1 . In one horrible film plot, AI eventually outsmarts humans and takes over computers and factories. In another, large language models (LLMs) of the sort that power generative AI like ChatGPT give bad guys the know — how to create destructive cyberweapons.
It is time to think hard about these film plots, not because they have become more probable but because policymakers around the world are considering measures to guard against them. The idea that AI could drive humans to extinction is speculative — no one yet knows how such a threat might materialise and no common methods exist for determining what counts as risky. Plenty of research needs to be done before standards and rules can be set.
Governments cannot ignore a technology that could change the world deeply. Regulators have been too slow in the past, but there is danger, too, in acting hurriedly. If they go too fast, policymakers could create global rules that are aimed at the wrong problems and are ineffective against the real ones.
Because of the computing resources and technical skills required, only a handful of companies have so far developed powerful “frontier” models. New hurried regulations could easily block out competitors to the “handful of companies”, especially because these companies are working closely with governments on writing the rule book. A focus on extreme risks is likely to make regulators careful of open-source models, which are freely available and can easily be revised.
The best that governments can do now is to set up the basic systems to study the technology and its potential risks, and ensure that those working on the problem have enough resources. As AI develops further, regulators will have a far better idea of what risks they are guarding against, and consequently what the rule book should look like. A fully mature body could eventually take shape. But creating it will take time and reflection.
1. What does the first paragraph function as?| A．An argument. | B．An explanation. | C．A lead-in. | D．A comment. |
| A．He believes it is a realistic possibility. |
| B．He considers it fictional and unworthy for policymakers to pay attention to. |
| C．He views it as an uncertain threat that needs more research. |
| D．He perceives it as a seemingly reasonable situation that requires serious consideration. |
| A．Competition in this area is prevented. | B．The development of AI is restricted. |
| C．AI will be applied to a limited degree. | D．The public will be misled about danger. |
| A．AI: a Real Threat? | B．Don’t Rush into Policing AI |
| C．AI: Humans’ Friend or Enemy? | D．Time for Government to Regulate AI |
2 . In the flood of innovative solutions that have emerged in the last several years to save the world from plastic pollution, Tom Szaky’s solution may be one of the most audacious (大胆的). Szaky has presented a concept that dates to the turn of the last century-returnable, refillable containers. The idea was introduced to the world by Coca-Cola in the early 1920s, when coke was sold in expensive glass bottles that the company needed to be returned. They charged a two-cent deposit (押金), roughly 40 percent of the full cost of the soft drink, and got about 98 percent of their bottles back to be reused 40 to 50 times. Bottle deposit programs remain one of the most successful methods ever invented for recovering packaging.
Szaky launched Loop, an online delivery service that uses serviceable, reusable containers. The bold part of his venture-or risk, if you are one of his financial backers-is that Loop pushes far beyond the common returnable beverage bottles and sells more than 300 items, from food to laundry liquid, in containers of various sizes and made from various materials. His signature product is Häagen- Dazs ice cream that is packed inside a smooth, heat-barrier stainless steel bucket guaranteed to prevent its contents from melting.
Slightly messy in jeans and a coat, Szaky looks every bit the common entrepreneur. He dropped out of Princeton University 17 years ago to become an innovator in the garbage business. Then, he founded TerraCycle, a company near his college. He figured out a way to recycle cigarette ends, and a long list of other non-recyclable things. Then, he became more interested in restoring the circularity of that earlier era and eliminating the disposability from packaging altogether.
Loop is part of the recovery of refillable things as a serious option for plastic waste. The beverage industry is expanding its use of returnable bottles; an Oregon brewery claims to have started the United States’ first state-wide refillable beer system. More significantly, efforts like Loop’s to reinvent packaging for products that don’t fit easily into the refillable category have attracted startups and some of the world’s largest corporate players.
1. How is the Coca-Cola’s bottle deposit program?| A．It’s costly. | B．It’s effective. |
| C．It is a complex process. | D．It remains questionable to many people. |
| A．It struggles to get financial support. |
| B．It covers a wider range of businesses. |
| C．It mainly gains profits from Häagen-Dazs ice cream. |
| D．It was the first to propose using steel containers to store beverages. |
| A．Creative and ambitious. | B．Self-disciplined and outgoing. |
| C．Hardworking and careful. | D．Responsible and kind-hearted. |
| A．To make good use of the waste. | B．To cover his college fees. |
| C．To cooperate with more corporate players. | D．To expand his influence in his college. |
3 . The parents’ interpersonal strength, such as kindness, love, and social intelligence, is one of the salient points in nurturing their children. As social psychologist John Bowlby puts it, “We do as we have been done by.”
Here is the example of my grandmother. When other children came over to play with my mother, my grandmother would fix them delicious butter sandwiches-the crusts (面包皮) delicately removed from the bread for “the guests” but unavoidably left on for her own children. This is how we ought to treat guests in our home-guests are worthy of kindness, but you are not. The kindness that my grandmother modeled and instructed her children to emulate (效仿) was not ultimately what they experienced - kindness was seen but not felt.
Generally, we often treat others the way we ourselves were treated. So much of what we learn as children and adults is experience-dependent. First-hand experience, especially when repeated over time, literally shapes the brain and nervous system, with downstream consequences for the way we engage with the world around us, deal with emotions, and behave socially.
We don’t learn to love by being instructed to love; we learn to love by experiencing love. We don’t learn kindness by being told to be kind; we learn kindness by experiencing kindness in our darkest moments. Recent research shows that children who received help while playing a game were more likely to share with another child, possibly motivated by feelings of gratitude to the person who helped them. They could learn that they don’t just repay the kindness but they need to pay it forward.
This transforms one of the key questions about raising kids: Perhaps we should ask not how to teach our children kindness, but how we want our children to experience kindness from us. If we want to create a kinder society, we might start with policies that ensure kinder treatment of kids. This means reimagining our education and foster care systems around compassion and support. Science tells us that experiences of kindness in childhood have long-term, biological, intergenerational effects on children’s development; our parenting and political systems should reflect the science.
1. What does the underlined word “salient” in the first paragraph mean?| A．Obvious. | B．Important. | C．Interesting. | D．Controversial. |
| A．Understandable. | B．Instructive. | C．Disappointing. | D．Impractical. |
| A．Action speaks louder than words. |
| B．Kindness makes better cooperation. |
| C．It is important to repay others’ kindness. |
| D．Gratitude is a motivation for helping others. |
| A．To give suggestions on parenting. |
| B．To call on people to learn science. |
| C．To show the advantages of being kind. |
| D．To offer evidence supporting his point of view. |
4 . Managing Pre-Exam Anxiety
Experiencing anxiety before an exam is common.
Make regular physical activity part of your daily routine to reduce stress and improve your mood. Include relaxation exercises in your routine. Deep breathing exercises can calm you down. Progressive muscle relaxation, where you tense and then slowly release each muscle group, can also relieve tension.
Use effective study techniques to maximize your learning. Break down complex topics into simpler parts and use mnemonic devices to remember key facts.
Talk about your feelings with friends, family, or teachers. They can offer support and advice.
| A．Challenge negative thoughts |
| B．Come up with some cheerful ideas |
| C．Group study sessions can also be helpful |
| D．Meditation and mindfulness can help you stay focused |
| E．When you were seized with tension, talk to your parents |
| F．Managing this stress effectively is crucial for performing well |
| G．If your anxiety feels overwhelming, consider talking to the counselor |
5 . Hummingbirds occupy a unique place in nature: They fly like insects but have the bone and muscles of birds. According to Bo Cheng, a professor in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State, hummingbirds have incredible agility (敏捷) when flying through the air, which is why their flight behavior is often mimicked in the design of drones and other flying vehicles.
Using a new modeling method, Cheng and his team gained new insights into how hummingbirds produce wing movement, which could lead to design improvements in flying robots. “We essentially analyzed how the muscles and skeleton (骨骼) work in hummingbirds to flap the wings,” said Cheng. “The traditional methods have mostly focused on measuring the activity of a bird or insect during natural flight or in an artificial environment where flight-like conditions are reproduced. But most insects and, among birds specifically, hummingbirds are very small. The data that we can get from those measurements are limited.”
The researchers employed various methods to inform and adjust their model. With this model, they uncovered previously unknown methods of hummingbird wing movement. The discovery was that hummingbirds tighten their shoulder joints in both the up-and-down direction and the twisting direction using various smaller muscles.
“It’s like when we do fitness training and a trainer asks us to tighten our core to be more agile,” Cheng said. “We found that hummingbirds are using a similar kind of procedure.” They tighten their wings in the twisting and up-and-down directions but keep the wings loose along the back- and-forth direction. So their wings appear to be flapping back and forth only while their power muscles, or their flight engines, are actually pulling the wings in all three directions. In this way, the wings have very good agility in their motion.
While Cheng stressed that the results from the new model are predictions that will need confirmation, he said that it has suggestions for technological development of flying vehicles. “Even though the technology is not there yet to fully mimic hummingbird flight, our work provides essential methods for informed mimicry of hummingbirds hopefully for the next generation of agile flight systems.”
1. What’s the limitation of previous studies on hummingbird flight?| A．Insufficient records. |
| B．Inaccurate measurements. |
| C．Few bird species for research. |
| D．Lack of suitable test environments. |
| A．They tighten their wings for balance in flight. |
| B．They use twisting motions to get flight power. |
| C．They keep straight flight by controlling small muscles. |
| D．They flexibly adjust wing movements in different directions. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Approving. | C．Doubtful. | D．Negative. |
| A．The impact of drones on hummingbirds’ survival |
| B．Identifying hummingbird species through flying patterns |
| C．A new approach to studying hummingbirds’ muscle system |
| D．Studying hummingbirds to advance future flying vehicles |
6 . Trans-Siberian Railway
About the tour
Board our private train, the Zarengold, and start a 15-day journey from Beijing to Moscow via Ulaanbaatar on the world’s most famous railroad. An unforgettable adventure will wait for you. Set this dream of a lifetime on the tracks with our private train and experience Russia, Mongolia and China in the safest and most comfortable manner.
The historic route between Beijing and Moscow is the central part of the trip. The exciting days of your journey are delivering three of the world’s largest countries directly to your compartment (车厢). Sit back to fully enjoy the great changes of scenery and Europe’s and Asia’s most excellent landscapes!
Highlights
● Visits to the Great Wall of China and Ming Tombs
● Traditional Mini-Naadam celebrations, including Mongolian horse-riding shows
● Rides on the panoramic (全景的) railway tracks along Lake Baikal with photo stops
● Traditional Russian welcome ceremonies
● Moscow city tours including a guided visit to the Kremlin
● Professional tour guides offering a special understanding of Russian, Mongolian and Chinese culture
View Dates
15 May 2022 - 29 May 2022 (15 days)
12 Jun. 2022 - 26 Jun. 2022 (15 days)
31 Jul. 2022 - 14 Aug. 2022 (15 days)
26 Aug. 2022 - 09 Sept. 2022 (15 days)
18 Sept. 2022 - 02 Oct. 2022 (15 days)
What’s included
| TRANS | ● Overnight private train ● Transfers in Moscow and Beijing |
| ACCOMMODATION | ● Overnight private train accommodations for 9 nights ● Hotel accommodations for 5 nights |
| LUGGAGE | ● Luggage service at train stations |
| FOOD & DRINKS | ● All meals on the train except meals at hotels |
What’s not included
● Cancellation and travel insurance are not included in the price of the tour but can be organized
● Airport transfers
1. What can we know about the tour?| A．It covers places outside Europe and Asia. |
| B．It’s a year-round trip popular with Asians. |
| C．It’s a cross-border trip with impressive scenery. |
| D．It can be adjusted according to tourists’ requests. |
| A．Visit the Kremlin. | B．Clean the Ming Tombs. |
| C．Walk along Lake Baikal. | D．Ride a horse in Mongolia. |
| A．Airport transfers. | B．Luggage storage. |
| C．Private tour guides. | D．All meals in the tour. |
7 . In Belgium, a company called HydroVolta is improving ways to take salt water and turn it into fresh water under the Horizon-funded SonixED project.
The vast majority of the earth’s water is salt water. Only 3% is fresh water and less than one third of that is accessible, the rest being locked away in glaciers and groundwater. “We will need to treat salt water so people can drink it and industry can use it,” said George Brik, chief executive officer of Hydro Volta. “But with current technologies, desalination (脱盐) requires high operational costs. On top of that, existing technologies use high amounts of energy and chemicals.”
The basic technique now to turn salt water into fresh water is electrodialysis (电渗析), where a kind of membrane (隔膜) is used to separate salt from water. But the method has a weak point: the membrane gets dirty easily and requires chemicals and high pressure to clean. That in turn involves large amounts of energy. Under SonixED, HydroVolta has developed ultrasound technology that keeps the membrane clean in a much more efficient way.
Energy use in this field depends on pressure, which is measured in a metric unit known as bar. Existing technologies to desalinate seawater take around 50 to 80 bar, while the new desalination technology uses just one to three bar. What’s even better is that a greater amount of fresh water can now be generated. “Existing technologies waste around 60% to 65% of the seawater that’s taken in,” said Brik. “Our new technology improves the situation. If we take in 100 litres of seawater, we can produce 65 litres of drinkable water.”
HydroVolta thinks this technology will be beneficial to larger companies that generate drinkable water as well as to industrial businesses that need water to fuel their operations. Meanwhile, Brik says the new desalination technology may need a push from governments to encourage a bigger demand. “They can be the first customers,” he added.
1. What do George Brik’s words in Paragraph 2 imply?| A．Treating salt water is of great importance. |
| B．The world is facing a serious water shortage. |
| C．Better desalination technologies are needed. |
| D．Current desalination technologies are no longer useful. |
| A．It consumes too much energy. |
| B．The membrane is rare to find. |
| C．The water it produces is a little salty. |
| D．It requires complex ultrasound technology. |
| A．It takes more energy than existing technologies. |
| B．It produces clean water more efficiently. |
| C．It gives up the use of membrane to function. |
| D．It needs more seawater to produce fresh water. |
| A．HydroVolta can solve the water crisis worldwide. |
| B．The new desalination technology needs official support. |
| C．HydroVolta has great difficulty in finding its first customers. |
| D．The new desalination technology is unsuited to small companies. |
8 . The power of human language comes not only from the precision of its signals and the complexity of its grammar but also from its links to cognition (认知). Babies as young as 3 months have begun to link language and core cognitive capacities.
Previous work in the lab had found that for babies aged 3 to 4 months, listening to both human vocalizations (发声) (their native language) and non-human primate vocalizations (calls of monkeys) boosted cognition. It remained unknown whether all human languages would have this advantageous effect.
In a new study, the researchers considered English-acquiring 3-to 4-month-old babies’ responses to two non-native languages (German or Cantonese) — in the context of the classic object categorization task. In this cognitive task, babies first viewed a series of “familiarization” images from one object category (e.g., dinosaurs). Then they viewed two new “test” images at the same time: a new example from the familiarized category (e.g., another dinosaur; “a familiar object”) and a new model from a novel category (e.g., a fish; “a novel object”). Babies’ ability to distinguish between the familiar and novel test images, measured by their looking times, indicates whether they have formed the object category.
Crucially, babies’ success in the task depends upon the sound information that accompanies the visual images presented during familiarization. “We found that German, which is phonologically (音系地) ‘near’ to English, facilitated object categorization. But Cantonese, which is phonologically ‘distant’, did not,” said Danielle Perszyk, lead author of the study.
“Babies’ responses to the two non-native languages tested, considered in combination with their responses to English and to the sounds of monkeys，are consistent with the possibility that babies’ earliest links to cognition originate from two distinct mechanisms. Only one of them is used specifically for human speech,” she added.
When babies are 3 to 4 months old, vocalizations of non-human primates may boost their cognition by engaging another system, one not specialized for speech. However, the cognitive advantage is short-lived: only lasts for 2 to 3months. The study also provides the first evidence that babies’ increasingly precise cognitive tuning to the sounds of their native language sets restrictions on the range of human languages they will link to cognition.
1. What can we know about babies aged 3 to 4 months according to previous work?| A．They get a cognitive bonus after exposure to animal sounds. |
| B．They can tell human languages from those of animals. |
| C．They have a gift for mastering diverse languages. |
| D．They show no interest in non-native languages. |
| A．An evaluation of babies’ learning ability. |
| B．A story regarding babies’ ability to distinguish images. |
| C．An experiment on babies’ ways of native language learning. |
| D．An object categorization experiment on babies’ cognitive link. |
| A．People may prefer certain languages at a young age. |
| B．Babies may adopt different systems to build cognitive links. |
| C．Babies’ cognitive links are dependent on their learning habits. |
| D．People can develop early cognitive links through familiar languages. |
| A．Improving their speech processing system. |
| B．Enhancing their desire to pick up new languages. |
| C．Limiting their cognitive associations with other languages. |
| D．Affecting their ability to distinguish between different languages. |
9 . Whales are known for their majestic (雄伟的) songs that travel through the ocean depths, but the reasons behind this behavior have long puzzled scientists. Recent research reveals this mystery, suggesting that whales possess a unique voice box that enables their powerful voice, a feature not found in other animals.
In a study published in the journal Nature, Coen Elemans and his team from the University of Southern Denmark examined the voice boxes. By conducting experiments, the researchers identified the tissues responsible for producing sound.
Whales, whose ancestors were land-dwellers around 50 million years ago, have developed their voice boxes over millions of years to adapt to underwater communication. Unlike humans and many other mammals (哺乳动物) , whales lack vocal cords and instead have a unique U-shaped tissue in their voice boxes. This specialized structure allows them to intake large volumes of air and generate sounds by pushing this tissue against a cushion of fat and muscle, a mechanism essential for their deep-sea sound.
The significance of this research is highlighted by Jeremy Goldbogen, an associate professor at Stanford University, who describes it as the most comprehensive study to date on how whales vocalize. He emphasizes the need for further exploration to these marine giants. For instance, humpback whales are known for their sound that can travel vast distances across oceans, serving as a form of communication within whales.
Joy Reidenberg, a whale expert, says, “More experiments are needed to confirm the study’s conclusions and understand how these creatures use their voice boxes to communicate in the ocean.”
1. What does the research find?| A．Whales may make sound underwater. |
| B．Whales communicate in a special way. |
| C．What brings about whales’ strange behavior. |
| D．What makes whales’ loud sound possible in the ocean. |
| A．Paragraph 3. | B．Paragraph 4. | C．Paragraph 5. | D．Paragraph 2. |
| A．Mysterious. | B．Ineffective. | C．Inadequate. | D．Creative. |
| A．Evolution Of Whale Communication Skills | B．Research On How Whales Make Sounds |
| C．How Whales Communicate Underwater | D．How Scientists Research Whales’ Sound |
10 . Early one morning, servers at an Egyptian restaurant began their usual preparations for the day. They laid out rows of desserts. But the offerings weren’t for customers. Instead, within an hour, staff from an organization called Tekeya had arrived to take away 135 portions of perfectly eatable dishes. The desserts — made a day earlier — weren’t considered fresh enough to eat.
Throughout Egypt, which boasts a rich culinary (烹饪的) history, such views aren’t uncommon. Now, though, with a global reflection on the food chain and its role in the climate crisis, attitudes in Egypt are slowly changing.
The restaurant is one of around a dozen across the Egyptian capital that Tekey’s staff visits each day in a quest to stop fit-for-consumption food from being dumped. Restaurants pay a small annual fee that allows them to alert Tekeya’s staff whenever they have unsold food. Personal users of Tekeya’s app can then buy that food at half price, or either the restaurants or the users can request Tekeya to deliver the food to a food bank or charity of their choosing. In total, up to 40 plates are saved from going to the trash each day.
“I’ve seen several platforms helping fight food waste across Europe. It’s uplifting to find one that does the same here in Egypt, ” says the manager, who has been using the app for three years.
In 2019, Menna Shahin had an idea particularly inspired by a festival, which brings about both celebration and waste. “I would put so much thought into how to deal with food responsibly without harming the environment, and how to minimize my excess (过度的) usage,” Ms. Shahin says. “I thought to myself, why not assist everyone to deal with their excess food wisely?”
Ms. Shahin ended up co-founding Tekeya along with her husband, Max Hartzen. By Tekeya’s second year, some 10, 000 discounted meals were ordered during one month, with users choosing to donate roughly a quarter of those to charities.
1. Why were the desserts in paragraph 1 not for customers?| A．They were sold out. | B．They were not eatable. |
| C．They had gone sour. | D．They were not fresh enough. |
| A．Thrown away. | B．Kept up. | C．Squeezed out. | D．Tracked down. |
| A．How a festival is celebrated. | B．How waste comes about. |
| C．How Tekeya is originated. | D．How food is dealt with. |
| A．It takes ages to see its effect. | B．It has produced good results. |
| C．It needs to be widely applied. | D．It has received sharp criticism. |
