News Times
| Time | At |
| Event | A 15-year-old boy was |
| The hitter | A man with long hair |
| The boy’s situation | Out of danger |
| The speaker’s request | Anyone with |
2 . Here’s an all-too-familiar situation: You excitedly packed for your beach trip. Luckily, you remembered all the necessities: socks, underwear, a phone charger and your passport, etc. But upon arrival, you realized you forgot to bring your toothbrush. In a new study, researchers suggest offloading important to-do items — for example, by setting reminders on your phone — could clear brain space to better remember the little things, like your toothbrush.
To prove this, the researchers developed a memory task to be played on a touch screen computer. The test was undertaken by 158 volunteers aged between 18 and 71. They were shown 12 numbered circles on the screen, and had to remember to drag some of these to the left and some to the right. The number of circles that they remembered to drag to the correct side decided their rewards at the end of the experiment. One side was “high value’, meaning that remembering to drag a circle to this side was worth 10 times as much money as remembering to drag a circle to the other “low value” side.
Volunteers performed this task 16 times. They had to use their own memory to remember at half of the trials and they were allowed to set reminders on the external digital devices for the other half.
The researchers found volunteers tended to use the digital devices to store details of the high-value circles. And, when they did so, their memory for those circles was improved by 18%. “What was unexpected was that their memory for low-value circles was also improved by 27%, even in those who had never set any reminders for low-value circles,” said Sam Gilbect.
However, results also showed a potential cost to using reminders. When reminders were taken away, the volunteers remembered the low-value circles better than the high-value ones. “Far from causing digital dementia (痴呆), using a memory device can even improve our memory for information that we never saved. But we need to be careful that we back up the most important information. Otherwise, if a memory tool fails, we could be left with nothing but less important information in our own memory,” Gilbert said.
1. The situation in paragraph 1 is described to show that ______.| A．our memory is incorrect sometimes |
| B．our memory has a certain preference |
| C．our memory has an order of importance |
| D．our memory is likely to weaken over time |
| A．Volunteers’ performance was connected with their ages. |
| B．Volunteers tended to set reminders for low-value circles. |
| C．Volunteers were not allowed to use devices in the experiment. |
| D．Dragging high-value circles to the correct side would win more awards. |
| A．Digital devices did harm to the brain when used improperly. |
| B．Volunteers tended to remember low-value information better. |
| C．Volunteers’ memory for low-value content was improved too. |
| D．Volunteers tended to use digital devices for high-value information. |
| A．We rely too much on to-do lists |
| B．Digital reminders are replacing human memory |
| C．Overuse of technology leads to digital dementia |
| D．Using digital reminders helps improve our memory |
3 . I had not visited Eton for many years. When one day passing from the Fellows’ Library into the Gallery, I caught sight of the
This portrait-gallery of old Etonians is very
| A．statue | B．character | C．portrait | D．theme |
| A．valuable | B．distinguished | C．familiar | D．gracious |
| A．wholly | B．partly | C．curiously | D．secretly |
| A．peers | B．chairman | C．leader | D．companion |
| A．judgment | B．thought | C．memories | D．behaviour |
| A．hurriedly | B．freshly | C．anxiously | D．eagerly |
| A．selective | B．splendid | C．handsome | D．challenging |
| A．Yet | B．Therefore | C．Thus | D．However |
| A．because | B．why | C．that | D．what |
| A．observed | B．captured | C．illustrated | D．guarded |
| A．operate | B．promote | C．justify | D．permit |
| A．appreciation | B．reason | C．cause | D．effect |
| A．devotion | B．ambition | C．imagination | D．symbol |
| A．brought about | B．stood for | C．stood out | D．brought in |
| A．interpret | B．grant | C．appoint | D．identify |
5 . Have you ever got the feeling that your dog is judging you? Well, you’re in for a surprise because it’s actually your dog who might be viewing you with a critical eye. Eliza Fletcher and her colleagues wondered whether dogs might rate us in terms of our skillfulness, particularly when those skills might come in handy for our four-footed little friends. So they set up a simple experiment.
They showed 60 dogs two persons opening containers. One person is competent. That person was able to pop open the top after just a couple of twists while the other person failed at this task. That person tried to open the lid, but then gave up. The actors repeated the performance on a second container, with the same results. Then the researchers handed both actors a third container. In some trials, this container was empty. In others, it contained a treat. And what they found was that female dogs spent more time staring expectantly at the person who had previously demonstrated container-opening know-how. And they were more likely to approach the competent person, but only when they thought they might get free food. Dogs in the empty condition showed no preferences.
So, why would females be more careful observers of people’s performances than males? Female advantage in the social cognitive domain (认知领域) has been reported across many species including humans. In other words, in many cognitive studies, furry females seem to show a higher social IQ than males. And sex differences have been seen in other dog studies. For example, females look at their owners more frequently and longer than males when facing unsolvable task. Female dogs solve significantly more tasks than males in social learning task.
So, next time Fifi looks at you with those puppy dog eyes, you might be thinking, what a good dog! But she might be thinking, eeem, you could do better.
1. Why did Eliza Fletcher do the experiment?| A．To figure out the rate of human skills. |
| B．To prove dogs have better skills than humans. |
| C．To test whether dogs judge human’s skillfulness. |
| D．To find out whether some human skills are easy for dogs. |
| A．By making comparisons. | B．By making inferences. |
| C．By giving explanation. | D．By analysing figures. |
| A．To remind people of the research result. |
| B．To entertain readers with a vivid picture. |
| C．To prove that dogs are intelligent enough. |
| D．To show close relation between men and dogs. |
It was time for the annual Potato-Salad Contest in Russet Park. After trying for the third time, Alexis shook her head sadly. There was no way she would win the Golden Potato again because Grandpa wasn’t here this year.
Memories of how Grandpa taught her to make potato rose in her mind. She sighed and missed Grandpa so much.
Alexis cut the potatoes and mixed the boiled potatoes, some sauces and a little salt and peppers in a bowl. But it didn’t taste right. Alexis tried a bite of the salad mixture, wondering what was missing. Seeing her frown, Mom suggested, “What about something spicy? Your Grandpa loved spicy things.”
“You’re right! Maybe he put a jalapeno pepper in it,” Alexis said, cutting up a bright green jalapeno and adding it to the bowl.
It was closer, but it still didn’t taste right. Alexis was drooping her head, disappointed. “Should we look in a cookbook?”
“Grandpa was never one to follow a recipe,” Dad entered the kitchen and said.
It was true. People loved Grandpa’s potato salad because it was one of a kind. Alexis remembered posing with Grandpa for a photo while they were making the salad.
Photo! That gave her an idea. Alexis hurried to the bookcase and found an old photo album. She immediately flipped it open, expecting to find clues in the photos there. Lots of photos showed Grandpa and Grandma cooking together. Dad laughed, “He and Grandma loved to tease each other but he always called her Honey.”
“Do you think he put honey in the potato salad?” Mum asked.
“It is worth a try,” said Alexis. She stirred some honey into the bowl.
But it still wasn’t quite right. Alexis’ heart sank, on the verge of giving up. Dad kept flipping the album. At the end of the album was the picture of Grandpa and Alexis making the salad together.
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
It looked like Grandpa was crying in the photo.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With hesitation, the family tasted the potato salad with onions in it.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . After Alexander Pushkin was shot in a duel (决斗) in 1837, crowds of mourners formed in Saint Petersburg. When the wagon carrying the much loved poet’s body reached Pskov province, where he was to be buried, admirers tried to pull the vehicle themselves.
Today’s celebrity funerals tend to involve the public largely digitally rather than in person. But people are passionate all the same. In the past few months, grief has coursed around the Internet for Milan Kundera, and most recently, Michael Gambon. If you stop to think about it, such expressions of strong feelings for writers and actors are odd, even irrational.
Unlike other kinds of grief, this one is not rooted in personal intimacy (亲密关系). If you ever interacted with a cherished author, it was probably during a book tour when she signed your copy of her novel. Maybe you once locked eyes with a musician during a live concert and he smiled at you, but actually he did not even know you.
Objectively, sorrow makes sense when a star dies young or violently. Had she not died at 27, who knows what music Amy Winehouse would have added to her already impressive collections of work? The death of a long-lived and fulfilled artist, however, is far from the saddest item in an average day’s headlines. And while most ordinary people sink into oblivion, these celebrities live on in their output. Why, then, are these losses felt so widely and keenly?
One interpretation is that departed celebrities are merely the messengers. Part of your past —the years in which the musician was the soundtrack, the writer your ally (盟友) — can seem to fade away with them. The grief can be seen as a form of gratitude for the harmony and joy they supplied.
More importantly, the passing of an artist is an occasion for exchanges of ideas. In an atomized age, in which the default (默认) tone is critical, a beloved figure’s death is a chance to share positive feelings and memories with fellow admirers. These sad occasions are the parting gifts of these artists.
1. Why does the author mention Milan Kundera and Michael Gambon in paragraph 2?| A．To prove that celebrities’ funerals tend to attract wider public attention. |
| B．To illustrate why people express their sadness at the loss of those celebrities. |
| C．To demonstrate that people’s mourning for celebrities seems strange and unreasonable. |
| D．To show that people’s grief over celebrities’ death is ridiculous and impractical. |
| A．are upset | B．are desperate | C．are helpless | D．are forgotten |
| A．People won’t mourn for celebrities unless they have intimate relationships with celebrities. |
| B．It’s natural that people mourn for celebrities dying young but not for those long-lived ones. |
| C．People feel sad for the passing of celebrities because of the mental nourishment received. |
| D．People attend celebrities’ funerals, either in person or on the Internet, to express their loyalty. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving. | C．Skeptical. | D．Concerned. |
| A．were, their | B．was, whose | C．was, their | D．were, whose |
9 . A moment occurs in the exchange between professor and student when each of us adopts a look. My look says, “What, you don’t understand?” Theirs says, “We don’t. And we think you’re making it up.” We are having a problem. Basically, we’ve all read the same story, but we haven’t used the same analytical approaches. It may seem at times as if the professor is inventing interpretations out of thin air.
Actually, the truth is that as the slightly more experienced reader, the professor has acquired over the years the use of a certain “language reading”. Besides, he has grasped three professional tools-memory, symbol and pattern. These items separate the professional readers from the ordinary ones.
English professors are cursed with memory. When reading a new book, I constantly seek out connections and inferences, recalling faces and themes from past readings. I can’t not do it, although there are plenty of times when that ability is not something I want to exercise. This does not necessarily improve the experience of popular entertainment.
Professors also read and think symbolically. Everything is a symbol of something, it seems, until proven otherwise. We ask: What does the thing over there represent? The kind of mind that works its way through undergraduate and then graduate classes in literature and criticism tends to see things as existing in themselves while also representing something else. This tendency to understand the world in symbolic terms is enhanced by years of training and rewards the symbolic imagination.
A related phenomenon in professorial reading is pattern recognition. Most professional students of literature learn to take in the specific detail while seeing the patterns that the detail reveals. Experience has proved to them that life and books fall into similar patterns. Literature is full of patterns, and your reading experience will be much more rewarding when you can step back from the work, even while you are reading it, and look for those patterns.
1. How does the author introduce the topic?| A．By describing a real-life scene. | B．By using popular quotes. |
| C．By presenting conflicting ideas. | D．By raising an interesting question. |
| A．They have limited life experience. |
| B．They lack chances for sufficient reading. |
| C．They are unable to analyze the text thoroughly. |
| D．They do not trust the professor’s teaching abilities. |
| A．They have a strong desire to not have their good memory. |
| B．Their reading habit doesn’t always guarantee desirable effects. |
| C．Their memory adds to their reading pleasure of popular works. |
| D．They keep making connections with their own life while reading. |
| A．Identify the hidden text modes. | B．Perceive many things at the same time. |
| C．Look for details and language patterns. | D．Memorize patterns of symbolic meanings. |
1.人工智能带来的好处；
2.人工智能潜在的威胁；
3.合理使用人工智能的建议。
注意：1.写作词数应为100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Balancing Benefits and Risks of AI
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
