1 . In the fictional worlds of film and TV, artificial intelligence （AI） has been described as so advanced that it is indistinguishable from humans. But what if we're actually getting closer to a world where Al is capable of thinking and feeling?
Tech company UneeQ is heading for its "digital humans", which appear life like on the screen not only in terms of language, but also because of facial movements: raised eyebrows, a smile, even a nod. They look close to a human, but not quite.
What lies beneath UneeQ9 s digital humans? Their 3D faces are modeled on actual human features. Speech recognition enables them to understand what a person is saying, and natural language processing is used to work out a response. Meanwhile, another Al company, Soul Machines, is taking a more biological approach, with a "digital brain", that imitates aspects of the human brain to adjust the emotions "felt" and "expressed" by its "digital people".
Shiwali Mohan, an Al scientist at the Palo Research Center, is skeptical of these digital beings. "They're humanlike in their looks and the way they sound, but that in itself is not being human," she says. "Human qualities also involve how you think, how you approach problems, and how you break them down; and that takes a lot of algorithmic (算 法)design. Designing for human-level intelligence is a different attempt than designing images that behave like humans." She then continues, “If something looks like a human, we have high expectations of them, but they might behave differently in ways that humans just instinctively (直觉地)know how other humans react.
Yet the demand is there, with UneeQ seeing high adoption of its digital employees across the financial, health care, and commercial sectors （行业）. "Unless these sectors make their business models much more efficient digitally, they might be left behind," says Chetan Dube, UneeQ9s CEO.
Some other companies are taking their digital beings a step further, enabling organizations and individuals to create digital humans themselves using free-access platforms they provide. "The biggest motivation for such platforms is to popularize Al," Dube says.
Mohan is cautious about this approach, yet she supports the purpose behind these digital beings and is optimistic about where they are headed. "As we develop more advanced Al technology, we would then have to use new ways of communicating with that technology,she says. "'Hopefully, all of that is designed to support humans in their goals."
1. According to Para. 2, in what respect（s） do UneeQ9s "digital humans" resemble human beings?| A．In the way they move around. |
| B．In the way they act and react. |
| C．In observation and analysis. |
| D．In speech and facial expressions. |
| A．leams to make proper emotional responses |
| B．tends to imitate human beings' tone vividly |
| C．recognizes the speech sounds it receives |
| D．processes the natural language it hears |
| A．Calculating brain. |
| B．Language skills. |
| C．Instinctive judgements. |
| D．Problem-solving ability. |
| A．The fear of falling behind in efficiency. |
| B．The urgency to promote e-commerce. |
| C．The wish to spread digital technology. |
| D．The need to upgrade the health care system. |
| A．It's well planned. |
| B．It is promising. |
| C．It is uncertain. |
| D．It's quite hopeless. |
2 . I love making art and looking at artworks. I’ve found myself wondering how we gain pleasure from art. And now neuroaesthetics, a combination of neuroscience (神经科学) and aesthetics (美学), may provide an answer.
Neuroaesthetics is a relatively young field of research on what happens in the brain when we make aesthetic assessments. Researchers use brain imaging technique to see which brain areas light up when we view paintings that we consider beautiful. Similar research has been done to understand the “neuronal fireworks” that occur when we look at inspiring sculptures, attractive faces, impressive dance, etc.
But why do we find some art beautiful and other art ugly? According to research, it all comes down to the “aesthetic triad (三元组合)”.
The first part of the triad is sensory-motor. This involves perceiving things like colours, shapes and movements. Movement in art has an interesting role. If you see a painting of a movement, like of a man pulling his arm away after being bitten by a dog, you feel like going through a similar experience. The part of your brain that controls your own movements lights up in response.
Second is emotion-valuation. This is how a piece of art makes you feel, and whether or not you appreciate or enjoy that feeling. The part of the brain related to pleasure is activated in response to something we find beautiful. This system can be affected in fascinating ways, as found by research using transcranial magnetic stimulation(TMS) (经颅磁刺激). If TMS is applied to a specific part of your brain behind your forehead that is particularly important for decision-making, you suddenly like different kinds of art. Such stimulation produces significant changes in aesthetic appreciation of faces, bodies and artworks.
The third part is meaning-knowledge. This is to do with how we can connect with a piece of art and what meaning we can create in it. Art is deeply personal, because when two people see the same artwork, our perception can create vastly different experiences of meaning. If we find meaning, then we often find pleasure. We also get enjoyment from the knowledge of how something was made. For the images that an artist creates, viewers will probably get far more enjoyment once they know the process used to create them.
Informed by neuroaesthetics, the next time I create my art I will value the process even more, enjoying the activation of the aesthetic triad in my brain as I admire the vivid images that I have created.
1. What does “neuronal fireworks” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．A beautiful painting or sculpture. |
| B．The lighting-up of specific brain areas. |
| C．An advanced brain imaging technology. |
| D．The aesthetic assessment of modern art. |
| A．Certain part of their brain is activated. |
| B．Their experience of pain is reduced. |
| C．Their aesthetic sense is sharpened. |
| D．Their body reactions are delayed. |
| A．raised memory capacity |
| B．enhanced painting skills |
| C．changed artistic taste |
| D．improved decision-making ability |
| A．Knowing how it is created. |
| B．Having a pleasant personality. |
| C．Learning how science develops. |
| D．Understanding the meaning of life. |
| A．To propose an abstract theory of art making. |
| B．To reveal the beauty of science in an artistic way. |
| C．To share some personal understanding of artworks. |
| D．To introduce a new research field for art appreciation. |
3 . When people ask me how I started writing, I find myself describing an urgent need that I felt to work with language. Having said that, I did not know for a long time what I was looking for. It was not until I followed this feeling to its source that I discovered I had a passion for writing. With some encouragement from my colleagues, I had one of my poems published. This bit of success, however, was the point where my problem began.
Back in 1978, I had to travel between three different campuses in the morning, teaching freshman composition. Afternoons I spent taking my daughter to her ballet and horse-riding lessons. I composed my lectures on the way, and that was all the thinking time I had. When I returned home, there was not enough of me left for writing after a full working day.
As a way out, I decided to get up two hours before my usual time. My alarm was set for 5:00 A.M. The first day I shut it off because I had placed it within arm's reach. The second day I set two clocks, one on my night table, and one out in the hallway. I had to jump out of bed and run to silence it before my family was awoken. This was when my morning writing began.
Since that first morning in 1978, I have been following the habit to this day, not making or accepting many excuses for not writing. I wrote my poems in this manner for nearly ten years before my first book was published. When I decided to write a novel, I divided my two hours: the first for poetry, the second for fiction. Well or badly, I wrote at least two pages a day. This is how my novel, The Line of the Sun. was finished. If I had waited to have the time, I would still be waiting to write my novel.
What I got out of getting up in the dark to work is the feeling that I am in control. For many people, the initial sense of urgency to create easily dies away because it requires making the tough decision: taking the time to create, stealing it from yourself if ifs the only way.
1. What motivated the author to start her writing career?| A．Her strong wish to share. |
| B．Her keen interest in writing. |
| C．Her urgent need to make a living. |
| D．Her passionate desire for fame. |
| A．She was too exhausted to write after a busy day. |
| B．She had trouble in deciding on her writing style. |
| C．She had to take time to discipline her daughter. |
| D．She was unsure about her writing skills. |
| A．In case the clock in her room broke down. |
| B．In case she failed to hear the ringing. |
| C．To force herself out of bed. |
| D．To wake up her family. |
| A．By sticking to writing every morning. |
| B．By writing when her mind was most active. |
| C．By drawing inspirations from classic novels. |
| D．By reducing her teaching hours at school. |
| A．It is never too late to change your job. |
| B．Imaginative ideas die away if not taken in time. |
| C．A tight schedule is no excuse for lack of action. |
| D．Daily life provides ideas for creative writing. |
| A．There comes a bus | B．Coming a bus there | C．There coming a bus | D．Because the bus coming |
5 . Dear boss — You have always tried to attract young consumers, and our consultants have always come up with new ways to label them. The trouble is that coming up with rules to define a group of humanity is more art than science. It is likely to become an exercise in applying stereotypes; not every youngster is drinking kombucha in a Brooklyn storehouse. Luckily you have me, and I’m here to tell you that much of what is written about marketing to today’s most prized consumers is a myth.
Start with the idea that, glued to smartphones, youngsters barely notice the physical world and passively follow the latest hit from Instagram or TikTok. It’s true that the days of marketing chiefly through television, newspapers and magazines are long gone. However, social media has not just changed the ways people discover brands; it has weakened the power of marketing as a whole. Online, talk is cheap and prices are readily Googled. Digital natives, therefore, can easily fact-check our suspicious marketing claims and ads. Surveys suggest that young Americans are among the most price-sensitive food shoppers, even though they have accumulated less wealth than earlier generations had by the same age.
There is a similar urge to think that physical shops no longer matter. Young consumers love their Amazon deliveries. It makes sense for our company to make sales via social media and ship directly to customers’ homes. But what works best is the close integration of the digital and physical worlds. Remember those online-only beauty brands like Glossier, which took the world by storm during the pandemic. It turns out that they struggle to get repeat business and have had to pair up with physical shops. What really matters is avoiding insincerity. Dishonesty is easily exposed online, where everyone loves a takedown. Remember the strong resistance to Boohoo, a fast-fashion firm, when it appointed Kourtney Kardashian, a celebrity leading a luxurious life, as a “sustainability ambassador”? And commit only to causes you can tangibly support and be frank when you are putting profits first. Anyway, nobody is perfect. To pretend otherwise is so 2013.
1. Why is there trouble with finding rules to define a group of people?| A．Because fixed ideas may be inappropriately employed. |
| B．Because not everybody is into drinking tea at a storehouse. |
| C．Because art is more challenging to learn than science. |
| D．Because the consultants are not as expert as the author. |
| A．To reveal their incompetence in saving money. |
| B．To illustrate they are sensitive to the prices of food online. |
| C．To demonstrate marketing has a great impact on their spending habits. |
| D．To prove they are not passive receivers of online marketing tricks. |
| A．Celebrities work as reliable ambassadors. |
| B．Young customers don’t visit physical shops. |
| C．Dishonesty in marketing was not rare in 2013. |
| D．Traditional media still play a major role in marketing. |
| A．How to Expand Youth Market: From Ideas to Practice |
| B．How to Sell to the Young: From Myth to Truth |
| C．How to Attract Young Customers: Honesty and Profits |
| D．How to Increase Sales Online: Labeling and Marketing |
---Come on, ________
| A．You get a frog in your throat. | B．You’re pulling your weight. |
| C．We’d better throw in the towel. | D．Don’t be such a wet blanket. |
| A．used to listening | B．who used to listen |
| C．who used to listening | D．who are used to listen |
8 . There isn’t a book that I always
This Christmas, then, the following unchanging ritual (仪式) will be
When he did this the first time our children were
“Richard Burton is the best,” my husband then cut in
My husband will sonorously (洪亮地)
“It is a spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black…”
Filled with seasonal feeling and wonder as any bible reading or carol, the best bit for me is watching my children’s faces as the
This is as much a part of Christmas as a Festival of Ten Lessons and Carols from Kings to all my family, and this is
“Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt and silent black, bandaged night. ”
Of course, on the face of it, Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales is the more
All is dark, all is bright in both, but the one I ponder
| A．rely | B．return | C．reply | D．repeat |
| A．song | B．dance | C．lyric | D．music |
| A．integral | B．extra | C．optional | D．compulsory |
| A．experimental | B．annual | C．daily | D．unusual |
| A．opposed | B．outweighed | C．observed | D．obsessed |
| A．toy | B．poem | C．record | D．trick |
| A．puzzled | B．scared | C．amazed | D．calm |
| A．in term of | B．as though | C．in that | D．even though |
| A．happily | B．peacefully | C．hurriedly | D．confidently |
| A．tones | B．sounds | C．sighs | D．whispers |
| A．adapting | B．assuming | C．avoiding | D．arming |
| A．lead in | B．join in | C．take in | D．sink in |
| A．timeless | B．priceless | C．worthless | D．lifeless |
| A．under | B．beneath | C．via | D．without |
| A．when | B．what | C．where | D．why |
| A．coal | B．ice | C．oil | D．flame |
| A．admirable | B．appropriate | C．acknowledged | D．apparent |
| A．winding | B．promising | C．closing | D．stopping |
| A．woke | B．suicided | C．died | D．slept |
| A．in | B．over | C．across | D．beyond |
| A．has been labelling | B．have been labelling, |
| C．has been labelled | D．have been labelled |
| A．that | B．which | C．what | D．who |
