2 . Those who had the pleasure of watching Benny Goodman at work saw a rather ordinary-looking man in rimless glasses and a conservative business suit; but they also saw a human being who could play the clarinet(单簧管) like no one before or since. This made Benny Goodman a unique individual.
Other Americans who have stood out from the flock include Joe DiMaggio, Beverly Sill, Ernest Hemingway and Jonas Salk. They, like Benny Goodman, were recognized and honored for no other reason than excellence.
It is doing something better than other people that makes us unique. Yet a surprising number of people still see individuality as a surface thing. They wear garish clothes, dye their hair strange colors and decorate their skin with tattoos to make some kind of social statement. But an ordinary guy who has dyed his hair purple or orange is nothing more than the same person with a funny-looking head.
The whole purpose of individuality is excellence. Those who invent, who improvise(即兴发挥), who know more about a subject than other people do, and who take something that doesn’t work and make it work––these people are the very soul of capitalism.
Charles Kettering didn’t like the idea of cranking a car to make it start, so he invented the electric starter. Henry Ford figured out the assembly-line technique and made it possible to mass-produce automobiles, and Elisha Otis, inventor of the elevator, indirectly created the city sky-line. These people understood that individualism means working at the top of one’s capacity.
The ones with the purple hair and the funky jewelry are just along for the ride, trying to be “different” and not knowing how to go about it.
The student who earns straight A’s on his report card has grasped the idea and has found the real meaning of individuality. So has the youngster who has designed his own spaceship, who gives piano recitals, who paints pictures of the world around him.
Benny Goodman understood it too. This is why he was at his best, blowing his clarinet, in a blue suit and black shoes.
1. The author mentions the appearance of Benny Goodman to _________.| A．show what a talented musician should look like |
| B．introduce an important figure in the musical world |
| C．contrast with his talent in music performance |
| D．indicate that he can’t stand out from the flock |
| A．an individualist tends to seek difference both in character and appearance |
| B．the essence of individualism lies in pursuing excellence to the full |
| C．being different in appearance is the very first step to being individual |
| D．those who strive to win the recognition of others are real individualists |
| A．A scientist who conducts research solely advancing knowledge for the greater good rather than for personal recognition. |
| B．A social media influencer who conforms to popular opinions to maintain a large following. |
| C．An artist who creates unique works but fail to gain fame and recognition from others. |
| D．An entrepreneur who prioritizes ethical considerations over profit in his business practices. |
| A．specific to general | B．cause and effect |
| C．examples and conclusion | D．comparison and contrast |
3 . The development of bigger brains has long been considered a hallmark of our species’ increased intelligence and subsequent dominance on this planet. The last two million years of our evolution were marked by a nearly fourfold increase in brain volume.
But a growing body of evidence suggests our brains recently changed in an unexpected way: They declined in size sometime following the end of the last Ice Age.
“Most people think of brain evolution happening in this one-dimensional way. It grows, plateaus and stops,” said Jeremy DeSilva, a professor of paleoanthropology at Dartmouth College. “But we’ve lost brain tissue equal to the volume of a lime - it isn’t a tiny little sliver we’re talking about.”
The precise timing of that Post-Ice Age brain shrink has remained a mystery until now. A group of researchers led by DeSilva used a mixture of fossil and modern specimen data to pinpoint that this loss of gray matter happened between 3, 000 to 5, 000 years ago, according to research published in June in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
Many anthropologists had initially assumed that the changes coincided with the appearance of agricultural practices around 10, 000 years ago, and a global shift away from hunting and gathering.
The more-recent dates from DeSilva’s group point to booming eras for ancient civilizations in North Africa, the Middle East and South America -complex societies that they think may have played a role in the shrinkage.
They hypothesized that human societies got so cooperatively organized in the past 3, 000 years that we began relying on what researchers call collective intelligence.
“It is the idea that a group of people is smarter than the smartest person in the group,” said James Traniello, a biology professor at Boston University and one of DeSilva’s co-authors. “So basically, if you live in a group, you solve problems more rapidly, more efficiently and more accurately than what’s possible for any individual.”
Traniello said the inspiration for applying this idea to why human brains may have shrunk came from “ultrasocial” insects such as ants. Ants form highly cooperative societies in which division of labor has favored smaller-brained individuals due to an advanced level of social organization.
The researchers suggested that perhaps our need to maintain a large brain c to keep track of information about food, social relationships, predators and our environment—has also relaxed in the past few millennia because we could store information externally in other members of our social circles, towns and groups.
“We’re so social that we don’t have to know everything anymore,” DeSilva said. “And we collectively then operate as a pretty functional society.”
1. What did Jeremy DeSilva mean by saying “But we’ve lost brain tissue equal to the volume of a lime- it isn’t a tiny little sliver we’re talking about.”?| A．The shrinking of human brain is significantly noticeable. |
| B．The shrinking of human brain is a normal result of evolution. |
| C．The shrinking of human brain is not as serious as we imagined. |
| D．The shrinking of human brain is not a big deal. |
| A．A species’ body size is not directly related to its brain size. |
| B．Cooperative social organization is likely to cause brain shrinkage. |
| C．The phenomenon of brain shrinkage is not limited to human beings. |
| D．Human beings and ants are among the most cooperative species. |
| A．The coming-into-being of agriculture. |
| B．The booming civilization in the world. |
| C．The advancement of social organization. |
| D．The development of information technology. |
| A．The reduction of brain size is likely to give rise to serious consequences. |
| B．We humans are still the most intelligent and dominant species in the world. |
| C．Collective intelligence most probably account for human’s smaller brains. |
| D．Social specialization brings more good than harm to us human beings. |
4 . Artist Susan Shepherd is best known for her flower paintings, and the large garden that surrounds her house is the source of many of her subjects. It is full of her favourite flowers, most especially vancties of tulips and poppies. Some of the plants are unruly and seed themselves all over the garden. There is a harmony of colour, shape and structure in the two long flower borders that line the paved path which crosses the garden from east to west. Much of this is due to the previous owners who were keen gardeners, and who left plants that appealed to Susan. She also inherited the gardener, Danny. “In fact, it was really his garden,” she says. “We got on very well. At first he would say, “Oh, it’s not worth it” to some of the things I wanted to put in, but when I said I wanted to paint them, he recognized what I had in mind.”
Susan prefers to focus on detailed studies of individual plants rather than on the garden as a whole, though she will occasionally paint a group of plants where they are. More usually, she picks them and then takes them up to her studio. “I don’t set the whole thing up at once,” she says. “I take one flower up at once,” she says. “I take one flower out and paint it, which might take a few days, and then I bring in another one and build up the painting that way. Sometimes it takes a couple of years to finish.”
Her busiest time of year is spring and early summer, when the tulips are out, followed by the poppies. “They all come out together, and you’re so busy,” she says. But the gradual decaying process is also part of the fascination for her. With tulips, for example, “you bring them in and put them in water, then leave them for perhaps a day and they each form themselves into different shapes. They open out and are fantastic. When you first put them in a vase, you think they are boring, but they change all the time with twists and turns.”
1. In the first paragraph, the author describes Susan’s garden as ________.| A．being only partly finished |
| B．having a path lined with flowers |
| C．having caused problems for the previous owners |
| D．needing a lot of work to keep it looking attractive |
| A．He felt she was interfering in his work. |
| B．He immediately understood her feelings. |
| C．He was recommended by the previous owners. |
| D．He was slow to see the point of some of her ideas. |
| A．She creates her paintings in several stages. |
| B．She spends all day painting an individual flower. |
| C．She likes to do research on a plant before she paints it. |
| D．She will wait until a flower is ready to be picked before painting it. |
| A．look best some time after they have been cut. |
| B．should be kept in the house for as long as possible. |
| C．are not easy to paint because they change so quickly. |
| D．are more colourful and better shaped than other flowers. |
Buzzwords (流行词) Capture How We Lived in 2023
While walking along Suzhou Creek to gather material for my latest “Shanghai Expression” column, I was wondering
Near the creek, I encountered Uncle Chen, fishing in a tranquil spot.
“Nice day for fishing,” I said in greeting him.
He looked up with a smile. “Yes, it’s a break from the mobile phono world.”
It
As I talked with Uncle Chen, the bustle of the city
Tourists and locals alike strolled through the area, some engaged in
Office workers walked by holding fancy coffee cups, a sign of the evolving coffee trends
Watching Uncle Chen, tourists, online celebrities, office workers and delivery people, I saw a changing city in a realm of constant change, summarized by a variety of contemporary buzzwords.
Each buzzword has its own story. Each popular phrase offers a peek into the hearts and minds of people, especially the younger generation. Let’s pause
1. 昆剧社（Kun Opera Club）；
2. “走进大师”社（Close to Masters Club）；
3. 涂鸦社（Doodling Club） ；
4. 文学欣赏社（Literature Appreciation Club）；
请选择你最想参加的1-2个社团并说明原因，以及对社团活动开展提出建议。（120—150字）
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Have You Got Success Amnesia?
Have you heard yourself say “it was nothing really” when someone congratulates you on a job well done? Or have you drawn a blank when you are asked to make a list of what you have achieved? If so, you have suffered success amnesia. Failing to acknowledge your hard work is often a sign of success amnesia. It signals that there might be a gap between how others view your achievements and how you see them.
People who have success amnesia often have a strong track record at work or get it sorted for family members. They are people who others would describe as successful and yet they find it difficult to acknowledge and own their results. They don’t hold their achievements in their memory bank.
This particular type of memory loss robs them of the satisfaction and pleasure that can follow in achieving a goal. And, perhaps more importantly, it robs them of confidence. Confidence does not guarantee success, but it does increase the chance of success. Why not try some practical methods?
Ask for feedback about the impact you’ve had and then listen carefully. Watch out for anything that you begin to tell yourself “It wasn’t that big a deal.” Try to absorb what you hear. You can also look back over the past 6 or12 months, capture every success you can think of, whether large or small, and write them down clearly. Purposefully acknowledging and admitting your achievements can help to bring them into more realistic focus. Besides, be mindful that you have a tendency to forget or minimize your achievements. A sticky note on your laptop screen might help: my strengths and achievements are bigger than they appear to me.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . In Favour of Simple Writing
Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them? If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in
People are constantly receiving messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert. What to read, what to skim (略读) and what to ignore are decisions that nearly everyone has to make dozens of times a day. A new book titled All Readers are Busy Nowadays makes the argument for being the careful kind of
Take “less is more”. Most books on writing well advocate the advice to
Keeping messages to a
Syntax (句法) and
If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too. That may make it tempting to sent as many messages as
| A．conveying | B．understanding | C．crafting | D．sending |
| A．care | B．quantity | C．simplicity | D．technology |
| A．reader | B．poster | C．learner | D．writer |
| A．structures | B．principles | C．aims | D．alternatives |
| A．remove | B．ignore | C．reconsider | D．interpret |
| A．conveyed | B．translated | C．tested | D．shaped |
| A．lowered | B．affected | C．doubled | D．maintained |
| A．basic | B．positive | C．definite | D．single |
| A．Recording | B．Reducing | C．Counting | D．Estimating |
| A．in comparison | B．after all | C．for instance | D．in particular |
| A．word-choice | B．pattern-design | C．target-setting | D．platform-selection |
| A．difficult | B．suitable | C．challenging | D．common |
| A．carefully | B．often | C．politely | D．quickly |
| A．outcomes | B．points | C．figures | D．benefits |
| A．received | B．written | C．read | D．answered |
9 . Flinging brightly coloured objects around a screen at high speed is not what computers’ central processing units were designed for. So manufacturers of arcade machines invented the graphics-processing unit (GPU), a set of circuits to handle video games’ visuals in parallel to the work done by the central processor. The GPU’s ability to speed up complex tasks has since found wider uses: video editing, cryptocurrency mining and most recently, the training of artificial intelligence.
AI is now disrupting the industry that helped bring it into being. Every part of entertainment stands to be affected by generative AI, which digests inputs of text, image, audio or video to create new outputs of the same. But the games business will change the most, argues Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital (VC) firm. Games interactivity requires them to be stuffed with laboriously designed content: consider the 30 square miles of landscape or 60 hours of music in “Red Dead Redemption 2”, a recent cowboy adventure. Enlisting AI assistants to churn it out could drastically shrink timescales and budgets.
AI represents an “explosion of opportunity” and could drastically change the landscape of game development. Making a game is already easier than it was: nearly 13,000 titles were published last year on Steam, a games platform, almost double the number in 2017. Gaming may soon resemble the music and video industries in which most new content on Spotify or YouTube is user-generated. One games executive predicts that small firms will be the quickest to work out what new genres are made possible by AI. Last month Raja Koduri, an executive at Intel, left the chip maker to found an AI-gaming startup.
Don’t count the big studios out, though. If they can release half a dozen high-quality titles a year instead of a couple, it might chip away at the hit-driven nature of their business, says Josh Chapman of Konvoy, a gaming focused VC firm. A world of more choices also favors those with big marketing budgets. And the giants may have better answers to the mounting copyright questions around AI. If generative models have to be trained on data to which the developer has the rights, those with big back-catalogues will be better placed than startups. Trent Kaniuga, an artist who has worked on games like “Fortnite”, said last month that several clients had updated their contracts to ban AI-generated art.
If the lawyers don’t intervene, unions might. Studios diplomatically refer to AI assistants as “co-pilots”, not replacements for humans.
1. The original purpose behind the invention of the graphics-processing unit (GPU) was to ________.| A．speed up complex tasks in video editing and cryptocurrency mining |
| B．assist in the developing and training of artificial intelligence |
| C．disrupt the industry and create new outputs using generative AI |
| D．offload game visual tasks from the central processor |
| A．It contributes to the growth of user-generated content. |
| B．It facilitates blockbuster dependency on big studios. |
| C．It decreases collaboration between different stakeholders in the industry. |
| D．It may help to consolidate the gaming market under major corporations. |
| A．AI favors the businesses with small marketing budgets. |
| B．AI is expected to simplify game development processes. |
| C．AI allows startups to gain an edge over big firms with authorized data. |
| D．AI assistants may serve as human substitutes for studios. |
| A．The evolution of graphics-processing units (GPUs). |
| B．The impact of generative AI on the gaming industry. |
| C．The societal significance of graphics-processing units (GPUs). |
| D．The challenges generative AI presents to gaming studios. |
