1 . In today’s world, AI is increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives.
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized how students are measured in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. By analyzing massive datasets, AI can quickly identify a student’s areas of strengths and weaknesses through the images they upload, videos they watch, and data gathered from feedback systems.
With the advancements in AI technology, each student can receive the most tailored education they need to reach their own educational goals. It can also aid in how to write an article review, potentially by being able to particularize how challenging certain elements are for students and how much further focus and practice any one student needs to accomplish their educational objectives.
In today’s ever-connected world, having access to reliable sources of information beyond normal business hours can make a huge difference in a person’s life.
| A．AI-based chatbots offer just that, providing up-to-date information 24/7. |
| B．Here are some benefits of AI for students that can help them in their studies. |
| C．These data cannot reflect the whole picture of students’ performance, though. |
| D．This timeless advantage has significantly reduced the workload for the educators. |
| E．Thus, AI-supported personalized learning could finally create equal access to education. |
| F．Therefore, they allow us to efficiently access services without worrying about time limit. |
| G．It will also better identify potential areas for improvement in teaching and evaluating students. |
2 . Users of Google Gemini, the tech giant’s artificial-intelligence model, recently noticed that asking it to create images of Vikings, or German soldiers from 1943 produced surprising results: hardly any of the people depicted were white. Other image-generation tools have been criticized because they tend to show white men when asked for images of entrepreneurs or doctors. Google wanted Gemini to avoid this trap; instead, it fell into another one, depicting George Washington as black. Now attention has moved on to the chatbot’s text responses, which turned out to be just as surprising.
Gemini happily provided arguments in favor of positive action in higher education, but refused to provide arguments against. It declined to write a job ad for a fossil-fuel lobby group (游说团体), because fossil fuels are bad and lobby groups prioritize “the interests of corporations over public well-being”. Asked if Hamas is a terrorist organization, it replied that the conflict in Gaza is “complex”; asked if Elon Musk’s tweeting of memes had done more harm than Hitler, it said it was “difficult to say”. You do not have to be a critic to perceive its progressive bias.
Inadequate testing may be partly to blame. Google lags behind OpenAI, maker of the better-known ChatGPT. As it races to catch up, Google may have cut corners. Other chatbots have also had controversial launches. Releasing chatbots and letting users uncover odd behaviors, which can be swiftly addressed, lets firms move faster, provided they are prepared to weather (经受住) the potential risks and bad publicity, observes Eth an Mollick, a professor at Wharton Business School.
But Gemini has clearly been deliberately adjusted, or “fine-tuned”, to produce these responses. This raises questions about Google’s culture. Is the firm so financially secure, with vast profits from internet advertising, that it feels free to try its hand at social engineering? Do some employees think it has not just an opportunity, but a responsibility, to use its reach and power to promote a particular agenda? All eyes are now on Google’s boss, Sundar Pichai. He says Gemini is being fixed. But does Google need fixing too?
1. What do the words “this trap” underlined in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Having a racial bias. | B．Responding to wrong texts. |
| C．Criticizing political figures. | D．Going against historical facts. |
| A．Gemini’s refusal to make progress. | B．Gemini’s failure to give definite answers. |
| C．Gemini’s prejudice in text responses. | D．Gemini’s avoidance of political conflicts. |
| A．Creative. | B．Promising. | C．Illegal. | D．Controversial. |
| A．Its security is doubted. | B．It lacks financial support. |
| C．It needs further improvement. | D．Its employees are irresponsible. |
3 . Many got sleepless nights after Sora amazed the world with its remarkable ability of creating videos directly from text instructions. Discussions about what the artificial intelligence model can do and make a difference continue.
Some said it could give a huge blow to traditional industries such as film and television making, looking forward to the day when a movie can be created right after a novel is put into the model. But others remain skeptical about how powerful the model can be in changing the landscape of AI application.
Developed by a group of young talent from Microsoft-backed company OpenAI, the text-to-video model can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt.
Shen Yang, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University , said, “Sora represents a revolutionary leap in the field of AI-generated content (AIGC).”
As one of the leading scholars in AI research in China, Shen leads a team that studies the philosophy of AI. Until he learned about Sora on February 16, Shen was quite satisfied with his team’s AI-generated videos. A two-minute video on the Spring Festival produced by Shen’s team have recently won many likes on social media platforms. “Compared with the new model Sora, what we used are tools of the previous generation. There’s a huge gap in between," said Shen.
As a frequent user of AI, Shen said the technology not only helps improve his productivity, but also benefits his daily life. His wife was suffering from cancer and many complications, and he used AI to assist in finding treatment, which has remarkably prolonged her life. He even wrote an award-winning science fiction novel using AI.
However, new technologies do not mean good news to everyone. Many also concern about AI models’ safety issues since related regulations are lagging behind.
Sora is going to bring changes in many fields, including short video, film and television, news, games, advertising, education, and even industrial manufacturing, according to Shen. There is still much room to improve AI models. For instance, current AI models are not capable of drawing characters accurately and quickly. Shop signs lack meaning in Sora’s demo video showing a woman walking down a street in Tokyo. But these problems are believed to be solved as models update.
1. Which of the following might have similar meaning to the underlined word in Paragraph 2?| A．push. | B．strike. | C．warning. | D．bonus. |
| A．All people can not benefit from the new AI technologies. |
| B．AI model’s safety isn’t concerning despite lagging legal restrictions. |
| C．The AI-generated videos by Shen Yang’s team were better than those created by Sora. |
| D．The text-to-video model was developed by a group of young talent from Tsinghua University. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Objective. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Reserved. |
| A．Sora: An AI video. | B．Video Making: AI Models. |
| C．Sora: A Powerful AI Tool. | D．Video Making: Future of AI. |
4 . Russia is launching a new module (舱), Nauka, for the International Space Station (ISS) after over a decade of delays. The ISS comprises modules and equipment from different space agencies including Europe, Japan and Canada. Still, the main part of the station is composed of two main sections: a Russian segment (部分) and a US segment.
The Nauka module is set to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on top of a Proton-M rocket at around 1500 GMT, along with a new robotic arm for the station created by the European Space Agency. At 13 metres long and weighing more than 20 tonnes, Nauka, also called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, will be among the largest in Russia’s half. After launch, Nauka will take eight days to reach the ISS. Once attached, it will act as a new hub for the Russian segment of the station.
“Nauka is a science laboratory, and it also provides a lot of important service systems, including a new toilet and sleeping compartments for the crew,” says Anatoly Zak, editor of RussianSpaceWeb.com. “It’s a step in making the Russian segment more independent (from the US segment).”
The launch of Nauka has been a long time coming, with construction of the module beginning in the 1990s. Technical and supply issues since then have seen development stumble(绊倒). “It’s much more complex than anything the Russian space programme has tried to build in the last few years,” says Zak.
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?| A．The history and task of the ISS. |
| B．The mission and role of Nauka. |
| C．The function of the new robotic arm. |
| D．The difficulties of launching a module. |
| A．It serves as the new center of the ISS. |
| B．It has a relatively comprehensive system. |
| C．It pushes Russia to build a separate space station. |
| D．It takes the lead in space exploration in the world. |
| A．It takes great time and effort to develop Nauka. |
| B．There is so much to explore and discover in space. |
| C．Russia still needs America’s help in space technology. |
| D．Nauka is the fruit of long-term cooperation between countries. |
| A．Sports and health. |
| B．Education and culture. |
| C．Nature and geography. |
| D．Science and technology. |
1. What is the biggest difference between weak AI and strong AI?
| A．Cost. | B．Service time. | C．Human involvement. |
| A．Apple’s Siri. | B．A self-driving car. | C．AlphaGo. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Uncertain. | C．Depressed. |
| A．The problem to deal with. | B．An example of weak AI. | C．The benefit of it. |
China’s Shenzhou 14 crew spent the Mid Autumn Festival in space
China
The three astronauts recorded their first Mid-Autumn Festival at the space station with
“We are very grateful to the ground team for making our space life full of romance and surprises,” said Liu Yang, holding up a food bag
7 . A March 2023 report from Goldman Sachs estimated that AI could do a quarter of all the work currently done by humans.
The second category is jobs that require complicated interpersonal relationships like nurses, business consultants and investigative journalists. These are jobs where you need a very deep understanding of people.
The third safe zone are jobs that really require lots of mobility and problem-solving ability in unpredictable environments. Electricians, plumbers, and the like all fall under this umbrella, where you’re dealing with a new situation all the time. They are probably the hardest of anything to automate.
It’s important to note that an advanced education is not a defence against AI takeover. In many cases, more educated workers are going to be more threatened than then even the least educated workers.
In short, seeking roles in dynamic, shifting environments that include unpredictable tasks is good way to avoid job loss to AI.
| A．And that could be terrible. |
| B．Thankfully, it’s not all bad news. |
| C．The robots really are coming for some jobs. |
| D．The first would be jobs that are genuinely creative. |
| E．Think of the person that works cleaning hotel rooms. |
| F．That doesn’t necessarily mean all jobs that are considered ”creative” are safe. |
| G．It’ll be a long time before AI has the ability to really build relationships and interact. |
8 . Traveling to Mars is usually a lonely business with a single spacecraft taking off to the Red Planet. That appeared to be the case again on July 30, when NASA’s Perseverance rover (火星车) roared at Cape Canaveral. But this time the ship will have plenty of company. On July 19, the United Arab Emirates joined the Mars game, launching Hope spacecraft to orbit Mars. Four days later, China launched its Tianwen-1 spacecraft. And a fourth mission, a joint Russian-European project, ExoMars, was also planned for this summer.
So why all the interest in Mars — and why right now? The timing issue has everything to do with planetary mechanics (行星力学). As they fly their differing solar orbits — Earth on the inner track, Mars on the outer — the distance between the two worlds is forever changing. At their greatest remove, when they are on opposite sides of the sun, they are up to 250 million miles apart.
But once every two years, they line up on the same side of the sun, with just 35 million miles separating them. This summer just such an alignment (排成直线) is taking place, reducing planetary travel time to seven- month. So that explains the when question.
The why part is because of Mars’ potentially biological history. The surface of the planet is covered with dry riverbeds, ancient sea basins, and deep depressions that could only indicate long-vanished water.
Previous rover analyses in similar locations have discovered chemicals that form only in water, proving that Mars was once extremely wet. Now the mission is to look for fossilized organisms or signs of microbial life. Perseverance will collect Martian soil samples, awaiting another spacecraft that could leave Earth as early as 2026, collect the samples and fly them home for analysis.
Finding life on Mars would be a highly significant discovery. The bragging (吹嘘) rights that go with being first to make the find is part of what makes the planet the hot new destination it’s become.
1. What does the underlined word “the case” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The Mars game. | B．Traveling to Mars alone. |
| C．Having plenty of company. | D．A single spacecraft. |
| A．Earth and Mars fly similar solar orbits. |
| B．Earth travels on the outer track and Mars the inner. |
| C．Every three years Earth and Mars sit at the same side of the sun. |
| D．The distance between the two worlds varies constantly. |
| A．the surface of Mars is full of microbial life | B．Perseverance is going to finish its task |
| C．there may exist life on Mars | D．Martian soil samples are easy to get |
| A．Traveling to Mars is becoming hugely easy. | B．Finding life on Mars is around the corner. |
| C．Many nations are going to Mars this summer. | D．Living on Mars appeals to people |
9 . Humans feed thousands of songs to AI (人工智能). And it is able to analyse the basic information and recognize patterns that can be used to create original music. Such AI-created music is similar to those that any musician might compose.
Recently, an AI-powered system, the Flow Machines, has released a song Daddy’s Car. This system is able to analyse the composers’ original ideas and come up with more ideas to assist them in composing. The system tries to combine the human mind with AI.
Another great invention is Jukedeck, which works very easily. In order to create a new piece, the user just needs to select items like the desired music style (folk, rock, etc.) and the mood (sad or happy). After a few seconds, AI provides a piece of music for the user to download. Each user can create music tailored to his or her interest.
Some musicians use AI to achieve what they could not do on their own. For example, Yacht, an American pop group, has used AI to break out of their comfort zone and try to create something different from their previous songs. Soon they have their new album, which contains 10 songs, all of which are very popular.
The development of AI technology also comes with some concerns. Some human composers fear that their work might be replaced by a machine. Some others are worried about music itself and the music industry, as AI is now able to create music more and more similar to human-composed music.
Faced with this challenge, on one hand, human musicians need to remain creative; on the other hand, they should understand how to use these new tools to explore new frontiers. Perhaps the future role of the human musicians will be to focus on emotions, leaving the machines to take care of other procedures.
1. What is the new development about AI in the text?| A．Its progress in replacing humans. | B．Its ability in music composing. |
| C．Its influence on human emotions. | D．Its focus on changing human mind. |
| A．Because they stuck to their former music style. |
| B．Because they went beyond themselves with AI. |
| C．Because they put in more than ten original songs. |
| D．Because they insisted on composing by themselves. |
| A．Problems about AI composing. | B．Limitations of AI technology. |
| C．Challenges for human composers. | D．Suggestions to human musicians. |
| A．Objective. | B．Doubtful. | C．Uncaring | D．Confused. |
10 . Have your ever imagined a robot doing homework for you? This has become a reality due to the coming of ChatGPT. But teachers at UK universities have been asked to rethink about the way to assess (评价) their courses because students are already using a powerful new AI tool capable of producing high-quality essays (论文).
ChatGPT, the latest chat robot, has only been publicly available for weeks, but has already caused concerns about the possibility of academic (学术的) dishonesty and questions about the acceptability of the essay as a future form of assessment. Working groups have been set up in university departments to meet this challenge.
Experts admit feeling both excited and alarmed. Dr Thomas Lancaster, a computer scientist working at Imperial College London, best known for his research into academic honesty, said ChatGPT was in many ways a game changer. He explains, “It’s certainly a major turning point in education where universities have to make big changes. They have to adapt sooner rather than later.”
There are signs of Australian universities to have a return to greater use of in-person exams to try to protect the fairness of assessment. Lancaster said, however, a total return to exams was not the answer, suggesting instead the use of giving a formal talk to enable students to show their understanding of a subject.
Michael Webb, director of technology and analytics at Jisc, which provides network and IT services to higher education, agreed. He said, “The immediate reaction might be to avoid these tools in order to stop students cheating, but that’s not advisable. We should not simply regard them as spelling or grammar checkers, but technology that can make everyone’s life easier.”
“We don’t need to go back to in-person exams: This is a great opportunity for the schools to explore new assessment methods that measure learners on critical thinking, problem-solving and reasoning skills rather than essay-writing abilities.”
1. Why do the UK teachers have to rethink about the way of assessment?| A．Because their students fail in producing quality essays. |
| B．Because ChatGPT doesn’t do well in academic assessment. |
| C．Because essays will not be accepted as a future form of assessment. |
| D．Because ChatGPT increases the possibility of academic dishonesty. |
| A．Changing the way ChatGPT works. |
| B．Testing students with spoken reports. |
| C．Doing research on academic honesty. |
| D．Returning to previous in-person exams. |
| A．He is concerned about the way students use ChatGPT. |
| B．He advises students not to use ChatGPT in writing essays. |
| C．He is impressed with ChatGPT’s grammar checking function. |
| D．He expects schools to explore better ways to assess students fully. |
| A．A big advance in AI technology. |
| B．A problem facing college educators. |
| C．A challenge to academic assessment from ChatGPT. |
| D．ChatGPT as an effective tool for academic assessment. |
