The role Angamuco played in archeology. |
| A．Mexican history is worth exploring. |
| B．Lidar is a useful tool for archeologists. |
| C．Maps are important in exploring historical sites. |
| D．More time needs to be devoted to studying Angamuco. |
3 . Age Reversal Technology
Our life spans (时间段) used to be relatively short.
As people live longer, population aging becomes a greater economic problem. It has both placed a burden on public health spending and decreased productivity of workforce. And aging is the fundamental driver behind many diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, to name just a few. One expert in population aging at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Halldór Stefánsson, explains that some serious diseases related to aging — that very few people lived long enough to experience in the past — have replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of death.
The amazing news is that age reversal technology will soon be a reality. On the bright side, the process of reversing aging is already possible for cells in scientific experiments.
| A．And science has moved on to extend life spans of some animals, though not yet of humans. |
| B．Human aging timeline is also driven by other factors. |
| C．In the 1800s, life expectancy across the world was less than 40 years of age. |
| D．So, the question on all our mind is — can science stop aging? |
| E．Initially restricted to developed countries, population aging has also become a trend in the developing world. |
| F．Age reversal technology will also increase health span — the length of time during which one is healthy. |
4 . One of the classic science-fiction treatments of the end of civilization was The Death of Grass, by John Christopher, in which a mysterious sickness struck down all the grasses on which most of the world's agriculture is based, from rice to wheat. Tn the end, politics among the survivors of disease, war and famine were reduced to bitter fratricidal struggle over a defensible potato patch. Like most of the so-called ''comfortable disaster" novels, this could be criticized for optimism. Depressing as a future of famine and the war of all against all might seem, the consequences were largely limited to humans.
However, the threatened extinction of insect populations around the world raises the prospect of a much less general disaster, which would involve plants, birds, fish, small mammals, and everything else depending on insects. That's just the start. Other species, and we ourselves, depend on the animals and plants that need insects. When they go, we go. This is not just a greater disaster. It's a much more reasonable one. The most recent study has concluded that insect biomass is decreasing around the world at a rate of 2.5% a year. At that rate, half the insects in the world will be gone in 50 years' time, and all of them in a century — though no one will be keeping track of centuries then.
The chief driver of this disaster is unchecked human greed. I spite our individual and even collective cleverness, we behave as a species with as little foresight as a colony of nematode worms that will consume everything that it can reach until all is gone and it dies off naturally. The challenge of behaving more intelligently than creatures that have no brain at all will not be easy. But unlike the nematodes, we know what to do. The UN convention on biodiversity was signed in 1992, alongside the convention on climate change. Giving it the strength to hold back our appetites is now urgent. Biodiversity is not an optional extra. It is the web that holds all life, including human life.
The two main expressions of greed that speed this apocalypse are global warming and industrial agriculture. It appears that most of the damage is being done in the developed world by farming practices. The use of giant fields, lack of shelter for insects of any sort at all, whether they are harmful to human interests or not, and where the plants are drenched in long-lasting pesticides, is fatal for uncounted billions of insects. The effects of this kind of forming reach beyond the fields immediately affected, too. There has been a huge loss of aquatic insect species from the rivers into which the products of industrial agriculture are flushed by rain. Even in German nature reserves, which are by definition protected from the use of pesticides, there have been sleep falls in insect populations because so many of the most widely used ones are persistent and prevent breeding.
1. Which of the following statements about The Death of Grass is true?| A．It holds an optimistic attitude towards famine in the future. |
| B．It understates the severity of the disaster facing the world. |
| C．It gives a vivid account of the most serious famine in history. |
| D．It demonstrates how evil human nature turns out to be. |
| A．prove that the prediction about the great disaster makes sense |
| B．show how soon the insects worldwide will go extinct |
| C．argue for the necessity to protect insect populations |
| D．suggest a possible approach to increasing insect biomass |
| A．Humans are similar to nematode in that both of them lack foresight. |
| B．We haven't done enough about maintaining biodiversity. |
| C．Modem farming is to blame for the threatened extinction of insects. |
| D．Germany sets a good example by minimizing the use of pesticides. |
| A．How industrial agriculture brings about apocalypse. |
| B．What influence pesticides may have on people's lives. |
| C．Why insect populations in Germany are on the decline. |
| D．Where unchecked human greed can also by spotted. |
Will Experimentation on Animals End?
One of the most debatable issues in science is the use of animals in research. Scientists experiment on animals for different reasons, including basic research to explore how organisms function, investigating potential treatments for human disease, and safety and quality control testing of drugs, devices and other products.
In 1959, William Russell and Rex Burch proposed their “3Rs” guidelines for making the use of animals in scientific research more humane: restrict the use of animals; refine experiments to minimize distress; and replace tests with alternative techniques.
For example, researchers previously had to do experiments with multiple mice at different stages of cancer development, but now they can watch the disease develop in a single living animal using a dye. Similarly, as brain-imaging techniques become more advanced, some questions that were addressed with experiments in monkeys before may be better answered by looking into the human brain now. “
| A．Over the course of five decades their guidelines have become widely accepted worldwide. |
| B．The awareness of animal protection contributes to the decline of the number. |
| C．Human volunteers must be able to replace monkeys more and more in the next 10 to 20 years. |
| D．New experimental techniques help to push numbers down. |
| E．Its supporters point to the long list of medical advances made possible with the help of animal research. |
| F．The number of the animals used in research is still considerable. |
6 . Unless you are like Nasty Gal’s founder Sophia Amoruso, the passwords you use to access your email and the endless other accounts you need for work aren’t filled with intention. With increasing security requirements, it’s likely your word/number combinations are becoming even less memorable. But new research suggests it may not be long before you won’t need to memorize passwords.
“Brainprint”, published in Neurocomputing, reveals that the brain’s reaction to certain words could be a unique identifying code — like a fingerprint — that could eventually replace passwords.
In a small experiment, the researchers measured the brains’ signals of 45 volunteers as they read through a list of 75 acronyms such as FBI and DVD. The word-recognition response differed so much between each participant that a second experiment using a computer program could identify each one with 94% accuracy.
It’s not enough to feel totally secure, but promising enough to hint at the future of securing sensitive information.
The advantage of using such a biometric system (生物识别系统) is that it can be used for continuous verification (验证), New Scientist points out. Passwords or fingerprints only provide a tool for one-off identification. Continuous verification could in theory allow someone to interact with many computer systems at the same time or even with a variety of intelligent objects, without having to repeatedly enter passwords for each device.
As Hollywood has illustrated, it’s simply a matter of cutting off a finger to steal that person’s identity. “Brainprints, on the other hand, are potentially cancellable,” said Sarah Laszlo, assistant professor of psychology and linguistics at Binghamton University and co-author of the study, “So, in the unlikely event that attackers were actually able to steal a brainprint from an authorized user, the authorized user could then ‘reset’ their brainprint.”
Until now, brain signals have been a challenge to understand. This experiment leaped over the obstacle by focusing on the brainwaves from the specific area that reads and recognizes words. The signal is therefore clearer and easier to measure.
The problem, so far, is that the brain signal is still not as accurate as scanning someone’s fingerprint, and initially requires sticking diodes (二极管) on your head in order to get a read. That’s ok, according to Zhanpeng Jin, assistant professor at Binghamton University and coauthor of the study, because brainprint isn’t going to be mass-produced any time soon. He says the researchers foresee its use at places such as the Pentagon, where the number of authorized users is small, and they don’t need to be continuously verified the way you do to access your mobile device or email.
Better keep your memory sharp, at least a little while longer.
1. In paragraph 5, “one-off identification” refers to the identification that _______.| A．happens as part of a regular series | B．interacts with intelligent objects |
| C．can be verified continuously | D．needs repeated verification |
| A．fingerprints can be canceled once stolen | B．brainprints are theft-proof and resettable |
| C．attackers can steal and replace brainprints | D．users have the authority to cancel brainprints |
| A．brainprints will sharpen users’ memory | B．brainprints will become easier to be measured |
| C．brainprints will receive narrow application | D．brainprints will eventually replace fingerprints |
| A．Brainprints: A New Way to Replace Passwords |
| B．Brainprints: A Unique Device to Identify Codes |
| C．Brainprints: A Quicker Way to Access Your Email |
| D．Brainprints: A Securer Device to Identify Brain Signals |
7 . Everything about nuclear energy seems terrifically big: the cost, construction and decommissioning -- and the fears of something going badly wrong. The future, however, may well be much smaller. Dozens of companies are working on a new generation of reactors that, they promise, can deliver nuclear power at lower cost and reduced risk. These small - scale plants will on average generate between 50 MW and 300 MW of power compared with the 1,000 MW - plus from a conventional rector. They will draw on modular manufacturing techniques that will reduce construction risk, which has plagued larger 0 scale projects. Supporters believe these advanced modular reactors (AMRs) -- most of which will not be commercial until the 2030s -- are critical if atomic power is to compete against the rapidly falling costs of solar and wind.
“The physics hasn’t changed. it’s about much cleverer design that offers much needed flexibility in terms of operation,” said Tim Stone, long-term industry adviser and chairman of Nuclear Risk Insurers, which insures nuclear sites in the UK. Since the Fukushima meltdown in Japan in 2011, safety fears have threatened nuclear power. But the biggest obstacle today is economic. In western Europe, just three plants are under construction: in the UK at Hinkley Point C in somerset; at Flaman-ville in France; and at Olkiluoto in Finland. All involve the European Pressurized reactor technology of EDF that will be used at Hinkley Point. All are running years late and over budget. In the US, the first two nuclear projects under way for the past 30 years are also blowing through cost estimates .
The UK, which opened the world’s first commercial nuclear reactor in 1956, is one of the few western nations committed to renewing its ageing fleet to ensure energy security and meet tough carbon reduction targets. It is seen as a proving ground, by many in the industry, of nuclear power’s ability to restore confidence. However, the country’s under severe criticism over its cost. The government is looking at different funding models but said it still sees nuclear power as vital to the country’s future energy mix. Small reactors, it believes, have the potential to generate much - needed power from the 2030s.
1. What can be learned from the passage about the advanced modular reactors (AMRs)?| A．They don’t work on the same principles as traditional reactors. |
| B．They haven’t been widely used for business purposes. |
| C．They are at a critical stage of being manufactured. |
| D．They operate more flexibly than wind generators. |
| A．show that the advanced technology of EDF is mature |
| B．argue against the popular use of nuclear power |
| C．prove that their construction costs more than available |
| D．suggest a possible solution to budget problems |
| A．The UK government is reducing its funding for ageing nuclear facilities. |
| B．Some people have lost their confidence in the use of unclear power. |
| C．People are more supportive of solar and wind energy than nuclear energy. |
| D．The UK is decreasing the impact of nuclear power on its economy. |
| A．Large - scale nuclear plants will be a big hit |
| B．Traditional reactors boom with new mini ones |
| C．The government should reflect on nuclear safety |
| D．Nuclear power looks to shrink its way to success |
8 . "Changing the world" might seem like an unrealistic goal. When faced with huge problems such as air pollution or energy shortages, where do you start? Taoyuan-based Gogoro believes you start with a scooter.
Proof of concept In 2015, Gogoro broke onto the scene by releasing an electric scooter called the Smartscooter. Unlike most electric scooters, this one wouldn't need to be plugged in to recharge. Instead, users would stop by GoStations to exchange drained batteries for fully charged ones. Gogoro was taking a risk. If people were not happy with the system of changing batteries the whole project could fail. They didn't need to worry, though. Only one year later Gogoro sold their 10,000th Smartscooter! |
Setting the bar Fast forward to 2019 and the release of the Series 3 Smartscooter. Gogoro scooters are as popular and revolutionary as ever. Their bright colors are chosen by Beatrice Santiccioli, a famous color designer who helped shape major brands like Apple, Nike and Swatch. In addition to the scooters' bright colors, plenty of cool accessories (配件) are available so you can make your scooter your own. But most important of all, Gogoro continues to pave the way toward a future of responsible energy consumption. |
Looking forward Multiple cities and countries have committed to making their transportation all-electric in the coming years, and Gogoro is helping make that possible. Ordered a package? Companies like DHL and Taiwan Post now have fleets of Smartscooters to make deliveries. Need a ride? Unlock a Gogoro in Berlin, Paris or Madrid, thanks to scooter sharing services. The Smartscooter is definitely ingenious, but there's more "At Gogoro, I think the essential thing is that we want to change how people use energy. And the Smartscooter is only the beginning," says Horace Luke, Gogoro co-founder and CEO. This is where the GoStation comes in. |
Tomorrow's energy Gostations are Al-equipped. They track battery health to maximize each battery's life. They recharge batteries during off-peak hours to reduce strain on the city's power grid (输电网). But they also learn when users usually visit and prioritize supplying charged batteries at those times. The fact of the matter is, cities are only getting bigger. There are already dozens of megacities (特大城市) in the world, and there will only be more in the future. Gogoro's dream is the transformation of megacities into smart cities, where power is plentiful and responsible. They hope to be a big part of that transformation. |
1. Compared with other electric scooters, the Smartscooter ______.
| A．can recharge itself in Gostations in megacities |
| B．only needs to change batteries in Gostations |
| C．wouldn't need to be recharged at all in life |
| D．can be recharged by its users in Gostations |
| A．their colors are chosen by a famous color designer |
| B．their colors are different from those of others |
| C．it is a good way for people to consume energy |
| D．it can help us solve the problem of energy shortage |
| A．The more megacities there are, the more GoStations may appear. |
| B．GoStations will soon entirely take the place of traditional stations. |
| C．People need not go to GoStations especially during peak hours. |
| D．More megacities will appear throughout the world in the future. |
9 . Swimming in an ocean of stars
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It’s my great honor to receive the Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society. Thank you.
I started writing sci-fi because I looked for a way to escape the dull life, and to reach out, with imagination, to the mysterious time and space that I could never truly reach. But then I realized that the world around me became more and more like science fiction, and this process is speeding up. Future is like pouring rain. It reaches us even before we have time to open the umbrella. Meanwhile, when sci-fi becomes reality, it loses all its magic, and that frustrates me. Sci-fi will soon become part of our lives. The only thing I can do, is to push my imagination further to even more distant time and space to hunt for the mysteries of sci-fi. As a sci-fi author, I think my job is to write things down before they get really boring.
This being said, the world is moving in the direction opposite to Clarke’s predictions. In 2001, A Space Odyssey, in the year of 2001, which has already passed, human beings have built magnificent cities in space, and established permanent colonies on the moon, and huge nuclear-powered spacecraft have sailed to Saturn. However, today, in 2018, the walk on the moon has become a distant memory. And the furthest reach of our manned space flights is just as long as the two-hour mileage of a high-speed train passing through my city.
As a sci-fi writer, I have been striving to continue Arthur Clarke’s imagination. I believe that the boundless space is still the best direction and destination for human imagination. I have always written about the magnitude and mysteries of the universe, interstellar expeditions, and the lives and civilizations happening in distant worlds. This remains today, although this may seem childish or even outdated. It says on Arthur Clarke’s epitaph,“He never grew up, but he never stopped growing.”
Many people misunderstand sci-fi as trying to predict the future, but this is not true. It just makes a list of possibilities of what may happen in the future, like displaying a pile of cobblestones for people to see and play with. Science fiction can never tell which scenario of the future will actually become the real future. This is not its job. It’s also beyond its capabilities. But one thing is certain: in the long run, for all these countless possible futures, any future without space travel is gloomy, no matter how prosperous our own planet becomes.
Sci-fi was writing about the age of digital information and it eventually became true. I now look forward to the time when space travel finally becomes the ordinary. By then, Mars and the asteroid belts will be boring places and countless people are building a home over there. Jupiter and its many satellites will be tourist attractions. The only obstacle preventing people from going there for good, will be the crazy price.
But even at that time, the universe is still unimaginably big that even our wildest imagination fails to catch its edge. And even the closest star remains out of reach. The vast ocean of stars can always carry our infinite imagination.
Thank you all.
1. What does the writer mean by the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?| A．Science technology has been developing fast before we realize it. |
| B．What happened in our life was mysterious and beyond our imagination. |
| C．We had a good outlook for the future and were desperate to realize our dream. |
| D．We managed to escape from the boring life and looked forward to the prosperous future. |
| A．What Clarke foresaw is childish and out of date, going against scientific theories. |
| B．It is feasible for human beings to fulfill challenging space missions that Clarke forecast. |
| C．Human beings have deserted imaging and exploring the attractive and boundless space. |
| D．Clarke’s predictions haven’t happened in real life and the reality won’t change very soon. |
| A．What is written in science fiction can never become a reality. |
| B．The writer considers it his duty to create sci-fi with author Clarke. |
| C．Science fiction provides readers with possibilities that future will bring about. |
| D．High price will likely stop humans from dreaming of living on other planets. |
| A．Curious | B．Passionate |
| C．Concerned | D．Suspicious |
Search for a Human Face for Robots
Looking for a $130,000 payday? Geomiq, a British engineering and manufacturing firm is searching for a “kind and friendly” face to be the face of a robot once it goes into production. “This will entail（需要）the selected person’s face being reproduced on potentially thousands of versions of the robots worldwide,” Geomiq says in a blog post about the project.
Robots have been at the forefront of technology for decades, and are widely considered the future of our technological advancement. With the number of adults over 85 expected to triple by 2050, according to some estimates, robots designed to keep the elderly company are becoming increasingly common.
They do things like responding to voice commands, offering proactive（积极主动的）notifications and advice and letting relatives monitor conditions at home. There is still a long way to go but new robotic products are coming into fruition all the time. Geomiq says the robot line has been in the works for five years and will result in a companion for seniors.
The designer has noted in an interview with a select press pool that they can’t release too many details at this stage.
The blog past doesn’t share age or gender parameters（参数）.
| A．A technology company wants to buy the rights to use someone’s face for its robots. |
| B．It just asks people who want to license their face to submit a photo via email for the chance at $130,000. |
| C．It is a once - in - a - while opportunity for the right person. |
| D．They also serve a practical purpose. |
| E．The company is privately - funded. |
| F．However, ideal candidates will be given the specifics of the project. |
