How Many Books Does It Take to Make a Place Feel Like Home?
At the turn of the millennium, Reid Byers set out to build a private library at his home in Princeton, N.J. The project stretched over a
In The Privae Library, Mr. Byers goes to the heart of why physical books continue to attract us.
“Entering our library should feel like easing
Mr. Byers coined a term — “book-wrapt” —
And
2 . According to the World Health Organization, a global group that studies public health, 1.1 billion young adults are at risk of developing hearing loss. Smartphones are largely to blame. Can some headphones really damage your hearing?
Nerves carry messages to each other, such as sounds or sensations. Most hearing loss is the result of nerve wreck. Scientists use decibels to measure volume. You can listen to 85 decibels pretty much all day without causing any damage. That is about the noise level of busy city traffic. Things quickly become dangerous once you get louder than that. The noise level produced at a rock concert or by a chain saw is about 115 decibels. At this level, damage can happen in less than a minute. You might not immediately notice large hearing loss. It will add up over time. Some smartphones can crank (调高) music to 120 decibels. Say: you listen to 10 songs in a row at that volume. You might notice hearing loss by the time you take off your headphones.
What kind of headphones should people use? All of them have different benefits and downsides. Ear buds have a bad reputation because they sit in your ear canal. This allows them to release the sound closer to your ear. That means what you hear is almost the full force of the sound. Big, padded over-ear headphones do not sit as close to your eardrum. They still trap in sound, though. Sound from these headphones also reaches your eardrum at nearly full force. Then there are some special over-ear headphones, the kind with foam (泡沫) earphone covers which are better at blocking noise. They deliver sound around your ear instead of straight into it. It might not sound as good, but it’s healthier for your ears. Solid-plastic in-ear headphones are not very good at blocking out background noise. This might make you want to pump up the volume.
Doctors recommend that their patients get fitted for headphones which will help block background noise. In theory, this should encourage people to listen at lower volumes. But they are not sure it works that way because they think people just have a habit of turning it all the way up.
1. What does the word “wreck” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Loss. | B．Damage. | C．Tension. | D．Decrease. |
| A．Driving at the city center. | B．Enjoying ten songs. |
| C．Using a chain saw. | D．Watching an action movie. |
| A．It is the volume that really damages people’s hearing |
| B．It’s unnecessary to turn down the volume for people with normal hearing |
| C．Picking right headphones has nothing to do with people’s hearing. |
| D．A good pair of headphones can adjust the volume of the smartphone. |
| A．Solid-plastic in-ear headphones. | B．Tiny in-ear headphones. |
| C．Big padded over-ear headphones. | D．Special over-ear headphones. |
3 . World Press Photo
The annual World Press Photo Contest recognizes and celebrates the best photo journalism and documentary photography produced over the last year. Entries for the 2023 World Press Photo Contest will open on 1 December 2022 and close on 10 January 2023. We are excited to welcome a multiplicity of stories and a diverse range of photographers from all over the world to enter the contest!
Regional winners
Every regional winner of the contest receives:
·A monetary prize of 1,000
·Inclusion in the annual World Press Photo year-long worldwide exhibition
·Inclusion in the annual collectible yearbook, available in multiple languages with a worldwide distribution of more than 30,000 copies
·Publication in the online collection and a personal profile on World Press Photo’s website
·A physical award
In addition, winners are often featured in major publications and invited to speak at public events, exhibition openings, and lectures throughout the year.
Global winners
A global jury selects the four global winners: the World Press Photo of the Year, the World Press Photo Story of the Year, the World Press Photo Long-Term Project Award, and the World Press Photo Open Format Award. The global winners will be chosen from the regional winners in their respective categories.
In addition to their regional prizes, global winners will also receive:
·An additional monetary prize of €5,000
·An additional physical award
1. Who would most probably enter for World Press Photo?| A．Storytellers. | B．Photographers. |
| C．Librarians. | D．Celebrities. |
| A．Their works will be exhibited for years. |
| B．A personal profile on any website is allowed. |
| C．30,000 copies of their works will be distributed to other winners. |
| D．They will be invited to deliver speeches throughout the year. |
| A．€1000. | B．€4000. | C．€5000. | D．€6000. |
4 . If you ask something of ChatGPT, an artificial-intelligence(AI) tool, you may immediately get the responses, completely certain and often wrong. The questions raised by technologies like ChatGPT cause much more tentative answers. But they are ones that managers ought to start asking.
One issue is how to deal with employees’ concerns about job security. Worries are natural. An AI that makes it easier to process your expenses is one thing; an AI that people would prefer to sit next to at a dinner party quite another. Being clear about how workers would redirect time and energy that is freed up by an AI helps foster acceptance. So does creating a sense of agency: research conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group found that an ability to override an AI makes employees more likely to use it.
Arthur Jago of the University of Washington and Glenn Carroll of the Stanford Graduate School of Business investigate how willing people are to give rather than earn credit—specifically for work that someone did not do on their own. They showed volunteers something attributed to a specific person — an artwork, say, or a business plan — and then revealed that it had been created either with the help of an algorithm or with the help of human assistants. Everyone gave less credit to producers when they were told they had been helped, but this effect was more pronounced for work that involved human assistants.
The picture that emerges from such research is messy. It is also dynamic: just as technologies evolve, so will attitudes. But it is crystal-clear on one thing. The impact of ChatGPT and other AIs will depend not just on what they can do, but also on how they make people feel.
1. What should managers take into consideration when using technologies like ChatGPT?| A．Skills used for them. | B．Issues caused by them. |
| C．Accuracy ensured in them. | D．Alternatives discovered for them. |
| A．They find it can make their work more complicated. |
| B．They think it is a threat for AI to replace them at work. |
| C．They consider it’s normal for AI to finish all their work. |
| D．They feel it’s vital for them to acknowledge its abilities. |
| A．They thought little of it. | B．They were unaware of it. |
| C．They spoke highly of it. | D．They felt envious about it. |
| A．The limitation of AI. | B．The importance of Chat GPT |
| C．The relationship between AI and humans. | D．The practical application of Chat GPT. |
By Roger Lancelyn Creen
I loved reading when I was little. I think that’s the reason I love writing for children. My parents were both English teachers, and our home was full of books. Dickens was a family favourite. But the book that really fired my imagination was King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green, which my father read to me at bedtime when I was around 12.
Diary of a Nobody
By George and Weedon Grossmith
I’m a fool for a classic, and I’m so glad I finally came across Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. It began life as a serial in Punch, with text by Ceorge and illustrations by Weedon. Put simply, it’s the funniest book I’ve ever read, and the model for so many brilliant first-person narratives like Adrian Mole and Bridget Jones. The short pitch is that it follows the social climbing of a London clerk, Charles Pooter but of course it’s so much more than that, poking fun at all things from middle class.
Exhalation
By Ted Chiang
It’s never too late to have your life changed by a book, and it happened to me again recently when I read Ted Chiang’s Exhalation. Ted Chiang wrote Story of Your Life, which inspired the sci-fi alien-visitation classic Arrival. I love that too, but each and every piece in Exhalation is its match in writing skills. If there are super-intelligent aliens in the galaxy seeking to communicate important truths, Ted Chiang may well be one of them.
1. What is special about the book King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table?| A．It describes a story of intelligent aliens. |
| B．It stimulates the author’s imagination of writing. |
| C．It helps the author to improve the writing skills. |
| D．It opens a window for the author to understand classics. |
| A．Roger Lancelyn Green. | B．George. |
| C．Weedon Grossmith. | D．Ted Chiang. |
| A．A diary. | B．A novel. | C．A guidebook. | D．A magazine. |
6 . Looking out of my window today reminded me of another day just like this one, a day when I was searching for a special blue bird. I thought it had been talking to my grandmother about me.
One day grandmother asked me to buy some bread. On the way home I gave my bread to a black dog. I really wanted to keep her but I knew my mother would not allow.
An idea occurred to me. I got to our back gate, carefully dug a hole under the fence, and left the rest of the bread right at the hole. Then from the front door I went down the drive and through to the backyard. I got there just in time. She was trying to reach the bread at the hole. I held her front paws and pulled her through. She ate up the bread and I was delighted that my idea had worked.
When I got inside, I told my grandmother that my bread was eaten by a stray dog. I was very pleased with myself for not having to lie. We suddenly heard scratching coming from the back door. Seeing her, grandmother asked me, “Where did that come from?” “She must have come in under the gate.” I pointed out the hole under the back gate. Grandmother told me she thought it was I who brought the dog home. I looked at my grandmother’ s face and asked, “How did you know?” She said, “A little bird told me, a little blue bird told me.” I reminded her I had not told a lie. She grinned and said, “No you did not lie. But the truth you told was not the whole story either.”
I spent most of that summer making sure the blue birds stayed out of the yard. I remember watching grandmother giggling a little as she watched me.
Years later I found out that grandmother had been looking out of the breakfast room window and watched me dig the hole, run back into the yard and pull the dog through. She and my mother laughed about it. Anyway, we kept the dog (even after she delivered 13 puppies) until she passed away with snow-white on her snout and around her eyes.
1. How did the dog get into the house?| A．From the hole under the fence. | B．From the bakery at the back door. |
| C．From the front door and the drive. | D．From the breakfast room window. |
| A．The bird. | B．The scratching noise. | C．The dog. | D．The hole. |
| A．Because she knew the truth. | B．Because she once talked to the bind. |
| C．Because she thought I told the truth. | D．Because she loved the dog too. |
| A．Frightened and puzzled. | B．Concerned and happy. |
| C．Tolerant and sympathetic. | D．Delighted and carefree. |
7 . The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) is open from Thursday Dec. 3, then weekly Tuesday to Sunday. Entry to the museum is via a timed ticketing system. Tickets are released each Thursday at 10 am for the following week. Book your free ticket in advance. If you are unable to book online, please call 01223 333516 during opening hours.
Two million years of human history, one million artifacts（人工制品）and countless amazing stories await you. Discover the earliest African Stone tools, recent Cambridge Archaeological finds and tattoo（纹身）instruments collected during Captain Cook's voyages to the Pacific.
Collection highlights.
• The skeleton(骨骼）of a Roman woman，who inspired Sylvia Plath's poem, All the Dead Dears.
• A 14-meter tall totem pole（图腾柱）from the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada.
• Samurai armor (盔甲)from Japan complete with a moustache made of boar’s bristles(野猪的鬃毛).
• The Trumpington Cross: an early Christian brooch（胸针）found in the Anglo-Saxon burial of a teenage girl only 3 miles from the museum.
• Freeze-dried potatoes from Peru that are at least 500 years old.
Visiting with an autistic child.
The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology actively encourages all visitors to the Museum, including people with autism. We have prepared the following information to help you plan for your visit. We hope that it will help to make your time with us enjoyable.
We have prepared a Visual Story, which is available for you to download or print off to create a Social Story for your child. This is a visual guide which will help your child know what to expect and ease the anxiety often accompanying a visit to somewhere new and unfamiliar. The Visual Story has been designed for you, the parent/guardian, to decide which pages would be most beneficial for your individual circumstances. You can download the Visual Story here.
1. What do we know about the museum?| A．It isn't open on weekends. |
| B．Visitors can book a ticket by phone. |
| C．The ticket is released each Monday morning |
| D．The ticket needs to be booked two weeks ahead. |
| A．Captain Cook's tattoo instruments. | B．the script of Sylvia Plath’s poem. |
| C．a tall totem pole from Japan. | D．a brooch found in an Anglo-Saxon burial. |
| A．Make a Visual Story. | B．Download a visual guide |
| C．Request a museum guide. | D．Visit special collections. |
