1 . Artificial intelligence (AI) has amazing potential to change the world, and we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface. As AI matures and people move further away from distinct programming and monitoring of systems, unidentified bias (偏见) might make decisions continue for a long time that cause _______ harm for individuals and society. This bias might _______ input data or even the algorithms (算法) themselves.

All too often, data sets are incomplete and the sample represented in the data set does not _______ the population that the AI model is making predictions about — this is known as coverage bias. Some other types of bias related to input data include sampling bias, where data is not collected randomly from the target group, and participation bias, where users from certain groups _______ surveys at different rates than users from other groups. Still, another more challenging bias to identify is confirmation bias that occurs when a decision maker or analyst has a strong _______ belief or experience that affects their ability to consider alternatives. This could lead one to more strongly _______ data that confirms a preexisting belief.

Bias resulting from AI algorithms themselves, or algorithmic bias, is equally _______. One example of algorithmic bias is implicit bias or unconscious bias, where data scientists _______ make associations or assumptions based on their mental models and memories that affect data modeling decisions. Implicit bias can _______ how data is collected and classified, or how systems are designed and developed. As machines learn, their conclusions and decisions affect people. Ethical (道德的) AI must understand these impacts and create governance and testing methods to ________ mistakes and inaccuracies.

To create ethical AI, companies need to put the ________ of the individual at the center of data innovation. This means thinking about ________ rights as human rights and developing a comprehensive approach to data, including how we use AI.

Having ________ data practices for AI means having good AI governance. This governance not only focuses on data and analytics but also understands the impacts of any given analysis and makes sure it’s ________ and accurate. Good AI governance includes data responsibility as well as a commitment to transparency (透明性).

None of this will be easy, but true innovation never is. By coming together and working on the problem of bias now, before it becomes a(n) ________ force, businesses can help bring out the best AI has to offer the world.

4 . Sea levels along coastlines in the United States will rise about one foot by 2050, with larger increases on the East and Gulf coasts, according to a comprehensive new report by climate scientists.

Oceans have already risen about one foot in the last century, as climate change melts glaciers (冰川) and ice caps around the world. But the pace is ______ scientists warn, and the next 30 years will see the same amount of sea level rise as the previous 100.

The report gives the most concrete and certain sea level ______ ever published for the U.S. And advances in computer models and real-world information about rising seas make it possible to see the future more ______ than ever.

Sea level rise ______ dramatically for different parts of the U.S. coast. The ocean is not like a bucket of water that rises at the same time as more liquid is ______. Ocean ______ push more water into some areas than others. Ice in different regions melts at different rates. In many parts of the world, sea level rise is ______ because coastal land is sinking.

The new report adds up all those factors to give ______ estimates for different parts of the U.S. The authors predict about a foot and a half of sea level rise for the Gulf Coast by 2050, with particular hot spots from Texas to Mississippi, where exploitation of underground oil, gas and drinking water is causing the land to rapidly _____ into the rising ocean water. There are ______ hot spots in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Annapolis, Md. and Norfolk, Va. Overall, the East Coast is ______ to experience a little more than a foot of sea level rise in the next 30 years.

Sea level rise is happening more ______ on the West Coast, including much of southern and western Alaska, the report finds. The authors predict about six inches of sea level rise by 2050.

William Sweet, a sea level rise expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and one of the authors of the new report, says cities that are not yet flooded should ______ now. Quickening sea level rise may require that humans ______ where and how we build homes, offices, roads and anything else that is better dry than wet. Right now, development in flood-prone (易发洪水的) areas is increasing, despite climate change.

Beyond 2050, the report makes clear that humans have a ______: reduce greenhouse gas emissions and control sea level rise, or keep burning fossil fuels and face oceans that are two, three or even 10 feet higher than today.

6 . It’s long been known that sugary drinks help people pack on unwanted kilograms. But new research suggests that ______ drinks and even 100% fruit juice might raise your risk for some cancers. The study couldn’t prove cause and effect, but it found that drinking as little as 90-120ml of sugary drinks each day was ______ to an 18% rise in overall risk for cancer.

The new study was led by Mathilde Touvier, research director at the University of Paris. Her team collected data on more than 100,000 French men and women, average age 42, who took part in a national ______.

The participants answered questions about how much of 3,300 different foods and drinks they consumed each day, and were ______ for up to nine years.

The study uncovered links between the consumption of sugary drinks and the risk of cancer______, and for breast cancer specifically. The investigators found no association between sugary drinks and prostate or colon cancers (前列腺或结肠癌), but the authors stressed that too few people in the study developed these cancers to make this finding ______. The research ______ no links between diet sodas (无糖汽水) and cancer, although more study is needed to confirm that, the authors noted.

The connection between sugary drinks and cancer remained the same even after the team ______for age, sex, educational level, family history of cancer, smoking and physical activity, the researchers said.

So, why the ______? According to Touvier’s team, high-calorie drinks may raise cancer risk because sugar helps build body fat, in addition to raising blood sugar levels and inflammation (发炎) — all of which are risk ______ for cancer. It’s also possible that chemicals found in these drinks might play a part in ______ cancer risk, the researchers theorized.

A group representing the drinks industry said sugary drinks can still be a part of the ______ diet, however. In a statement, the American Beverage Association said: “It’s important for people to know that all drinks — either with sugar or without — are ______ to consume as part of a balanced diet. America’s leading drinks companies are working together to support consumers’ efforts to ______ the sugar they consume from our drinks by providing more choices with less sugar or zero sugar, smaller package sizes and clear calorie information right up front.”

Samantha Heller is a senior clinical nutritionist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. She said she wasn’t ______ by the findings. She noted that, for decades, these drinks have been linked with diseases such as heart disease. On the other hand, “most of us should be drinking more water than we do,” Heller said.

7 . Gentle sound stimulation, also known as pink noise, may significantly enhance deep sleep in older adults and improve their ability to recall words, a new study has found.

Deep sleep is critical for memory consolidation. However, beginning in middle age, deep sleep decreases substantially, which scientists believe contributes to memory loss in aging. The sound stimulation significantly enhanced deep sleep in participants and their scores on a memory test. “This is an innovative, simple and safe non-medication approach that may help improve brain health,” said Phyllis Zee, professor at Northwestern University in the US. “This is a potential tool for enhancing memory in older populations and attenuating normal age-related memory decline,” said Zee.

Zee and a team of researchers gathered 13 adults, 60 and older, and monitored their sleep in a lab for two nights. On both nights, the participants took a memory test, went to bed while wearing headphones and a special cap, and took another memory test in the morning. But without the participants’ awareness, researchers only played pink noise into the headphones on one night. More specifically, they timed the sounds to match the participants’ slow-wave oscillations. During deep sleep, brain waves slow to about one oscillation per second, compared to about ten oscillations per second during wakefulness. The system they employed in the study allowed the team to deliver a low burst of pink noise at the “precise moment” when the participants’ slow waves rose — a pattern that is unique to each person.

The study found that participants’ slow waves increased after the night of sound stimulation, suggesting that they were getting more deep sleep. And on the morning after hearing pink noise, they performed three times better on memory tests than they did after sleeping without any sound stimulation.

Previous research showed pink noise during deep sleep could improve memory consolidation in young people. But it has not been tested in older adults. The new study targeted older individuals and used a novel sound system that increased the effectiveness of the sound stimulation in older populations.

The study was a relatively small one, so further research is needed to confirm its findings and to study how longer-term use of pink noise affects sleep. But Northwestern has taken steps to patent the researchers’ technology, which seems to have hit upon a way to stimulate slow waves at the right moment. The team hopes to develop an affordable device that people can use at home, from the comfort of their beds.

Laziness and Lack of Sleep Can Shorten Your Life, Especially When Combined

You already know that smoking is bad for you and that drinking too much alcohol may shorten your life. Now a new study says that spending too much time in a chair and not having enough sleep should join a short list of behaviors     1     (know) to increase your risk of premature death.

Sitting for a long time and lack of sleep were damaging in their own way, but when combined with more traditional risk factors,     2     had a multiplier effect that made an early death far more likely.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, make clear that “some risk behaviors tend to come together and     3     the joint risk could be much higher than the sum of the individual risks”.

For instance, smoking was     4     (dangerous) single risk factor among the six studied. The small number of people for     5     smoking was their only bad habit were 90 percent more likely to die during the course of the study than people who were with practical clean living in every aspect. People who reported high alcohol consumption as their only risk factor did not seem     6     (put) their lives in danger. But for those who combined heavy drinking with smoking, the risk of premature death was doubled. And when lack of sleep     7     (add) to the mix, the likelihood of an early death was nearly five times greater     8     lack of sleep by itself had only a light effect on death.

These numbers are based on the lives of 231,048 Australians.

    9     (consider) factors such as age, gender, education and other factors, the researchers saw a clear pattern. It was a person’s bad lifestyle     10     contributed to his or her risk of premature death.

10 . I was putting on my boots just now in what the novelists call “a brown study.” There was no urgent reason for putting on my boots. I was not going out, and my slippers were much more comfortable. But something had to be done. I wanted a subject for an article. Now if you are accustomed to writing articles for a living, you will know that sometimes the difficulty is not writing the article, but choosing a subject. It is not poverty you suffer from, but an embarrassment of riches.

But what has this to do with putting on my boots? It is a reasonable question and I will tell you. For an hour I had paced my room in my slippers in search of a subject. I had looked out of the window over the sunlit valley, and watched the smoke of a distant train disappearing towards the west. I had sharpened every pencil I had on me with great care. But the more I sharpened my pencils, the more anxious I grew about the theme for an article.

It was at this moment that I remembered my boots. The act of bending my body changed the current of the blood. You saw things in a new light. So I fetched my boots and sat down to put them on.

The thing worked like a charm. For in my preoccupied condition I picked up my right boot first. Then mechanically I put it down and seized the left boot. And then the fact flashed on me that all my life I had been putting on my left boot first. If you had asked me five minutes before which boot I put on first, I should have said that there was no first about it; yet now I found I was in a habit so fixed that the attempt to put on my right boot first affected me. The thing couldn’t be done. And then came into my mind that fascinating book of Samuel Butler’s on Life and Habit. Yes, certainly, here was a subject that would “go.” I took out a pencil, seized some writing paper, and sat down to write on “The Force of Habit.”