1 . My four-year-old son, Will, suffered from autism spectrum disorder (自闭症). And he went through many hours in
One summer afternoon, with a bucket (桶), Will and I were walking along the
“Will, why do you keep on
“Mom, this one looks like a smile when you hold it this way. ” He showed a broken shell and explained. “It
My eyes were full of tears as I
A.experiments | B.foods | C.exercises | D.treatments |
A.river | B.lake | C.beach | D.stream |
A.threw away | B.looked into | C.left behind | D.turned over |
A.unpleasant | B.unusual | C.colorless | D.useless |
A.sharply | B.clearly | C.perfectly | D.commonly |
A.puzzled | B.delighted | C.discouraged | D.embarrassed |
A.gather | B.reject | C.count | D.spread |
A.covering | B.decorating | C.preparing | D.filling |
A.pushed | B.reached | C.buried | D.moved |
A.uniquenesses | B.styles | C.symbols | D.qualities |
A.informs | B.persuades | C.reminds | D.warns |
A.observation | B.performance | C.adventure | D.expression |
A.agreed | B.realized | C.pretended | D.decided |
A.relieved | B.removed | C.examined | D.saved |
A.wisdom | B.power | C.wealth | D.beauty |
2 . Do I think the sky is falling? Sort of.
My husband and I were recently in Egypt, where the temperature was a bit warm for my tiny princess self. So, we left Egypt. Back home, my dearest friends struggled with health stuff, with family craziness…
The game of life is hard, and a lot of us are playing hurt.
I ache for the world but naturally I’m mostly watching the Me Movie, where balance and strength are beginning to fail. What can we do as the creaking elevator of age slowly arrives? The main solution is to get outside every day, ideally with friends. Old friends even thoughts of them-are my comfort.
Recently I was walking along a beach with Neshama. We go back 50 years. She is 84, short and strong. Every so often, she bent down somewhat tentatively (踌躇地) and picked up small items into a small cloth bag. “What are you doing?”
“I’m picking up micro litter. I try to help where I can.”
I reminded her of an old story. A great warhorse comes upon a tiny sparrow (麻雀) lying on its back with its feet in the air, eyes tightly shut with effort. The horse asks it what it’s doing.
“I’m trying to help hold back the darkness.”
The horse laughs loudly, “That is so funny. What do you weigh?”
And the sparrow replies, “One does what one can.”
This is what older age means. We do what we can.
We continued our walk. Neshama bent tentatively to pick up bits of litter and started to slip, but I caught her and we laughed. We are so physically weak in older age, but friendship makes it all a rowing machine for the soul. We can take it, as long as we feel and give love, and laugh gently at ourselves as we fall apart. We know by a certain age the great lies in our life—if you do or achieve this or that, you will be happy and rich. Love and service make us rich.
1. What contributes most to making the author happy at present?A.Watching movies. | B.Meeting old friends. |
C.Traveling in Egypt. | D.Walking on the beach. |
A.Neshama’s fear. | B.Neshama’s dream. |
C.The author’s approval. | D.The author’s doubt. |
A.Determined and helpful. | B.Responsible and caring. |
C.Narrow-minded but friendly. | D.Bad-tempered but supportive. |
A.Staying with families. | B.Being rich and healthy. |
C.Doing what one can. | D.Living a comfortable life. |
3 . Laughter comes in many forms, from a polite and quiet laugh to a great hearty laugh. Scientists are now developing an AI system to recreate different laughs in proper social contexts (环境). The team behind the laughing robot Erica said that the system could improve natural conversations between people and an AI robot. “We think that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy (共情),” said Dr Koji Inoue, the lead author of the research. “So we decided that one way a robot can empathize with its users is to share their laughter.”
The team have set out to teach their AI system the art of conversational laughter. They gathered training data from more than 80 daily dialogues between male subjects and the robot that was initially operated by four actresses remotely. The dialogue data was grouped into social laughs (where polite or embarrassed laughter isn’t involved) and laughter of joy. Based on the audio files, the robot learned the basic characteristics of social laughs, which tend to be softer, and merry laughs, with the aim of mirroring these inappropriate situations.
“Our biggest obstructor in the work was identifying the actual cases of shared laughter because as you know, most laughter is actually not shared at all,” said Inoue. “We had to carefully decide exactly which laughs we could use for our analysis and we couldn’t just assume (认为) that any laugh can be responded to. It was really not easy work.” The team said laughter could help create robots with their own distinct character although it could take more than 20 years before it would be possible to have a casual chat with a robot like we would with a friend.
“One of the things we’d keep in mind is that a laughing robot will never be able to understand you or the meaning of laughter,” points out Prof. Sandra Wachter of the Oxford Internet Institute. “But with their development, they might get very good at tricking you into believing they understand what’s going on.”
1. Why did Inoue’s team develop the AI system?A.To better understand human empathy. |
B.To promote the social skills of robots. |
C.To explore the differences between laughs. |
D.To assist robots in identifying people’s moods. |
A.Repeat the details of the 80 dialogues. |
B.Distinguish people by hearing their laughs |
C.Recreate a scene played by the four actresses. |
D.Master the features of laughs provided by data. |
A.potential | B.difficulty | C.choice | D.mistake |
A.Are AI systems going beyond human ability? |
B.Can conversational AI really understand us? |
C.Laughing robots are round the corner |
D.Robots become laughing masters |
(1) 展览的时间、地点:
(2) 展览的内容;
(3) 询问对方意向。
注意:(1)词数100以上;
(2) 开头和结尾已给出,不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
Knowing that you are fond of exhibitions about Chinese culture,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Yours,
Lihua
Do you have a pet?
One study shows that
Other researches studied the effect of pets
6 . In 2012, I had just recovered from a serious illness when I received an invitation to a writer’s conference in Orlando, Florida. My family persuaded that a(n)
Arriving in the Sunshine State was rather tiring, but I
I gratefully sat down with the
I’ll never forget that wonderful lady who, through her
A.holiday | B.ceremony | C.operation | D.experiment |
A.intended | B.promised | C.managed | D.deserved |
A.hospital | B.company | C.university | D.accommodation |
A.colleague | B.taxi | C.suitcase | D.passenger |
A.classified | B.occupied | C.decorated | D.painted |
A.share | B.reserve | C.set | D.possess |
A.stubborn | B.poor | C.innocent | D.old |
A.donated | B.repaired | C.hired | D.guided |
A.convenient | B.worthwhile | C.unfortunate | D.expensive |
A.business | B.argument | C.trouble | D.challenge |
A.working | B.staying | C.moving | D.shopping |
A.appointed | B.limited | C.favorite | D.regular |
A.digest | B.explore | C.perform | D.calculate |
A.forgot | B.refused | C.preferred | D.returned |
A.confidence | B.dignity | C.curiosity | D.kindness |
7 . A young Los Angeles actor in need of a second job to pay his bills has come up with a brilliant way to add his income — people walking.
Chuck McCarthy originally considered becoming a dog walker to earn some extra cash, but soon realized that the job required more than walking dogs on a leash (皮带). “I didn’t want to pick up dog poop (粪便), and that’s kind of what you are really being paid for, for dog walking,” he said. But people don’t usually poop when they take a walk, so Chuck realized there was money to be made walking people around Los Angeles instead.
It might sound like a joke, but the People Walker, as he calls himself, is very serious about his new job. For $7 per mile, he offers to walk with customers around L.A., listening to their problems or simply making conversation and offering them a sense of safety.
His services are aimed at people who need motivational help to go walking, those who don’t feel safe walking alone in some areas, and those who are afraid that people might see them walking by themselves and think that they have no friends.
“I wear my The People Walker shirt upon request and on the first walk with a new customer, so they can be 100% sure it’s me,” McCarthy says. However, he admits that some people don’t agree to this policy, as they don’t necessarily want everyone to know that they are being walked.
Believe it or not, McCarthy’s business has been very successful. He already has another five people walkers employed, covering various areas, like downtown L.A., Hollywood, Eagle Rock, Las Feliz or Fairefax. Once he posted signs around the city, his phone started ringing and customers began rolling in. And with all the free publicity he has been getting in the press lately, he has been overwhelmed (不堪重负的) with requests.
1. Why does Chuck McCarthy need a second job?A.To kill his spare time. | B.To become more active. |
C.To get rid of his loneliness. | D.To increase his income. |
A.he didn’t want to pick up dog poop |
B.he didn’t earn any extra cash |
C.people in L.A. didn’t believe in him |
D.there were few dogs in L.A. |
A.lifestyle | B.hobbies | C.service targets | D.service areas |
A.most people in Los Angeles live a lonely life |
B.the People Walker is quite popular with some people |
C.people living in Los Angeles lack a sense of security |
D.McCarthy’s business has almost spread to the whole country |
A.make sense of | B.catch a sense of |
C.have a good sense of | D.come to her senses |
A.have | B.had | C.will have | D.has |
A.marking | B.marked | C.to be marked | D.having marked |