3 . In today’s American society, background checks have become a routine part of hiring process, employers use them to ______________ potential workers, judging whether they are qualified for the posts. Through background checks, employers can also make sure that the information applicants provide is truthful, which ______________ the applicants’ moral quality.

Then what do background checks investigate? Many include a review of the employee’s employment history trying to confirm whether the employee has ever been fired or forced to ______________ . Employers also pay attention to the length of unemployment, afraid that long-time ______________ from work may bring negative influence to the employee’s performance. Sometimes, an applicant’s residential history is also an issue. Jobs with state or local governments often require that the employee live in certain areas, reducing the chances for them to have contact with ______________ people. Besides living near the work place is always welcome as it saves time and fares on ______________ . Another item which can’t be neglected is the applicant’s criminal history as in whether he has ever been arrested or put into prison. Although ______________ like traffic ticketing or queue jumping are usually pardoned, breaking a criminal law is rarely ______________ and, in most cases, is sure to result in the ending of the employment. Then comes the social history. A background check that involves the applicant’s social history is ______________ needed for government posts or employment in finance and law industries that require greater self ______________ . A small mistake in these posts may result in huge loss. The investigation usually checks drug use, family relationships and social contacts, in order to ______________ hiring someone unsuitable for the posts. Background investigators who ______________ social history may interview neighbors and professional references ______________ by the applicant.

Finally in the field of education background, an application form may ask for copies of licenses or university diplomas to show the applicant’s ______________ performances. In many instances, an education background check is so ______________ about details that investigators even confirm the date on which the employee earned his degree to determine if it agrees with the information the employee provided on his application.

4 . Pretty in pink: adult women do not remember being so obsessed with the colour, yet it is pervasive in our young girls’ lives. It is not that pink is intrinsically (内在地) bad, but it is such a tiny slice of the rainbow and, though it may celebrate girlhood in one way, it also repeatedly and firmly fuses girls’ identity to appearance. Then it presents that connection, even among two-year-olds, between girls as not only innocent but as evidence of innocence. Looking around, I despaired at the singular lack of imagination about girls’ lives and interests.

Girls’ attraction to pink may seem unavoidable, somehow encoded in their DNA, but according to Jo Paoletli, an associate professor of American Studies, it is not. Children were not colour-coded at all until the early 20th century: in the era before domestic washing machines all babies wore white as a practical matter, since the only way of getting clothes clean was to boil them. What’s more, both boys and girls wore what were thought of as gender-neutral dresses. When nursery colours were introduced, pink was actually considered the more masculine colour, a pastel version of red, which was associated will, strength. Blue, with its intimations(暗示) of the Virgin Mary(圣母玛利亚), constancy and faithfulness, symbolized femininity(女性化). It was not until the mid-1980s, when amplifying age and sex differences became a dominant children’s marketing strategy, that pink fully came into its own, when it began to seem inherently attractive to girls, part of what defined them as female, at least for the first few critical years.

I had not realized how profoundly marketing trends dictated our perception of what is natural to kids, including our core beliefs about their psychological development. Take the toddler. I assumed that phase was something experts developed after years of research into children’ s behaviour: wrong. Turns out, according to Daniel Cook, a historian of childhood consumerism, it was popularized as a marketing trick by clothing manufacturers in the 1930s.

Trade publications counselled (劝告) department stores that, in order to increase sales, they should create a “third stepping slime” between infant wear and older kids’ clothes. It was only after “toddler” (学步的小孩) became a common shoppers’ term that it evolved into a broadly accepted developmental stage. Splitting kids, or adults, into ever-tinier categories has proved a sure-fire way to boost profits. And one of the easiest ways to segment a market is to magnify gender differences --- or invent them where they did not previously exist.

6 . By now, it is pretty well understood that we regularly pay for things in ways other than using money. Sometimes we pay sill with cash. But we also pay for things with data, and more often, with our time and attention. We effectively hand over access to our minds in exchange for something “fee”， like email, streaming video or online shopping pages. As opposed to “paying” attention, we actually “spend attention”， agreeing to the view ads in exchange for something we really want.

The centrality of that deal in our lives makes it unacceptable that there are companies who seize our time and attention for absolutely nothing in exchange, and indeed, without permission at all-otherwise known as “attention theft”.

Attention theft happens anywhere you find your time and attention taken without permission, like the new, targeted advertising screens in hospital waiting rooms, the airlines that play full-volume advertising from a screen right in front of your face, or the advertising - screens in office elevators. These are just few examples in what is a growing category. Combined, they threaten to make us live life in a screen-lined cocoon(茧)，shrunken and incapable of independent thought.

Then, what makes it “theft”?Advances in neuroscience over the last several decades make it clear that our brain’s resources are unconsciously triggered(触发)by sound and movement;therefore the screens seize rare mental resources. Meanwhile, in the law, theft is typically defined as the taking control of a resource “under such circumstances as to acquire the major part of its economic value or benefit. ” Given the established market value of time and attention, when taken without permission or compensation, it really is not much different from someone taking money out of your pocket. Thus, when the firms selling public-screen advertising to target audiences brag of rapid growth and billions in profit, those are actually earnings made by stealing from us.

7 . The Effects of Traffic Congestion in Cities

Many of the world’s big cities have problems with congestion. There is simply far too much traffic, so governments everywhere have to think about how to solve the problem.

Traffic jams have a number of negative effects. They cause stress to drivers, which may lead to health problems or road rage. They can also reduce productivity because products cannot be delivered on time and employees arrive late for work or meetings. Another important issue is that the emergency services can become caught in traffic.     1     Traffic congestion wastes fuel, which in turn produces more carbon dioxide through the car exhausts and contributes to the greenhouse effect.

    2     The most obvious solutions involve engineering. This means building more roads with wider lanes so that more cars can travel at the same time. However, the problems with these kind of solutions are the construction costs and that more roads may actually encourage more traffic.

Other more creative solutions to the congestion problem are to increase tax on fuel so that it is more expensive, or make people pay to travel on certain roads such as in the centre of a city or on a motorway. However, taxing fuel and roads may mean that some people cannot afford to drive their cars and may have to give up their jobs.     3    

A more popular solution, therefore, would be to encourage other forms of transport which will lead to fewer cars on the road.     4     Although this mode of transport has obvious health benefits and reduces air pollution, it is not very practical in every climate and can prove dangerous in heavy traffic.

Overall, although there are a number of good ways to tackle this problem, some of these also have negative effects. It would seem that encouraging alternative forms of transport is probably the best solution as this solves the congestion problems and reduces the amount of traffic at the same time, which will also have a positive effect on the environment.

10 . Artificial intelligence (AI) has amazing potential to change the world, and we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface. As AI matures and people move further away from distinct programming and monitoring of systems, unidentified bias (偏见) might make decisions continue for a long time that cause _______ harm for individuals and society. This bias might _______ input data or even the algorithms (算法) themselves.

All too often, data sets are incomplete and the sample represented in the data set does not _______ the population that the AI model is making predictions about — this is known as coverage bias. Some other types of bias related to input data include sampling bias, where data is not collected randomly from the target group, and participation bias, where users from certain groups _______ surveys at different rates than users from other groups. Still, another more challenging bias to identify is confirmation bias that occurs when a decision maker or analyst has a strong _______ belief or experience that affects their ability to consider alternatives. This could lead one to more strongly _______ data that confirms a preexisting belief.

Bias resulting from AI algorithms themselves, or algorithmic bias, is equally _______. One example of algorithmic bias is implicit bias or unconscious bias, where data scientists _______ make associations or assumptions based on their mental models and memories that affect data modeling decisions. Implicit bias can _______ how data is collected and classified, or how systems are designed and developed. As machines learn, their conclusions and decisions affect people. Ethical (道德的) AI must understand these impacts and create governance and testing methods to ________ mistakes and inaccuracies.

To create ethical AI, companies need to put the ________ of the individual at the center of data innovation. This means thinking about ________ rights as human rights and developing a comprehensive approach to data, including how we use AI.

Having ________ data practices for AI means having good AI governance. This governance not only focuses on data and analytics but also understands the impacts of any given analysis and makes sure it’s ________ and accurate. Good AI governance includes data responsibility as well as a commitment to transparency (透明性).

None of this will be easy, but true innovation never is. By coming together and working on the problem of bias now, before it becomes a(n) ________ force, businesses can help bring out the best AI has to offer the world.