1 . A humanoid robot can relay video and touch sensations to a person wearing a haptic (触觉内) feedback suit and a virtual reality (VR) headset hundreds of kilometres away, offering away for people to attend events without travelling.
The iCub 3 robot is a 52-kilogram, 125-centimetre-tall robot with 54 joints across its body. Its head contains two cameras where a human’s eyes would be, and an Internet-connected computer where the brain would go. Along with the cameras, sensors covering its body send data to the robot’s “brain”. These sensations are then reproduced on a suit and VR headset worn by a remote human operator.
When the operators react to what they see and feel, the suit’s sensors pick up the movements and the robot matches them. “The key is to translate every signal and bit of digital data that can be sent through the network.” says Stefano Dafarra, who was part of the iCub3 team. There can be a small delay of up to 100 milliseconds to capture and transmit the visual shots, but the operator can case this by moving slightly slower than normal.
The team demonstrated the robot at the Venice Biennale, where it wandered through an exhibition while its operator stood 290 kilometres away in Genoa. Dafarra hopes people will use the iCub3 to attend events remotely, reducing the need to travel. “But at present, a fall could be hugely damaging to the robot, and it’s uncertain whether it could stand up again on its own," he says.
“iCub3 is an interesting robot and offers clear advantages from the previous versions.” says Jonathan Aitken, whose laboratory owns a prior version of the robot. However, he is disappointed that the team wasn’t clear in its research about the data transmission requirements of the new version of the robot. “It would be good to know just how much data was required, and what the upper and lower bounds were.” he says.
1. What’s the principle behind the humanoid robot?| A．It conveys sensations to the wearer and acts accordingly. |
| B．It receives commands from an operator through the Internet. |
| C．The cameras take pictures and then interact with the sensors. |
| D．The computer in the robot processes the data and gives orders. |
| A．Medical consultation. | B．Sports events. |
| C．Outdoor workouts. | D．Virtual tourism. |
| A．It fails to appeal to potential investors. |
| B．Its performance hasn’t been evaluated clearly. |
| C．Its present version still requires to be updated. |
| D．Its transmission of data came across technical problems. |
| A．Humanoid robots with sense of touch catch on |
| B．iCub 3 robot combines with VR to benefit more people |
| C．Humanoid robots let people see and feel things remotely |
| D．New advances in technology enable people to travel at work |
2 . On Sunday, Tara VanDerveer, Stanford University’s coach, got her 1,203rd victory in a game against Oregon State University at Maples Pavilion. The
Instead of
“I just
It’s VanDerveer’s latest milestone in a
In a recent
| A．staff | B．victory | C．arrangement | D．decision |
| A．basketball | B．football | C．baseball | D．volleyball |
| A．ended | B．postponed | C．rearranged | D．begun |
| A．broke | B．played | C．equalled | D．lost |
| A．denying | B．defending | C．making | D．stressing |
| A．feeling | B．misbehavior | C．competition | D．benefit |
| A．love | B．forget | C．wonder | D．evaluate |
| A．final | B．great | C．local | D．senior |
| A．payment | B．trouble | C．support | D．work |
| A．struggling | B．long | C．political | D．new |
| A．serve as | B．argue with | C．suffer from | D．sweep away |
| A．design | B．see | C．miss | D．win |
| A．fight | B．cooperation | C．negotiation | D．interview |
| A．far | B．well | C．fast | D．hard |
| A．visited | B．joined | C．pictured | D．phoned |
| A．coaches | B．contests | C．boys | D．classes |
| A．dormitory | B．city | C．office | D．store |
| A．wash | B．buy | C．choose | D．keep |
| A．award | B．scholarship | C．treatment | D．punishment |
| A．worked out | B．worried about | C．carried out | D．dreamed of |
1. Why did the speaker study psychology?
| A．She wanted to be famous. |
| B．She wanted to study happiness. |
| C．She was interested in it. |
| A．Remember how long it sounded. |
| B．Stop it from sounding immediately. |
| C．Write down something about themselves. |
| A．Wealth. | B．Education. | C．Concentration. |
| A．Her knowing how to be happy. |
| B．Her strong belief in herself. |
| C．Her great achievement in her career. |
1. Why did the man close his Wechat Moments?
| A．He didn’t like the posts on Wechat. |
| B．He tried to focus on the real world. |
| C．He didn’t want people to know anything about him. |
| A．Through emails. |
| B．Through instant messages. |
| C．Through face-to-face conversations. |
| A．He pays more attention to work. |
| B．He spends more time with his family. |
| C．He communicates more with old friends. |
| A．Boss and secretary. | B．Old schoolmates. | C．Waiter and customer. |
| Li Jiang 6 July, Sunny Our family will go on a trip next month and need a suitcase. Two days ago, Mom asked me to find relevant information on the Internet. But the information I got was rich and varied, or even contradictory. Confused, I simply based my decision on the ratings. Within five minutes, we ordered the one we were satisfied with. This afternoon, Mom received the case and told me she liked it very much. |
| Su Hua 6 July, Sunny This morning, our family went out, hanging round in the downtown area. We found a rating of the Top Ten Restaurants, and went into one of them. We spent quite a lot of money, but were not happy. Mom complained a lot, and said that despite its high ratings, the food was not to our taste. I was puzzled. Should I believe in these ratings, or should I not? |
1.用约30个词概括上述利用排名（rating）进行消费的现象；
2.谈谈你如何看待消费排名，然后用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。
【写作要求】
1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3.不必写标题。
参考词汇: consumption rating
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6 . Many people have dreamt to find a cancer cure. Now, a pill might provide some insight into their dreams.
The medicine, AOH1996, also called the “cancer-killing pill”, explicitly targets the protein that encourages cancer cells to spread across the body. It prevents proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA 细胞增殖核抗原) with a tiny molecule. Up to August 2023, it is being evaluated in Phase I clinical studies for the treatment of solid cancers.
Cancer is a condition in which abnormal cells continue to proliferate uncontrollably, causing the tissue to be destroyed. About one in six deaths were due to cancer in 2020, making it the top cause of death globally.
According to a recent study published in Cell Chemical Biology, City of Hope researchers have discovered a novel method to treat cancer using a special tablet that can get rid of solid tumors. AOH1996 differs from other targeted cancer therapies in this respect, where other approaches may cause a tumor to change and develop more resistance to treatment.
According to City of Hope Professor Linda Malkas, the research team created a medicine specifically targeting the kind of PCNA seen in cancer cells since data indicate that PCNA is distinctively changed in cancer cells. The novel cancer medicine acts like a snowstorm closing a significant airport, stopping only flights from and to aircraft carrying cancer cells.
“Results have been promising. AOH1996 can prevent tumor growth in cell and animal models. The drug is currently in Phase I clinical trial in humans at City of Hope.”
Treatment of lung, brain and skin cancers with AOH1996 has shown to be effective. It kills specific cells by stopping them from replicating (复制) typically. To assess this medicine for potential future use, more clinical studies are planned.
1. What can we know about PCNA?| A．It is a pill that cures solid cancer. |
| B．It is a medicine that prevents tumor growth. |
| C．It is a molecule targeted by the cancer-killing pill AOH1996. |
| D．It is a protein that causes cancer cells to spread across the body. |
| A．It has cured many patients’ cancers. |
| B．It will develop drug resistance. |
| C．It is a natural product collected from plants. |
| D．It has less side effects than other cancer drugs. |
| A．AOH1996 targets cancer cells without harming healthy cells. |
| B．AOH1996 has caused chaos in the medical field. |
| C．AOH1996 is highly effective but inefficient in treating cancer patients. |
| D．AOH1996 is unpredictable and can have unintended consequences. |
| A．Determining the specific types of cancers it can effectively treat. |
| B．Investigating the possible side effects of the medicine. |
| C．Determining if it can be used on a large scale. |
| D．Confirming its effectiveness in killing specific cells. |
1. What inspired Chai Lin to start collecting bicycles?
| A．His successful business. |
| B．His family’s support. |
| C．His love for history. |
| A．In 1980. | B．In 2009. | C．In 2019. |
| A．Expand overseas business. |
| B．Increase the exhibition space. |
| C．Organize a cycling race. |
8 . Recently, I was walking with some parents when we came across a five-pound note lying on the ground. We stood around it for a moment, a bit awkwardly, until someone suggested putting it on a nearby bench. Then one of the parents remarked that we’d probably have behaved differently — that is, we would have just taken the money — had we been alone.
This relates to a classic question in studies of human generosity: do we behave more selfishly when we aren’t being observed? The debate goes on across the psychological and biological sciences, as well as in popular culture, about whether kindness can exist in a competitive world.
Yom Kippur is a Jewish (犹太人的) religious holiday when Jewish people fast and ask for forgiveness for the wrongs they’ve committed. One of the points of Yom Kippur is to behave better regardless of who is watching. There’s an evolutionary beauty to the teachings of Yom Kippur, which are the products of thousands of years of cultural changes and evolution.
The Maasai people of Kenya practice osotua: relationships between people that operate based on need. When someone forms an osotua relationship with another, they enter into an unwritten contract to help their partner in times of need. And hunter-gatherer groups, which can represent the circumstances our species evolved in, have many similar examples.
Cultural evolution helps to explain the existence and complexity of these systems. Cultural changes are far faster than biological evolution, allowing intelligent species like humans to develop behavioral adaptations for managing complex social environments. Osotua, or any other practice that helps to maintain good treatment of others in society, is the result of tens of thousands of years of cultural trial and error. The customs passed down over time are those that help us to develop as cultural groups.
The study of those changes has helped us to understand how we successfully spread around the world as cooperative groups. Biological evolution has helped humans be more cooperative, but cultural changes have accelerated this process.
Cultural evolution helps us to overcome our selfish natures. Try to understand rules before you ignore them — and next time you find a fiver on the ground, you might think about the awkward situation your discovery represents.
1. What made the parents feel a bit awkward?| A．The difficulty sharing the money. |
| B．The difficulty finding the owner of the money. |
| C．The thought of putting the money on the bench. |
| D．The thought of keeping the money for themselves. |
| A．To highlight a fact. | B．To draw a conclusion. |
| C．To make a comparison. | D．To support an argument. |
| A．It evolves much slower. | B．It takes much less time. |
| C．It is a more complex process. | D．It makes humans more cooperative. |
| A．How cultural evolution takes place. | B．Why people sometimes behave selfishly. |
| C．Why kindness exists in a competitive world. | D．How kindness spreads throughout the world. |
9 . Lately, it’s felt like technological change has entered an incredible speed. Companies like OpenAI and Google have unveiled new Artificial Intelligence systems with incredible capabilities, making what once seemed like science fiction an everyday reality. It's an era that is raising big, existential questions for us all, about everything from the future of human existence to the future of human work.
“Things are changing so fast,”says Erik Brynjolfsson, a leading, technology-focused economist based at Stanford University. As he notes, this new wave of technological change looks like it could be pretty different. Unlike before, experienced and skilled workers benefited mostly from AI technology. In this new wave, it’s the less experienced and less skilled workers who benefit the most.“And that might be helpful in terms of closing some of the inequality that previous technologies actually promoted,” Brynjolfsson says. So one benefit of intelligence machines is-maybe-they will improve the know-how and smarts of low performers, thereby reducing inequality.
But it’s also possible that Al could lower the profit of the experienced, smart, or knowledgeable ones.AI could reduce inequality by bringing the bottom up, and it could also reduce inequality by bringing the top and middle down.
Of course, as Erik put, it’s also possible that Al could end up increasing inequality even more. For one, it could make the Big AI companies, which own these powerful new systems, wildly rich. It could also empower business owners to replace more and more workers with intelligent machines. And it could kill jobs for all but the best of the best in various industries, who keep their jobs because maybe they're superstars or because maybe they have seniority.
The effects of AI, of course, are still very much being studied and these systems are evolving fast, so this is just an assumption. This machine intelligence could upend much of the previous thinking on which kinds of jobs will be affected by automation.
1. What do the underlined words “the know-how and smarts” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Experience and intelligence. | B．Skills and potential. |
| C．Capacity and experience. | D．Outlook and talents. |
| A．The senior with high rank. |
| B．The inexperienced with low competence |
| C．The learned with great credit. |
| D．The poor with practical skills. |
| A．The fast development of AI will promote the division of inequality. |
| B．AI Giants will be the dominator in the future world of new AI systems. |
| C．The best of all walks of life will survive the competition against AI systems. |
| D．Lower rank workers with little knowledge are bound to be abandoned by employers. |
| A．The Fast Growth of the Artificial Intelligence |
| B．The Influence of the AI Inequality |
| C．The Impact of the Artificial Intelligence |
| D．The Future of the AI Generation |
10 . We may weep for the dodo, but could and should we bring this lovely bird back from the dead? De-extinction is the science of restoring lost species and it has been in the news for decades.
The story in modern times began in 1990 when Michael Crichton published his science fiction novel Jurassic Park, in which he imagined a world where scientists were able to bring dinosaurs back to life. Crichton imagined that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology could be a way to amplify (放大) tiny quantities of dinosaur DNA and thus build a living embryo.
Sadly, biologists soon realized that DNA in fact breaks down super-fast; even after 100 years, DNA from museum skins of dodos was decayed (腐烂) beyond repair. They could be sequenced (测定序列) using massive computational power, but then only with considerable uncertainty. And even if you capture a DNA sequence, there’s still the problem of how you get living cells to read that sequence and express proteins that make the dinosaur or the dodo.
But why would anyone want to see mammoths, or something like them, roaming (漫游) present-day Siberia? Well, they were undoubtedly amazing beasts. As well as hunting them, our distant ancestors painted their likenesses in caves across Europe. Fascinating as they may be, there's some ecological justification for the project too.
It was this diversity of land surface, broken up by heavy limbs and randomly fertilised by faeces (排泄物), that supported so much flora (植物群). Without the mammoths, that diversity disappeared. Return them and landscapes would once again be with a variety of species, including flowers and bushes.
True, it’s not de-extinction in the sense of bringing a long-dead species back to life. Instead it’s more like making a “dodo” by engineering a modern pigeon, its closest relative, to become huge and flightless. The result would be a big, fatty pigeon that, whether it looked like a dodo or not, would probably fulfil some of its ecological roles.
As a palaeontologist, I would of course love to see living dinosaurs, mammoths and dodos. In some ways, though, I am relieved that the optimistic claims for cloning and genetic technologies have not been borne out. The slowdown gives us time to consider the outcomes—and hopefully avoid some of Michael Crichton’s more fevered imaginings.
1. What is paragraph 2 of the text mainly about?| A．A science fiction review. | B．The development of DNA. |
| C．An inspired guess of de-extinction. | D．The application of PCR technology. |
| A．DNA is hard to keep for long. | B．Computational power is limited. |
| C．Biologists are opposed to it. | D．Living cells cant be sequenced. |
| A．They expect to seek hunt fun. | B．They lack sources of modern art. |
| C．They need them for research. | D．They want to see biodiversity. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Unclear. | C．Dismissive. | D．Approving. |
