1 . Building artificial intelligences that sleep and dream can lead to more dependable models, according to researchers who aim to mimic (模仿) the behavior of the human brain.
Concetto Spampinato and his research members at the University of Catania, Italy, were looking for ways to avoid a phenomenon known as “disastrous forgetting”, where an AI model trained to do a new task loses the ability to carry out jobs it previously excelled at. For instance, a model trained to identify animals could learn to spot different fish species, but then might lose its ability to recognize birds. They developed a method of training AI called Wake-Sleep Consolidated Learning (WSCL), which mimics the way that our brains reorganize short-term memories of daily learning when we are asleep.
Besides the usual training for the “awake” phase, models using WSCL are programmed to have periods of “sleep”, where they analyze awake data from earlier lessons. This is similar to human spotting connections and patterns while sleeping.
WSCL also has a period of “dreaming”, which involves novel data made from combining previous concepts. This helps to integrate previous paths of digital “neurons (神经元)”, freeing up space for future concepts. It also prepares unused neurons with patterns that will help them pick up new lessons more easily.
The researchers tested three AI models using a traditional training method, followed by WSCL training. Then they compared performances for image identification. The sleep-trained models were 2 to 12 percent more likely to correctly identify the contents of an image. They also measured an increase in how much old knowledge a model uses to learn a new task.
Despite the results, Andrew Rogoyski at the University of Surrey, UK, says using the human brain as a blueprint isn’t necessarily the best way to boost AI performance. Instead, he suggests mimicking dolphins, which can “sleep” with one part of the brain while another part remains active. After all, an AI that requires hours of sleep isn’t ideal for commercial applications.
1. WSCL was developed to help improve AI’s ______.| A．reliability | B．creativity | C．security | D．popularity |
| A．Generate new data. | B．Process previous data. |
| C．Receive data for later analysis. | D．Save data for the “awake” phase. |
| A．The application of WSCL. | B．The benefits of AI research. |
| C．The findings of the research. | D．The underlying logic of WSCL. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Prejudiced. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Unconcerned. |
2 . Robots have certain advantages compared to humans. They are efficient, tireless, can be repaired when damaged and they never get sick. The last quality has made them the star during our fight against the COVID-19. While thousands of medical workers have fallen ill dealing with this highly infectious virus (病毒) and a lot more have to stay at home for fear of getting the disease, this isn’t a problem for robots. This is why the COVID-19 outbreak is seen as the “tipping point” for robots to start to replace humans in certain jobs.
In hospitals, robots are used to perform high-risk tasks. In China, for example, a hotel in Hangzhou employed a robot to deliver food to people under quarantine (隔离). In Spain, robots are about to be used to test people for the coronavirus (冠状病毒).
In non-medical companies, robots are also replacing human employees since they don’t have the problem of the social distancing and will never take sick leave. Fast-food chains like McDonald’s are not only delivering food with robots in some areas, but also looking to use them as cooks and servers. Walmart and Amazon, for example, where robots are already used in packing and shipping, are planning to increase the number of robots in these areas.
But this sudden boom in robot demand doesn’t mean that they can replace humans successfully in every aspect. According to Bill Smart, a roboticist at Oregon State University, the human contact between doctors and patients is still important. Doctors comfort the patients and guide them through hard decisions while robots are only doing daily tasks, like cleaning and giving tests.
It might be true that robots have certain advantages over humans, but they are still secondary to human’s communication and emotion.
1. Which of the following is not the advantage of robots over human beings?| A．They never fall ill. |
| B．They are efficient in work. |
| C．They can offer the best emotion support. |
| D．They can be repaired when damaged. |
| A．To explain robots are more intelligent than humans. |
| B．To prove robots have social ability wherever they are. |
| C．To prove McDonald’s and Walmart are famous in the world. |
| D．To explain how robots replace humans in non-medical companies. |
| A．The demand for robots is too great to meet. |
| B．Human interaction is essential in many aspects. |
| C．Doctors can make more accurate judgement than robots. |
| D．Robots would replace humans in the future. |
| A．The Tireless Robots |
| B．People’s Objection to Robots |
| C．Robots Aid in Coronavirus Fight |
| D．Robots Will Replace Humans |
3 . Besides “wow” and “great”, what else would you say when flying over the Earth in space? Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian female astronaut in space, posted several lines of a famous ancient Chinese composition on Twitter to share her joy.
She first wrote in Chinese, and then attached an accurate translation of the lines in both Italian and English to help more people understand. “Looking up, I see the immensity of the cosmos (宇宙); bowing my head, I look at the multitude of the world. The gaze flies, the heart expands, the joy of the senses can reach its peak, and indeed, this is true happiness,” it says. Two days before she landed on Earth, the beauty of space and Chinese literature resonated(共鸣) on her Twitter account. Before long, her posts went viral on Twitter with thousands of retweets, likes and replies.
The text she quoted is from the Preface to Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion (《兰亭集序》), a Chinese calligraphy masterpiece by Wang Xizhi (303-361) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). She also attached three photos taken in space of China’s Bohai Bay and the day-night view of Beijing. “The poem and views are both magnificent as well as healing. If everyone could enjoy the same sight, a lot of pain in the world would be ‘dissipated’,” one user comments.
As the first Italian female astronaut in space, Cristoforetti carried out her first space mission on Nov 23, 2014. In 2022, she started the second mission in April and returned to Earth on Friday night after a 127-day stay in orbit.
Cristoforetti has also been active in Sino-European cooperation in the field of manned spaceflight. She was a working group member with Chinese counterparts to define and implement cooperation in the field of astronaut operations. When not traveling for work, she is an eager reader and has a great passion for languages. Speaking clear Chinese, Cristoforetti once told the media that the teams from China and Europe were working very well together in the field of astronaut training.
1. What is the result of Cristoforetti’s posts online?| A．An unexpected hit on Twitter. |
| B．A passion for literary translation. |
| C．A craze for Chinese masterpieces. |
| D．An outbreak of computer viruses. |
| A．Relieved. | B．Avoided. | C．Increased. | D．Acknowledged. |
| A．She is the first female astronaut in space. |
| B．She leads the Chinese manned spaceflight. |
| C．She is enthusiastic about Chinese language. |
| D．She is currently in charge of training astronauts. |
| A．A post draws global attention to space exploration |
| B．Italian astronaut displays ancient Chinese art in space |
| C．Space travel promotes the Sino-European relationship |
| D．An ancient Chinese composition becomes popular again |
4 . Disasters are like a mirror. They show both our bright and dark sides, as individuals and as a society. As citizens in China and beyond continue to fight against the coronavirus (新冠状病毒), the daily lives of many have gone through changes-from simple routine adjustments to complete devotion from volunteers.
People have consciously chosen to stay at home to prevent further human-to-human spread. However, that didn’t stop employees and students from working and studying at home. On Feb 17, the scheduled first school day, many teachers started to give online lessons. Bored at home, many people began to learn new things to fill their newly-found time, such as baking or knitting.
The film named Contagion, 2011 shows the worst-case that might happen after a worldwide epidemic. Fortunately, the situation in China couldn’t be more different than the movie. Rather than violence and food shortage, everything has worked out rather well in China so far. Scientists isolated (分离) the first virus strain, more than 30, 000 medical workers in over 100 medical teams gathered and thousands of construction workers came to build hospitals in Wuhan, Hubei province. Thousands of volunteers are working nonstop to help deliver supplies and assist the affected regions.
Sociologists once debated whether volunteer service is common to see around the world. Indeed, more than 30 years of research— exploring disasters in Europe, Asia, and America — confirmed that the need to help is universal wherever disaster strikes.
“It’s normal that when disasters happen, people will fall into panic. In reality, we’ re more likely to rush in to hep others than run them over to save ourselves,” wrote American psychologist Kelly Caldwell in Pacific Standard. “It’s an exercise in mass healing.”
1. What is the main purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the topic of the text. | B．To show the effect of a disaster. |
| C．To tell readers a lesson. | D．To raise the readers’ interest in the mirror. |
| A．People chose to stay at home to avoid panic. |
| B．People tried every means to learn new things. |
| C．People adjusted to their routines to avoid infection. |
| D．Online working and studying became more popular. |
| A．China’s situation was the same with the movie. |
| B．China’s situation was quite different from the movie. |
| C．Chinese people have gone through many changes. |
| D．China experienced violence and food shortage. |
| A．A science report. | B．A science fiction. | C．A medical journal. | D．A newspaper. |
5 . Artificial intelligence (AI) tools designed to operate at human levels have greatly expanded in popularity over the past year. These include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s AI-powered search engine Bing. Such tools, also known as chatbots or generative AI, are computer-powered systems. They are designed to interact smoothly with humans and perform high-level writing and creative work.
In recent months, these tools have demonstrated an ability to produce high-quality work. This has led some technology experts to warn that generative AI systems could end up replacing workers in many industries.
This year, researchers at Harvard Business School and other organizations carried out an experiment. It aimed to test how well AI tools could help workers perform their usual duties or tasks. It involved more than 700 business advisors, called consultants, from Massachusetts-based Boston Consulting Group.
Harvard Business School recently published the results from the experiment in a working paper. The main findings suggest that AI tools like ChatGPT can greatly improve worker performance. For example, researchers found that, on average, workers who used OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT 4 tool completed 12 percent more tasks than non-ChatGPT users. Tasks carried out with help from the AI technology were completed 25 percent faster. And the team found the quality of work performed by consultants using ChatGPT 4 increased by about 40 percent.
However, the paper also noted areas where the performance of consultants using ChatGPT 4 dropped. The researchers said this was especially true with tasks the AI tool was not good at completing. “Of tasks the AI was good at, the experiment showed it significantly improved human performance,” the paper said. “But for tasks ChatGPT 4 was not right for, humans relied too much on the AI and were more likely to make mistakes.”
The team suggests one of the biggest barriers to companies effectively using AI is not knowing which tasks can be completed best with the technology. Finding this out will require businesses to carry out thoughtful research and training efforts in order to find the right mix of AI and human-level work.
1. What is a purpose of designing AI tools according to the text?| A．To perform low-level writing. | B．To replace technology experts. |
| C．To finish high-quality work. | D．To improve interpersonal communication. |
| A．To explain the disadvantages of AI tools. |
| B．To show how well AI tools could help workers. |
| C．To forecast changes in the future working environment. |
| D．To compare the work performance between humans and AI tools. |
| A．Companies need to balance the work of AI and humans. |
| B．It is useless to train so many workers to learn to use AI. |
| C．It is easy to find the right mix of AI and human-level work. |
| D．Research on using AI effectively has been made by businesses. |
| A．ChatGPT Can See, Hear and Speak Now |
| B．Ways to Improve Your Performance at Work |
| C．The Fast Development of Artificial Intelligence |
| D．AI Tools Help but also Harm Worker Performance |
Rongbao is a service robot
Zhang Ruirui, chairing the company
Rongbao also
detect obstacles and avoid them when guiding athletes and spectators.
Zhang said, “The Universiade, has provided
7 . If you’re someone who has been worrying about the rise of the robots—hold on there just a second, and let them help you impress your friends with some newfound skills in a foreign language. Using artificial intelligence (AI) to help us learn and improve those skills is not new—some of the online language tools we turn to every day are powered by AI.
But as new technologies flood into the market, now is a great time to take advantage of the tech. And according to experts, these tools aren’t replacing teachers—they’re making their lives easier. One of the things that stops some of us from practicing speaking in a new language is a lack of self-confidence. AI can help—chatbots don’t judge you. Of course, teachers don’t either, but for some people, communicating with a bot may erase that fear of failure or shyness.
The latest chatbots use something called natural language processing that allows them to understand human speech or writing, providing a human-like response right away. While chatbots are extremely useful for learners working individually, teachers can also offer course material and ask an AI system to produce personalized textbooks for groups of students. The AI can also provide feedback (反馈) in seconds—gone are the days of waiting a week for work to be graded.
Past online language tools and games were able to tell you when you were wrong, but they weren’t always able to explain why. Now, not only has that changed, but the explanations are detailed and immediate. But this is not to underestimate the role of the teacher, who can use the technology to help learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of their students and personalize their teaching.
So, if you want to impress your friends with your perfect speech, don’t be afraid of AI.Just think of it as a useful tool for both teachers and language learners, which will give you more time and space to enjoy learning something new!
1. What is the main theme of the article?| A．The dangers of Al-robots. |
| B．The history of online language tools. |
| C．The benefits of AI in language learning. |
| D．The role of teachers in the modern classroom. |
| A．Because bots grade work faster. |
| B．Because bots provide textbooks. |
| C．Because bots are more knowledgeable. |
| D．Because bots may remove the fear of failure or shyness. |
| A．It saves time for teachers. | B．It reduces the cost of education. |
| C．It meets individual students’ needs. | D．It provides detailed lesson plans. |
| A．Undervalue. | B．Underscore. | C．Undertake. | D．Understand. |
The conclusion of the recent Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Feb 20 also marked the end of the volunteering work of Armenian twin brothers Vahan and Hayk Gehamyan, both of
The brothers served as translators for Team Armenia during the Games and also
“It’s
“Moreover, we saw people from across the world
Hayk said that they
9 . Throughout the past year, we followed some interesting new inventions in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Here is a look back at some notable AI developments in 2022.
Meta’s speech-to-speech translationFacebook’s parent Meta said it had built a technology tool to directly translate between English and the Hokkien language, a spoken language without a widely used written form.
Meta said it trained its AI models on written text examples from Mandarin Chinese. In addition, developers used an encoding tool designed to compare spoken Hokkien to similar English text.
Method to identify Parkinson’s diseaseResearchers announced a new Al method to identify Parkinson’s disease. The system works by measuring a person’s breathing patterns during sleep. With just one night of sleep, the Al system was able to correctly identify Parkinson’s up to 86 percent of the time. With 12 nights of data, the rate went up to 95 percent.
Tool to interpret pig emotionsResearchers announced they had created a technology tool that uses pig sounds to interpret different emotions.
The tool is based on thousands of recordings collected from more than 400 pigs throughout their lives. The scientists developed an AI-driven algorithm to identify a series of emotions pigs could be experiencing. It is expected to lead to further systems farmers can use to improve the productivity and well-being of their animals.
Tool to fill in missing words in ancient writingsResearchers — led by Alphabet’s AI company Deep Mind — said they developed an Al system to help fill in missing words in ancient writings. The tool, called Ithaca, is designed to help historians repair the writings and identify when and where they were written.
The team said that when historians work on their own, the success rate for repairing damaged writings is about 25 percent. But when humans teamed up with Ithaca to assist in their work, the success rate jumped to 72 percent.
1. Which can be used for cross-cultural communication?| A．Tool to interpret pig emotions. | B．Meta’s speech-to-speech translation. |
| C．Method to identify Parkinson’s disease. | D．Tool to fill in missing words in ancient writings. |
| A．A farmer. | B．A doctor. | C．A botanist. | D．An archeologist. |
| A．They focus on health issues. | B．They are developed by Facebook. |
| C．They aim to promote productivity. | D．They are AI-driven technology tools. |
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