1 . The psychological term, valence weighting bias, describes people’s tendency to adapt in new circumstances by drawing more strongly from either their positive or negative attitudes, or rather, whether negative or positive internal “signals” carry the most weight in guiding people’s final behavior.
Studies led by Russell Fazio and Javier Granados from Ohio State University found links between a negative-leaning attitude and procrastination (拖延) and that it’s possible to shift the weighting bias and reverse the tendency to delay a task.
In the study, 147 college students participated in a program allowing them to accumulate course credits for engaging in a research. Those who thought it was an awful thing to do procrastinated starting. The study also explored whether students’ measures of self-control influenced task-related behaviors: How students characterized their level of motivation about the research program, and if that affected whether students got an early start. Results showed the combination of negative weighting bias and self-reported low motivation for self-control was linked to students putting off research program participation by getting started later in the semester.
Then the students in the program who were self-reported procrastinators and who scored high for negative weighting bias were asked to join in another study. Researchers then inspired one group in a way that led participants to weigh positive and negative signals in a more balanced way. This shift caused the students to accumulate credit hours more quickly than the group whose negative weighting bias and low self-control reliably predicted their delay. “If somebody is more motivated and able to think more about it, that might bring other considerations that weaken the influence of the valence weighting bias,” researchers said.
Negative weighting bias can have a positive effect on behavior, though. These researchers have also found evidence that a negative weighting bias may help people be more realistic when they’re asking themselves, “Have I studied enough for this test?” “It’s better to be more objectively balanced than to be at either extreme,” Fazio said. “But the situation where a particular valence weighting bias is likely to be problematic is going to vary.”
1. What can we know about valence weighting bias?| A．It is used in modern technology. | B．It influences people’s mental health. |
| C．It directs what people do variously. | D．It leads to delays in carrying out tasks. |
| A．suffered from valence weighting bias | B．drew more strongly from positivity |
| C．thought poorly of their self-discipline | D．considered themselves lack of motivation |
| A．High scores lead to more consideration. |
| B．Negative weighting bias can be reversed. |
| C．Participants need professional knowledge. |
| D．Measuring properly is of vital importance. |
| A．Negative weighting bias can be beneficial. |
| B．People need to strive to be positive at any time. |
| C．Positive people tend to make random decisions. |
| D．Valence weighting bias applies to different situations. |
2 . Atomic shapes are so simple that they can’t be broken down any further. Mathematicians are trying to turn to artificial intelligence (AI) for help to build a periodic table of these shapes, hoping it will assist in finding yet-unknown atomic shapes.
Tom Coates at Imperial College London and his colleagues are working to classify atomic shapes known as Fano varieties, which are so simple that they can’t be broken down into smaller components. Just as chemists arranged element s in the periodic table by their atomic weight and group to reveal new insights, the researchers hope that organizing these atomic shapes by their various properties will help in understanding them.
The team has given each atomic shape a sequence of numbers based on its features such as the number of holes it has or the extent to which it bends around itself. This acts as a bar code (条形码) to identify it. Coates and his colleagues have now created an AI that can predict certain properties of these shapes from their bar code numbers alone, with an accuracy of 98 percent.
The team member Alexander Kasprzyk at the University of Nottingham, UK, says that the AI has let the team organize atomic shapes in a way that begins to follow the periodic table, so that when you read from left to right, or up and down, there seem to be general patterns in the geometry (几何) of the shapes.
Graham Nib lo at the University of Southampton, UK, stresses that humans will still need to understand the results provided by AI and create proofs of these ideas. “AI has definitely got unbelievable abilities. But in the same way that telescopes (望远镜) don’t put astronomers out of work, AI doesn’t put mathematicians out of work,” he says. “It just gives us new backing that allows us to explore parts of the mathematical landscape that are out of reach.”
The team hopes to improve the model to the point where missing spaces in its periodic table could point to the existence of unknown shapes.
1. What is the purpose of building a periodic table of shapes?| A．To gain deeper insights into the atomic shapes. |
| B．To create an AI to predict the unknown shapes. |
| C．To break down atomic shapes into smaller parts. |
| D．To arrange chemical elements in the periodic table. |
| A．Its holes. | B．Its bends. |
| C．Its atomic weight. | D．Its properties. |
| A．Design. | B．Help. | C．Duty. | D．Threat. |
| A．Thanks to AI, new atomic shapes have been discovered. |
| B．Mathematicians turn to AI to create more atomic shapes. |
| C．AI helps build a relationship between chemistry and maths. |
| D．A periodic table of shapes can be built with the help of AI. |
3 . Fresh fish should have a mild smell. Strong fishy smells are the first signs to go bad. How do the fishy smells come from?
It can be several days from when the fish are caught to when they reach the supermarket. In that time, bacteria that grow naturally in fish start to consume a substance called trimethylamine N-oxide(TMAO)in fish. These bacteria change TMAO into trimethylamine (TMA), the substance responsible for the fishy smells. Bacteria in fish can also change lysine(赖氨酸)into cadaverine(尸胺), a substance that’s associated with breaking down the fish once they are caught and giving off fishy smell.
Chemical reactions can also lead to fishy smells. This happens through the oxidation(氧化)of fat. Fish are an important source of omega-3 fatty acids. When these fats are exposed to oxygen, they oxidize and break down into the substance that you can smell.
To slow down the fishy smell, what is beyond question is that the less time between when the fish are caught and when they reach the kitchen, the better. But today, fish are often flown across the globe. To keep smell-producing bacteria at bay, the fish must be frozen or kept at the low temperature possible as soon as they are caught and cleaned.
Controlling fat oxidation can function as well, especially for fattier fish species. While freezing slows bacterial growth, it does not stop fat oxidation. This reaction will occur as long as oxygen is present. Fatty fish are usually not frozen because, despite the cold temperature, they’re going to oxidize pretty fast unless they are stored in a low oxygen container. That’s why those species are often canned.
It’s also important to remember that smell is not always an indicator of safety, especially in processed fish products. “What you might consider the fishy smell may be a delicacy in another culture,” said Carl A. Batt, a professor of food science at Cornell University.
1. Which of the following has the fishy smell?| A．Fish fat. | B．TMAO. | C．Cadaverine. | D．Lysine. |
| A．Drying them in the air. | B．Storing them in closed containers. |
| C．Carefully cleaning them. | D．Exposing them to rich oxygen. |
| A．Objective. |
| B．Negative. |
| C．Acceptable. |
| D．Unclear. |
| A．Topic—Example—Conclusion. | B．Topic—Comparison—Opinion. |
| C．Question——Cause——Solution. | D．Question—Effect—Opinion. |
4 . Ann has been severely paralysed (瘫痪)for more than 18 years. She cannot speak and normally communicates. But now, she has been able to speak through an image on the computer using technology that translated her brain signals into speech and facial expressions.
The advance raises hopes that the technology could be on the edge of transforming the lives of people who have lost the ability to speak due to conditions like strokes (中风).
The latest technology uses tiny electrodes (电极) put on the top layer of the brain to detect electrical activity in the part of the brain that controls speech and face movements. These signals are translated directly into a digital avatar’s (化身) speech and facial expressions including smiling, frowning or surprise.
The team put 253 paper-thin electrodes on the top layer of Ann’s brain over an area important to speech. Afterwards Ann worked with the team to train the system to detect her unique brain signals for various speech sounds by repeating different phrases repeatedly. The computer learned 39 distinctive sounds and a Chat GPT-style language system was used to translate the signals into understandable sentences. This was then used to control an avatar with a voice personalised to sound like Ann’s voice before the injury, based on a recording of her speaking at her wedding.
The technology was not perfect, translating words incorrectly 28% of the time in a test run involving more than 500 phrases, and it generated brain-to-text at a rate of 78 words a minute, compared with the 110–150 words typically spoken in natural conversation. However, scientists said the latest advances in accuracy and speed suggest the technology is now at a point of being practically useful for patients. A crucial next step is to create a wireless form that could be put beneath the skull (颅骨).
1. How can Ann speak?| A．By tiny electrodes on her brain. |
| B．Through an avatar using the latest technology. |
| C．Through repeating different phrases repeatedly. |
| D．By a technology that detects her brain signals. |
| A．How the technology works. |
| B．How the technology benefits the patients. |
| C．How the technology translates the brain signal. |
| D．How the technology is put into wide application. |
| A．Ann’s cooperation. | B．Ann’s facial expressions. |
| C．An AI language system. | D．A recording of Ann’s speaking. |
| A．It is a promising way to help patients. |
| B．Its translating speed is too slow. |
| C．It cannot be applied to patients. |
| D．It is not accurate in translating at all. |
5 . Animal appear to predict earthquakes by sensing electricity in the air — the first study to find reliable evidence of the phenomenon has shown.
Cameras revealed an “amazing” drop in the number of animals up to 23 days before a major quake hit their rainforest home at Yanachaga National Park in Peru. Lead scientist Dr Rachel Grant, from Anglia Ruskin University, said, “The results showed that just before the earthquake, animals’ activity dropped right down.”
On a normal day the cameras placed around Yanachaga National Park record between 5 and 15 animals. But in the 23 days before the earthquake, the number of animals dropped to five or fewer per day. No animals were photographed at all on five of the seven days immediately before the quake.
Another study showed that animal activity remained normal in the park over a different period when seismic (地震的) activity was low. Co-author, professor Friedemann Freund, said, “The cameras were located at an altitude of 900 meters. If air ionization occurred, the animals would escape to the valley below, where there were fewer positive ions ( 离子). With their ability to sense their environment, animals can help us understand small changes that occur before major earthquakes.”
Other evidence suggested that before the earthquake, the air around the high mountain sites filled with positive ions that can be produced when rocks are placed under stress. Positive ions have been known to cause ill effects in humans as well as animals. Scientists believe the animals were made to feel uncomfortable by the positive ions, leading them to avoid the area. They are thought to have escaped to lower ground, where the air was less ionized. The findings may help experts develop better short-term seismic forecasts.
1. How did scientists conduct the study?| A．By comparing different animals’ habits. |
| B．By observing animals in high mountains. |
| C．By explaining the positive ion phenomenon. |
| D．By analyzing images of animals they obtained. |
| A．The ground at a lower altitude is less ionized. |
| B．Cameras normally record more animals per day. |
| C．Earthquake warnings can be detected in lower places. |
| D．The activity of animals and earthquakes is consistent. |
| A．The findings make for accurate seismic forecast. |
| B．Animals tend to be uneasy with more positive ions. |
| C．Positive ions make humans and animals depressed. |
| D．All the animals remain abnormal before the earthquake. |
| A．Negative Influence of Positive Ions. |
| B．Ions’ Destruction to the Environment. |
| C．Animals’ Behavior Before Earthquakes. |
| D．Creatures’ Ability to Predict Earthquakes. |
6 . Philosophers have a bad reputation for expressing themselves in a dry and boring way. The ideals for most philosophical writing are precision, clarity, and the sort of conceptual analysis that leaves no hair un-split.
There is nothing wrong with clarity, precision, and the like — but this isn’t the only way to do philosophy. Outside academic journals, abstract philosophical ideas are often expressed through literature, cinema, and song. There’s nothing that grabs attention like a good story, and there are some great philosophical stories that delight and engage, rather than putting the reader to sleep.
One of the great things about this is that, unlike formal philosophy, which tries to be very clear, stories don’t wear their meanings on their sleeve — they require interpretation, and often express conflicting ideas for the reader to wrestle with.
Consider what philosophers call the metaphysics (形而上学) of race — an area of philosophy that explorers the question of whether or not race is real. There are three main positions that you can take on these questions. You might think that a person’s race is written in their genes (a position known as “biological realism”). Or you might think of race as socially real, like days of the week or currencies (“social constructionism”). Finally, you might think that races are unreal — that they’re more like leprechauns (一种魔法精灵) than they are like Thursdays or dollars (“anti-realism”).
A great example of a story with social constructionist taking on race is George Schuyler’s novel Black No More. In the book, a Black scientist named Crookman invents a procedure that makes Black people visually indistinguishable from Whites. Thousands of African Americans flock to Crookman’s Black No More clinics and pay him their hard-earned cash to undergo the procedure. White racists can no longer distinguish those people who are “really” White from those who merely appear to be White. In a final episode, Crookman discovers that new Whites are actually a whiter shade of pale than those who were born that way, which kicks off a trend of sunbathing to darken one’s skin-darkening it so as to look more While.
Philosophically rich stories like this bring more technical works to life. They are stories to think with.
1. What does the author think of philosophical stories?| A．The meaning behind is very obvious. |
| B．They am extremely precise and formal. |
| C．They often cause conflicts among readers. |
| D．They are engaging and inspire critical thinking. |
| A．Social constructionism. | B．Anti-realism. |
| C．Biological realism. | D．Literary realism. |
| A．Racial issues caused by skin colors. |
| B．A society view on race and self-image. |
| C．Black people accepted by the white society. |
| D．The origin of sun bathing among white people. |
| A．Stories Made Easy | B．Stories to Think with |
| C．Positions in Philosophy | D．Nature of Philosophical Writing |
7 . My students frequently ask me how I planned out my career to become president of Fidelity Investments. I always tell them, “There was no grand plan; I backed into my career one step at a time.” In this tough economy and ever-changing world, it is more important than ever to smartly evaluate each step in your career. To prepare for whatever surprises lie ahead, try to make choices today that will maximize your options in the future.
Gaining transferable (可转移的) knowledge begins with the choices you make at school. You want your education to provide you with the necessary skills and expertise to succeed in a wide variety of jobs.
Once you have finished your formal education, search for jobs that will allow you to further expand your transferable knowledge—to help you find your next job. Let’s say you take a job putting together airplane leases. Within a few years, you could become the world’s expert on the subject.
Remember gaining transferable knowledge is only one piece of the puzzle.
Of course, you can build your network to some degree without changing jobs.
| A．You can make yourself more attractive. |
| B．Gain transferable expertise and form close bonds with your colleagues. |
| C．Your next step should help you expand your web of personal relationships. |
| D．This later helped me evaluate and start business units throughout the world. |
| E．You can attend conferences or participate in committees at trade associations. |
| F．This means that you need to make smart choices about the courses you will follow. |
| G．However, this narrow expertise probably won’t help you in any other line of work. |
8 . The “reading wars,” one of the most confusing and disabling conflicts in the history of education, went on heatedly in the 1980s and then peace came. Advocates of phonics (learning by being taught the sound of each letter group) seemed to defeat advocates of whole language (learning by using cues like context and being exposed to much good literature).
Recent events suggest the conflict of complicated concepts is far from over. Teachers, parents and experts appear to agree that phonics is crucial, but what is going on in classrooms is not in agreement with what research studies say is required, which has aroused a national debate over the meaning of the word “phonics.”
Lucy M. Calkins, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and a much-respected expert on how to teach reading, has drawn attention with an eight-page essay. Here is part of her argument: “The important thing is to teach kids that they needn’t freeze when they come to a hard word, nor skip past it. The important thing is to teach them that they have resources to draw upon, and to use those resources to develop endurance.”
To Calkins’s critics, it is cruel and wasteful to encourage 6-year-olds to look for clues if they don’t immediately know the correct sounds. They should work on decoding — knowing the pronunciation of every letter group — until they master it, say the critics, backed by much research.
Calkins’s approach “is a slow, unreliable way to read words and an inefficient way to develop word recognition skill,” Mark S. Seidenberg, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, said in a blog post. “Dr. Calkins treats word recognition as a reasoning problem — like solving a puzzle. She is committed to the educational principle that children learn best by discovering how systems work rather than being told.”
Many others share his view. “Children should learn to decode — i.e., go from print on the page to words in the mind — not by clever guesswork and inference, but by learning to decode,” Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, told me. He said the inferences Calkins applauds are “cognitively (认知地) demanding, and readers don’t have much endurance for it. … It disturbs the flow of what you’re reading, and doing a lot of it gets frustrating.”
Yet a recent survey found that only 22 percent of 670 early-reading teachers are using the approach of phonics and what they mean by phonics is often no more than marking up a worksheet.
Both sides agree that children need to acquire the vocabulary and background information that gives meaning to words. But first, they have to pronounce them correctly to connect the words they have learned to speak.
Calkins said in her essay: “Much of what the phonics people are saying is praiseworthy,” but it would be a mistake to teach phonics “at the expense of reading and writing.”
The two sides appear to agree with her on that.
1. Critics of phonics hold the opinion that ________.| A．children should be taught to use context |
| B．teaching phonics is both boring and useless |
| C．kids acquire vocabulary in hearing letter groups |
| D．pronunciation has nothing to do with meaning of words |
| A．Tell me and I will forget; show me and I will remember. |
| B．Skilled reading is fast and automatic but not deliberative. |
| C．Word recognition skill should be developed in problem reasoning. |
| D．Learning to make reasonable inferences is also a way of decoding. |
| A．phonics approach has been proved to be successful |
| B．children don’t shy away from difficulties in reading |
| C．the two reading approaches might integrate with each other |
| D．reading and writing are much more important than phonics |
| A．An everlasting reading war among critics |
| B．From print on the page to words in the mind |
| C．A battle restarts between phonics, whole language |
| D．Decoding and inferring confuse early-reading teachers |
9 . Jobs that use both technical and creative thinking are among the fastest-growing and highest-paying ones, according to a new report from Burning Glass Technologies, a job market analytics (分析) company in Boston.
It studied millions of job postings to better understand the skills companies require. What they discovered was that many want workers with experience in such new abilities as big-data (数据) gathering and analytics, or design using digital technology.
Burning Glass came up with the term “hybrid jobs” to describe these kinds of positions, which require skills not normally found together. For example, these hybrid jobs might require people with skills in data science and advertising, or engineering and sales. “The jobs of the future don’t involve just one skill,” says Matt Sigelman, chief manager of Burning Glass.
The company expects general job growth of about 10% between 2018 and 2028, but the hybrid jobs by 21%. What’s more, hybrid jobs pay more than positions that call for a traditional set of skills. For example, a marketing manager mastering a database program gets paid 41% more than a traditional one, with an average yearly salary of $100, 000. Moreover, an engineer who improves her sales skills and becomes a consulting engineer for a software company can more than double her pay from $180, 000 to $400, 000.
While data shows that workers who fail to update their skills will be able to find fewer jobs, people in hybrid jobs are less likely to become out of date, with only 12% possibility of being replaced by machine, compared with 42% for general jobs, says Burning Glass. Hybrid jobs are mostly not beginner roles, so they mainly go to workers with years of experience and, most importantly, more training after leaving college. That means workers, bosses and educators will have to think about how to better prepare people for these roles.
1. Why did the company research into job advertisements?| A．To understand the growth of best paid workers. |
| B．To compare workers’ experience with new abilities. |
| C．To find out companies’ requirements about skills. |
| D．To tell the possible changes in future job market. |
| A．Data engineer. |
| B．Machine operator. |
| C．Marketing manager. |
| D．Medical consultant. |
| A．$180, 000. | B．$71, 000. | C．$41, 000. | D．$10, 000. |
| A．How to Get Trained for Jobs |
| B．The Skills for “Hybrid” Jobs |
| C．Future Jobs Requiring “Hybrid” Skills |
| D．Tips on Finding Fastest-Growing Jobs |
10 . It seemed interesting that on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s departure for France, the Indian and French governments issued similar statements on the prospects of an agreement on the purchase of the Rafale aircraft: that no single deal should be allowed to overshadow the Prime Minister’s visit. Indeed, India-France relations are much bigger than any one contract; they represent the cultural affinityl (密切关系) and historic relations between two vibrant (醒目的) democracies. The items on the Prime Minister’s agenda reflected the range of commonalities — from the preservation of ancient architecture to the development of Puducherry and Chandigarh as smart cities; from the construction of semi-high-speed railway lines to cooperation on a space mission to Mars; from discussing anti-terror training to tackling climate change through renewable technologies and a robust nuclear partnership. The economic aspect of the relationship has been ignored for too long. Although more than a thousand French companies have a total investment of about $20 billion in India, bilateral trade is worth just $8 billion. While all this deserved attention, it was disappointing that the Prime Minister put the spotlight back on defence ties by making a surprise announcement on the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft as the highlight of his talks with President Francois Hollande. If the outright purchase was a crucial military necessity, it could have been discussed a few weeks before or after the visit, as a political push for the deal was secondary to the technical specifications and delivery requirements. Moreover, the deal, which involves purchasing products off the shelf abroad, detracts from Mr. Modi’s “Make in India” initiative (主动性).
The breakthrough on the Areva nuclear equipment deal, on the other hand, shows the positive outcome of Mr. Modi’s and Mr. Hollande’s political push, combined with a “Make in India” twist. As in the case of Indo-U.S. nuclear negotiations, Mr. Modi and Mr. Hollande decided to clear the logjam by splitting the problem into different silos — allowing for separate mechanisms for the pricing issues and for the technical and legal aspects. The supplementary deal involving Areva and L&T producing heavy forging metal casing for nuclear reactors is an important step in localising some of the expensive parts. During his visit to Canada, where he hopes to sign a deal for uranium supplies, Mr. Modi means to take forward his plan to increase nuclear energy production. Given this objective, it may be useful for him to round off the visit by discussing his nuclear energy plans in Germany as well, which is now winding down on nuclear power but is at the cutting edge of nuclear safety research for the European Pressurised Reactors that are being considered for India.
1. Which of the following got the whole attention other than many important deals?| A．Cooperation on a space mission to Mars. | B．Anti-terror training. |
| C．Purchase of Rafale Fighters. | D．General VK Singh’s remark on the Press. |
| A．Preservation of ancient architecture. |
| B．Development of Puducherry and Chandigarh as smart cities. |
| C．Construction of semi-high-speed railway lines. |
| D．All of the above. |
| A．The Big Deal | B．Modi’s Success | C．Modi’s tour to France | D．Rafale and beyond |
| A．A long traffic jam during Prime Minister Modi’s visit. |
| B．A state of mind where you cannot decide what to do. |
| C．A situation that seems like unable to be settled. |
| D．A place from where The French President used to work. |
