1、We ________ be seen by AI as a small inconvenience that is in the way of the solution to a bigger problem.
A.could
B.should
C.need
D.dare
2、Lucy has a great sense of humor and always keeps her colleagues with her stories.
A. amused B. amusing
C. to amuse D. to be amused
3、______ to the gift was a note on which he expressed his appreciation for our reception during his stay here.
A.Being attached B.Attached C.Attaching D.Having attached
4、They all sat together at table, laughing and ______ stories after many years’ separation.
A.swapping B.circulating C.spreading D.plotting
5、Fanny asked ________ made that odd looking little cat so popular.
A.what was it that
B.what was that
C.what it was that
D.what that was
6、There is no greater love than________ who lays his life for his friends.
A.that of a man B.a man
C.that of a man’s D.a man’s
7、When humans develop machines that are smarter than they are and machines begin to improve themselves, they risk ________ the mathematician IJ Good called an “intelligence explosion”.
A.what
B.that what
C.even if
D.whatever
8、He was a friendly and _____ man, who gave freely to the poor.
A.rigid B.generous C.shallow D.competent
9、Bobby secretly decided to _______for the track team with the purpose of being the winner, and his roommate instantly showed his disapproval.
A.let out B.try out C.work out D.drop out
10、Researching findings show we spend about two hours dreaming every night, no matter what we ________ during the day.
A.would have done
B.should have done
C.may have done
D.must have done
11、A woman had a ________ escape yesterday when her car left the road.
A. necessary B. narrow
C. nervous D. neat
12、He suggested we set off for the station immediately. _________ , we will miss the the train.
A.Therefore B.Meanwhile C.However D.Otherwise
13、Many of his classmates came to his birthday party, and they had a good time; ________ it was a great success to him.
A.in particular
B.all the best
C.all in all
D.in other word
14、—Mary is not equal to the job, and neither is Mike.
— I can’t agree more. You know, Mike is ______ competent than Mary.
A. not more B. no more
C. no less D. not less
15、The housing price in Suzhou ________ sharply recently, so new measures are to be taken to control it.
A.has been rising
B.will rise
C.rises
D.had risen
16、Of all the speeches delivered in this contest today,________ was more impressive than “Extend the Passion” by the student from Class 18.
A.few B.nothing C.no one D.None
17、Drivers should be careful near schools in particular, ________ there are likely to be many children.
A.though B.but C.so D.because
18、The best books are treasures of good words and golden thoughts, ______ , remembered and cherished, become our constant companions.
A.that B.which C.where D.where
19、Which of the following sentences is WRONG?
A.It was sunny,and I suggested going to the beach.
B.Her expression suggested that she know the news.
C.All the evidence suggests that he stole the money.
D.She suggested that he book the tickets in advance.
20、Warmblooded animals have the ability to ________ body heat exactly to maintain their ideal temperature despite changing weather.
A.respond B.attach C.adjust D.expose
21、The streets were full of people on May Day _____________ the rainy weather.
A. in case of B. as a consequence of
C. on behalf of D. in spite of
22、________ you begin to do something, you must carry on with it, otherwise you will never achieve anything.
A.Once
B.Unless
C.Before
D.Although
23、Picasso was famous for his work in Cubism, which often uses acute angles and ________ the world is represented as being constructed of cubes and rectangles.
A. that B. which
C. where D. why
24、Luckily, the weather ______ sometime after lunch and we headed for the school.
A. turned up B. ended up
C. cleared up D. came up
25、You have to be accurate in this job, because a small mistake can make a big .
A. difference B. difficulty C. trouble D. change
26、If you don’t know what to watch on Friday night, look no further than this list of the top 3 movie recommendation engines. They all offer something different. If you want to exchange thoughts about what we offer on our website, just contact us through e-mail.
Top 3. Nanocrowd. The site goes well beyond a simple search engine like Netflix. Nanocrowd allows you to drill down into a more refined search. On the results page, you click which three-word category you prefer, based on keywords related to the movie you input into the search field, and Nanocrowd immediately refines your search to get the best film for you.
Top 2. Taste Kid. It’s simple enough. You input a film you like and it returns results that offer similar action to your favorites. But it goes beyond just movies. If you really like “The Godfather”, Taste Kid fills you in on what kind of bands you’ll like to listen to, books you’ll want to read, and “other stuff” that’s related to that film. Taste Kid is a full entertainment recommendation engine.
Top 1. Jinni Jinni. Whether you want to search for films in the search field or you want to find films based on your mood, time available, setting, or reviews, the site has it all. I searched for movies based on my mood and followed that with a search based on my plot preference. Each time, films that I’ve watched and loved in the past, or that I haven’t watched but definitely want to see popped up. But perhaps the most competitive feature that Jinni offers is its plot search. You can input terms like, “movies that have gangsters” or “films that show Chris Farley yelling” and the site will return films that match your question.
【1】If you seek relevant information about a film, ________ can be a good choice.
A.Jinni Jinni
B.Taste Kid
C.Netflix
D.Nanocrowd
【2】Which function below makes Jinni Jinni at the top of the list?
A.Plot search.
B.Refined search.
C.Category search.
D.Keyword search.
【3】Where can the text be found?
A.On the poster.
B.In a science magazine.
C.On the Internet.
D.In an academic research.
27、 With the advance of human society, along with the development of modern science and technology, people are faced with an increasing number of pollutions. One of the severe pollutions is noise pollution. Many parents express their complaints over noise pollution, especially car alarms.
Anchor
Almost anyone who has lived in a big city can tell you how irritating it is to be awakened in the middle of the night by the wail of a car alarm. The loss of sleep can drive you crazy, but this is just one in a long list of problems that such high decibel noises can cause.
Jonathan
People in this noisy neighborhood in upper Manhattan are fed up with car alarms. They're angry enough at being jolted awake several times a week, but more than that they worry about what effect these alarms will have on their children. Already studies have shown that continuous exposure to high-decibel noise can cause an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
Andrea
By the time my child can read, he will already have been exposed to the constant roar of the traffic, but the intense siren of a car alarm is way above the level of safety.
Michael
I have a valid concern. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), exposure to noise above 85 decibels for 8 hours or more is a danger to your health. City traffic and trucks are about 90 decibels. The siren of a car alarm is about 120 decibels, about the same as a plane taking off.
The parents here are sick and tired of listening to the shrill siren of car alarms. However, it's for their children that they are most concerned. They've started a group called Parents to Silence Car Alarms. They don't think that making the owner of a car pay a fine is enough. These parents have started a campaign to have car alarms banned.
【1】According to the passage, which one of the following statements is true?
A. Anchor thinks the high decibel noises only causes the loss of sleep.
B. Jonathan holds the view that exposure to decibel noises can give rise to heart disease.
C. According to NIOSH, exposure to noise above 85 for 8 hours or more threatens people's health.
D. Andrea believes the intense siren of a car alarm is acceptable.
【2】According to the passage, what is the parents' attitude towards car alarms?
A. Neutral. B. Critical. C. Favorable. D. Indifferent.
【3】What is the main idea of the passage?
A. People in modern society is faced with noise pollution.
B. Anyone who lives in a big city is tired of car alarms.
C. A car alarm is out of control and beyond the level of safety.
D. Parents complain about car alarms, trying to fight against them.
28、Nowadays, we are very worried about such COVID-19 variants as Delta and Omicron. To relieve our anxieties, we should have a look at our own cell and the original COVID-19 virus.
First of all, our cell isn’t stupid. If any virus wants to enter our cell, it must figure out a way for its spike (触手) to hold tightly to the spike on the cell’s surface. You can imagine this connecting as a secret handshake.
At the early stage, the COVID-19 virus figured out a way to connect to a specific spike on the surface of human cell, called ACE2. But the connecting wasn’t perfect. However, it was good enough to trick the ACE2 to let it in.
Once the virus was inside the cell, it kept copying itself in order to find more cells to infect. During this time, the immune (免疫) system started making antibodies to fight back. Some of those antibodies acted like little caps that stick to the ends of the virus’s spike. Once “capped”, the infection couldn’t move forward, and the body won!
But every time the virus copies itself inside a cell, it has the chance of changing its spikes slightly. Most of the variations are actually harmful to the virus. So these variants disappear. However, once the virus hits upon a set of variations that actually help the virus to connect more tightly to the cell or more quickly, a person’s cell gets infected more easily.
Then what about the antibodies? Aren’t they coming to save us again? Well, yes... and no.
Scientists found that a person who was infected with the earlier version of the virus may not be protected as well against these new variants. He still can be infected, again. However, the antibodies’ spikes come in different shapes, too. So even though some antibodies become less useful, others will get the job done—or at least, hold back the infection long enough so the body can make new antibodies that fit perfectly on the changed spike.
【1】What does the underlined word "it" in paragraph 2 refer to?
A.The virus.
B.The cell.
C.The spike.
D.The connection.
【2】What is the fifth paragraph mainly about?
A.How a virus enters the human cell.
B.How a virus copies itself inside a cell.
C.Why the immune system can fight back.
D.Why virus variants have different infection rates.
【3】What can be learned from the text?
A.COVID-19 variants will become more and more infectious.
B.It is unlikely for COVID-19 patients to get infected again.
C.Old antibodies might be less effective against new variants.
D.It is hopeless to get rid of the COVID-19 in the near future.
【4】What is the best title for the text?
A.Worries About the COVID-19 Variants
B.A Simple Guide to COVID-19 Variants
C.The Danger of the Deadly COVID-19 Virus
D.Ways to Protect Ourselves From COVID-19 Virus
29、 Parents in the U.S. are claiming the popular children’s TV show Peppa Pig has caused their kids to start speaking in a British accent. The cartoon follows the life of a pig, Peppa, and her family as they go about their day-to-day life in a fictional U. K. town made up of various animal families.
And now parents of children who love the show are noticing that Peppa’s southern British accent and vocabulary seem to be rubbing off on those watching the show. One parent wrote online: “My 4-year baby girl loves watching Peppa Pig and I have noticed her accent and grammar is extraordinary. I’d like to thank Peppa Pig for the slight yet adorable British accent my toddler (幼儿) is acquiring.” added by another parent. A third parent wrote: “The most entertaining aspect of my life right now is that my toddler now speaks with a British accent.”
Writer Janet Manley called it the “Peppa effect”. Janet revealed that immediately after her daughter’s first time watching the show two years ago, she started calling her “mummy”. Her daughter also began snorting at the end of her sentences, just like the cartoon pig. And the “Peppa effect” isn’t anything new. Parents have been discussing about it for a number of years. Since the show first aired, there have been a total of 241 episodes created as the show surged in popularity.
【1】What’s the background of the cartoon?
A. A made-up U.K. town. B. A traditional U.K. town.
C. An ancient U.K. town. D. A fictional U.K. city.
【2】What’s the most obvious influence of Peppa Pig on kids according to some parents?
A. Dressing preference. B. Diet preference.
C. Emotions. D. Accent.
【3】What’s the attitude of parents toward the show?
A. Critical. B. Doubtful.
C. Positive. D. Indifference.
【4】Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. Peppa Pig is a popular U. S. cartoon.
B. Peppa Pig is popular with children of all ages.
C. Children who love the show are influenced in every aspect of their life.
D. Parents have been concerned with the ‘Peppa effect’ for a long time.
30、 For a long time, I thought a present and a gift were no different. I grew up in a household where presents_________special occasions, say there were always presents for Christmas and our birthdays.
So when I married Gary who did not give presents on a_________basis, I had to make an adjustment. Gary did not wholly avoid gift-giving, though._________noticing how many hours I spend on the_________, he brought home a shoulder pad (垫肩) for the telephone receiver. But mostly, he_________holidays, let alone shop for earrings to_________to me showing his affection.
I tried to change him_________. I bought books for his birthdays and knitted him hats and sweaters for Christmas._________I began to tell him what I wanted, giving_________instructions, but got nowhere.
Last year when the snowstorm__________our town and he was on business, I used his present road scraper(铲土机)to__________both our drive and our neighbors, thinking how__________earrings would have been. Gary had wisely chosen not the thing I__________,but the thing that he knew I would need.
I__________began to understand the difference between a present and a gift. A present is just a thing. But a gift is broader and often cannot be__________. It is a small act of kindness, the__________to bend to another's needs, the sacrifice of time and effort.__________is a gift. Any expression of it, freely given, is a (n)__________from the heart that is immeasurably better than a present.
My insistence on presents must have seemed to Gary a lack of__________for the gifts he had be giving all along, but he never stopped giving them.
Gary will be home this Christmas, but I don't __________a present. I already have the greatest gift.
【1】A.marked B.involved C.expressed D.displayed
【2】A.daily B.rare C.temporary D.regular
【3】A.Therefore B.Once C.Then D.Besides
【4】A.gardening B.cooking C.telephone D.Internet
【5】A.missed B.hated C.abandoned D.ignored
【6】A.serve B.refer C.present D.relate
【7】A.by tradition B.by force C.by example D.by chance
【8】A.Yet B.Even C.Thus D.Still
【9】A.useful B.simple C.specific D.interesting
【10】A.struck B.disappeared C.melted D.passed
【11】A.clear B.tear up C.build up D.speed up
【12】A.priceless B.useless C.weightless D.colorless
【13】A.valued B.prepared C.preserved D.desired
【14】A.eventually B.definitely C.simply D.totally
【15】A.obtained B.discovered C.measured D.observed
【16】A.happiness B.willingness C.wisdom D.freedom
【17】A.Love B.Passion C.Insistence D.Motivation
【18】A.sharing B.offering C.following D.experiencing
【19】A.desire B.concern C.preparation D.appreciation
【20】A.purchase B.order C.expect D.evaluate
31、 My friend and I had just set off from Vancouver to do a five-day canoe (独木舟) trip in Bowron Lake Provincial park.
We’d been_______ the trip for quite a while — reservations at the park need to be_______ months in advance. I’d taken some time off work and my friend managed to spare some time for the_______.
We were _______to Bowron Lake when our car broke down. _______, we were just outside a small town which had a little motel (汽车旅馆), where we met a kind_______.
He gave us the _______ of a mechanic (修理工) in town. We were going to call him, but as it was quite late, we _______ to leave repairing the car until the next morning and so booked into the motel.
It turned out our car _______ wasn’t a big deal to fix, but the mechanic needed to order a part that would take a few days to show up. At that point, we__________ our trip would have to be cancelled. If we were going to finish it in time, we had to leave immediately.
The __________ stranger insisted that we finish our __________ when we mentioned the change of plans. He offered to drive the two-hour round trip to drop us off at the lake, coordinate with (与……协调) the mechanic to __________ the car while we were gone, and then __________ my friend and me after we finished canoeing.
I remember as he dropped us off at the lake, he__________ us a bag of fresh, homemade cookies to take along. Everything he did to help us was__________.
It was a trip that never would have happened __________ he hadn’t done all he did, which __________us so much.
I’m very __________ for the stranger’s kindness; it’s people like him that make me want to go out of my way for others who are travelling and __________ help.
【1】A.enjoying B.imagining C.planning D.completing
【2】A.changed B.offered C.cancelled D.booked
【3】A.work B.adventure C.party D.task
【4】A.driving B.walking C.biking D.running
【5】A.Finally B.Surprisingly C.Certainly D.Luckily
【6】A.seller B.friend C.stranger D.guide
【7】A.address B.number C.introduction D.story
【8】A.decided B.started C.learned D.struggled
【9】A.accident B.parking C.Improvement D.problem
【10】A.figured B.promised C.remembered D.heard
【11】A.hard-working B.proud C.kind-hearted D.energetic
【12】A.meeting B.trip C.business D.competition
【13】A.fix up B.pull over C.get out D.put away
【14】A.pay for B.search for C.cheer up D.pick up
【15】A.awarded B.sent C.handed D.showed
【16】A.unavoidable B.unbelievable C.unrecognizable D.unacceptable
【17】A.though B.since C.before D.if
【18】A.helped B.served C.greeted D.trusted
【19】A.regretful B.prepared C.grateful D.thirsty
【20】A.fond of B.in need of C.used to D.in favor of
32、A Hero in Pajamas
It was late, about 10:15 pm when Janice Esposito jumped into her car and began the 20-minute drive home to her husband and seven-year-old son. Out of nowhere, a car ______ hers on one side, pushing her backward some 100 feet onto the railroad ______. She sat in the car, injured and ______ by the impact.
Pete DiPinto, a volunteer firefighter and ______ teacher, was getting ready for ______ when he heard the loud noise and ______ glass coming from not far outside his bedroom window. Without ______, DiPinto, 64, ran out of the door with his pajamas (睡衣) on. “Any firefighter would have done what I did,” he said later. “We’re always on ______.”
The first car he came upon was the one that had hit Esposito. Once DiPinto ______ the driver was OK, he looked around and spotted Esposito’s car ______ the railroad tracks. Suddenly he heard a loud roar signaling an oncoming ______. He even saw the headlight of the train. DiPinto ran to Esposito’s car and knocked ______ on the driver’s side window. But she just looked at him, her ______ unfocused.
“Honey, you’re on the railroad tracks,” DiPinto ______. “We have to get you off right now!” He pulled on the handle, but the door was out of ______ and couldn’t open. The train, traveling at 65 miles per hour, was ______ toward them. DiPinto ran to the passenger side and opened the door. He ______ the airbags, seized her arms, and pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until he could help her out and walked her to ______. Within six seconds, the train ______ into the car. “It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto said.
The next morning, a report of CBS said, “Last night, the ______ arrived in pajamas, not in a fire truck.”
【1】A.beat B.struck C.dragged D.touched
【2】A.stations B.platforms C.tracks D.passages
【3】A.shocked B.surprised C.amazed D.panicked
【4】A.appointed B.trained C.injured D.retired
【5】A.work B.bed C.dinner D.help
【6】A.broken B.harmful C.normal D.sharp
【7】A.hesitation B.competence C.confidence D.punishment
【8】A.fire B.duty C.profession D.performance
【9】A.introduced B.constructed C.condemned D.concluded
【10】A.around B.about C.across D.beneath
【11】A.car B.airplane C.bus D.train
【12】A.quietly B.softly C.heavily D.lightly
【13】A.head B.ears C.eyes D.heart
【14】A.whispered B.sobbed C.shouted D.suggested
【15】A.style B.date C.fashion D.shape
【16】A.dashing B.dropping C.flying D.floating
【17】A.put on B.put off C.put forward D.put aside
【18】A.recovery B.safety C.happiness D.disappointment
【19】A.crashed B.got C.boarded D.hit
【20】A.police B.hero C.volunteer D.teacher
33、 “You are the kind of person who will become a great doctor someday.” My mother whispered these last words of ______ as I approached the front door to go to school. The subject of my future, bound to be in the ______ profession, seemed to always come up whenever I came into contact with her. I ______ the idea of becoming a doctor because of the amount of work, effort and time you had to invest. The idea of ______ in biology and attending graduate school just did not seem to ______ me. Stepping out of the house, I replied perfunctorily (敷衍地), “______.Mother”
The day began like any other school day, ______ students trying to get to their lockers and talking about the exams they would take.______, with all my strength, I was able to squeeze my way through to get to my biology class and take my usual ______.We listened to the teacher’s lecture and ______ all the necessary notes from the whiteboard.
After several minutes, I looked up from my ______. As I gave out my loud, daily ______, my teacher decided to do something different. She ______ us to a middle-aged gentleman, who was a doctor. She told us he was going to lecture on his accomplishments. I felt excited about the opportunity to ______ someone else for a change. I tried my best to ______ what he was saying. “Firstly, I had no idea what I wanted to study in college. I never thought I would choose to become a doctor ______ I met this guy in my senior year. He talked to me...” His ______ began building small blocks of interest within me. I listened ______, gathering every bit of information.
Now here I was, deciding what major I wanted to study. Without any ______, I chose to major in biology. This time, no one was ______ me. This was all voluntary.
【1】A.congratulation B.persuasion C.goodbye D.warning
【2】A.cultural B.historical C.political D.medical
【3】A.hated B.forgot C.supported D.preferred
【4】A.trading B.majoring C.growing D.wandering
【5】A.interest B.protect C.improved D.reward
【6】A.As usual B.Of course C.No way D.Right away
【7】A.tired B.heartbroken C.disappointed D.crowded
【8】A.Similarly B.Obviously C.Finally D.Regularly
【9】A.way B.order C.meal D.seat
【10】A.collected B.borrowed C.copied D.separated
【11】A.notes B.maps C.chair D.dictionary
【12】A.greeting B.sigh C.reply D.demand
【13】A.introduced B.carried C.pulled D.compared
【14】A.talk about B.listen to C.hear from D.care for
【15】A.doubt B.consider C.explain D.follow
【16】A.since B.while C.until D.because
【17】A.plans B.conclusion C.suggestions D.stories
【18】A.gratefully B.firmly C.closely D.politely
【19】A.hesitation B.chance C.mistakes D.problems
【20】A.begging B.forcing C.instructing D.stopping
34、Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word. For the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
My daughter
(A story told by a father, a famous actor)
My wife and I only had the one child. We had Amy.
I see her as my best friend. I think she’d always come to me first if she had a problem. We have the same sense of humor, and share interests. 【1】 I don’t mind animals, she’s completely fascinated with them, and she has always had dogs, cats, horses, and goldfish in her life.
We were 【2】 (close) when she was about four, which I think is a lovely age for a child. They know the parents best, and don’t have outside contacts. She must have grown up suddenly when she went to school, because I remember her growing away from her family slightly. Any father who has a teenager daughter comes across an extraordinary collection of people, and there seemed to be an endless stream of strange young men 【3】 (come) through our house. By the time I learned their names they 【4】 (go) away and I had to start learning a new lot.
I wanted more than anything else for her to be happy in 【5】 she was doing, and I was prepared to pull strings to help her on her way. When she left a good school she decided she wanted to become an actress so I got her into drama school. It wasn’t to her liking so she joined a theatre group and began doing bits and pieces in films. She was doing well, but then gave it up. She probably found it boring. Then she took up social work, and finally went to work 【6】a designer and he became her husband. And that’s really the story of her life. She must be happy with him—they’re always together.
We have such similar tastes in books and music 【7】 I used to take her to see an opera, which is my big passion. However, I don’t think she likes it very much. She doesn’t come with me anymore.
I don’t think she’s a big television watcher. She knows when I’m on the television, and she 【8】 watch, but I don’t know. It’s not the kind of thing she tells me.
We’re very grateful for Amy. She’s a good daughter as daughters go. We’re looking forward to being grandparents.
35、Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
On a broiling afternoon when the men were away at work and all the women napped, I moved through majestic depths of silences, silences so immense I could hear the corn 【1】. Under these silences there was a / an orchestra of natural music playing notes no city child would ever hear. A certain cackle from the henhouse meant we had gained an egg. The creak of a porch swing told of a momentary breeze blowing across my grandmother’s yard. As I 【2】 along a mossy bank to surprise a frog, a 【3】splash told me the quarry had spotted me and slipped into the stream. Wandering among the sleeping houses, I learned that tin roofs crackle under the power of the sun, and when I tired and came back to my grandmother’s house, I padded into her dark cool living room, lay 【4】 on the floor, and listened to the hypnotic beat of her pendulum clock on the wall ticking the meaningless hours away.
I was enjoying the luxuries of a rustic nineteenth-century boyhood, but for the women Morrisonville life had few 【5】. Their lives were hard, endless, dirty labor.
For baths, laundry, and dishwashing, they hauled buckets of water from a spring at the foot of a hill. To heat it, they chopped kindling to fire their wood stoves. They boiled laundry in tubs, scrubbed it on washboards until knuckles were 【6】, and wrung it out by hand. Ironing was a business of lifting heavy metal weights heated on the stove top.
They scrubbed floors on hands and knees, thrashed rugs with carpet beaters, killed and plucked their own chickens, baked bread and parties, grew and conned their won vegetables, patched the family’s clothing on treadle-operated sewing machines, 【7】before the men to start the stove for breakfast and pack lunch pails, polished the chimneys of kerosene lamps, and even found time to tend the flowers that grew around every house. By the end of a summer day a Morrisonville woman had toiled like a serf.
At sundown the men drifted back from the fields exhausted and 【8】. They scrubbed themselves in enamel basins and, when supper was eaten, climbed up onto the porch to watch the night arrive. Presently the women 【9】 them, and the twilight music of Morrisonville began.
The swing creaking , rocking chairs 【10】 on the porch planks, voices murmuring approval of the sagacity of Uncle Irvey as he quietly observed for probably the ten-thousandth time in his life, “A man works from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.”
36、Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
Knowledge is free on the Internet at a small but 【1】 number of colleges and universities. About 160 schools around the world now put free course materials on the web to the 【2】. Recent additions in the United States 【3】 projects at Yale, Johns Hopkins and the University of California, Berkeley.
Berkeley said it would offer videos of lectures on YouTube. Free videos from other schools are 【4】 at the Apple iTunes store.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) became an early 【5】 with its Open Course Ware project, first 【6】 in 2001. Free lecture notes, exams and other resources are published at ocw.mit.edu. Many exams even include the answers. Today, Open Course Ware offers materials from 1,800 undergraduate and graduate courses. These 【7】 from Physics to Political Science. Visitors can learn the same things as MIT students learn. But as the site points out, Open Course Ware is not an MIT education. Visitors receive no credit toward a degree. Some materials from a course may not be available, and the site does not provide 【8】 with teachers. Still, MIT says that the site has had forty million visits by thirty-one million visitors from almost every country. Sixty percent of the visitors are from outside the United States and Canada. Students and educators use the site, including students at MIT. But the largest number of visitors, about half, are self-learners.
Some professors have become well-known around the world as a result of 【9】 online. Walter Lewin, a physics professor at MIT, is 【10】 popular. Fans enjoy his entertaining lectures. MIT Open Course Ware now includes materials for high school. The aim is to improve education in Science, Technology, Math and Engineering.
37、Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
AI artwork sells for $432,500 — nearly 45 times its high【1】 — as Christie’s becomes the first auction house to offer a work of art created by an algorithm. This portrait, however, is not the product of a human mind. It was created by an【2】 intelligence, an algorithm defined by that algebraic formula with its many parentheses. And when it went under the【3】 in the Prints & Multiples sale at Christie’s on 23-25 October, Portrait of Edmond Belamy sold for an【4】 $432,500, signaling the arrival of AI art on the world auction stage.
From a distance, Portrait of Edmond de Belamy looks almost plausible. Up close, however, the paintwork becomes a grid of mechanical-looking dots, the man’s face a golden blur with black holes for eyes. Look into those eyes. They show no sign of feeling or life. Did a computer make this?
The answer is yes. The first artwork【5】 by AI to be sold at Christie’s, its【6】 price would seem to suggest that in future we will get computers to make art for us. Robot van Gogh will harmlessly cut its ear off and robot Picasso will be a genius.
Is this the future AI art visionaries such as the French collective Obvious, which programmed this “painter” by getting it to compare its own work with 15,000 pre-20th century portraits, have in mind? Or are they just, God forbid, making a fast buck from deceivable art collectors? Because believing the algorithm that knocked this up to be in any meaningful way an “artist” is like thinking your voice-interaction programme is out to get you. Dream on. Computers would need to replicate human consciousness before they could replicate the funny thing humans do called “art”.
Art is a way in which human 【7】 expresses itself, and is equally true of the earliest cave art, Rembrandt’s portraits and Duchamp’s urinal. And that is what is missing from Portrait of Edmond Bellamy. Art is a way humans communicate ideas, perceptions and feelings to each other. It has no 【8】 outside the human passion to communicate. So in what meaningful sense can an AI replica of certain【9】 traits of old master paintings be called art?
For a robot to really make art, it would need an autonomous mind that was emotional as well as【10】. No AI developer has yet claimed to be anywhere near achieving that and if they ever do, their creation will probably have better things to do than paint portraits — like destroy humanity.
Maybe afterwards robots will invent their own kind of art, but it won’t be some poor pastiche of human genius.
It will be beyond anything we organics could imagine.
38、阅读下面短文,根据所给情节进行续写,使之构成一个完整的故事。
A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
—Tenneva Jordan
I knew I was not supposed to be quite so excited. I was too old for that. At age eleven, the oldest and my mom’s “grown up” girl, I had to keep my cool. I was in middle school after all. But every chance I got, when I was alone, I checked each present under the tree. I read every tag and felt every package, guessing at the contents within. I had examined each gift so often that I could tell which present went to which person without even looking at the tags.
It had been a tough year for my family. Whenever my mom looked over at the tree and scattered(撒) presents, she would sigh and warn us, “There won’t be as much for Christmas this year. Try not to be disappointed.” Christmas had traditionally been a time for my parents to spoil us. In years past, the presents would pile up and spill out from under the tree, taking over the living room. I had heard the phrase “giving is better than receiving,” but thought that whoever had said that must have been out of their mind. Getting presents was the whole point! It was the reason I couldn’t get to sleep on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas morning, we eagerly waited in the hallway until Dad told us everything was ready. We rushed into the living room and let the wrapping paper fly. We made weak attempts to wait and watch while other family members opened their presents, but as the time passed we lost our self-control.
“Here’s another one for you,” said Mom as she handed me a package. I looked at it, confused. Having spent so much time examining the presents before Christmas, I recognized this one. But it had not been mine. It was my mom’s. A new label had been put on it, with my name written in my mother’s handwriting.
“Mom, I can’t…”
注意:1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右;
2. 至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语;
3. 续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好;
4. 续写完成后,请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
I was stopped by my mother’s eager, joyful look.
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Paragraph 2:
I have always remembered that Christmas fondly.
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39、阅读下面短文,根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
We live in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people think that craft (手艺) no longer exists. One of the ways these people wrongly support their view is by pointing to 100-year-old homes which are still solid, and arguing that it is the craftsmanship that is responsible for their durability (持久性). “Homes in those days were well-built,” they say. There is no doubt that these homes were well-built, but what these people have done is mix up the quality of material used in the house with the quality of the craftsmanship.
Homes today could be built to last just as long as those old homes if people were willing or able to pay the price. For example, more people can no longer afford solid oak stairways, although they were once fairly common in older homes. Nor can they afford the high labor cost of employing a carpenter to build the stairway. Yet if someone can pay the high cost, there are still plenty of carpenters around able to make those stairways. And not only would these carpenters know how to build them, they would probably do a better job than carpenters of old.
One thing the modern carpenter has which enables him to do a better job is much more advanced tools. Such tools as laser beams and power planes help them lay out a house better and make more precision cuts (精确切割) on the wood. Also, it is not uncommon any more to find carpenters with college degrees and carpenters with a solid knowledge of mathematics, which would enable them to deal with more difficult house designs.
The problem of modern quality, then, really boils down to the problem of material, for the modern carpenter is just as able to produce craftsmanship as the carpenter of fifty years ago, but only if given proper material.
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40、近年来,随着科技的发展,可用于学习的电子产品也越来越多,学生的汉字书写能力大大降低。假定你是校书法协会的会长,为了让同学们重视书写,你打算向校报“英语天地”栏目投稿,写一封倡议书,内容包括:1.减少对电子产品的依赖,多动手记笔记; 2.养成练书法和写日记的习惯。
Dear students,
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41、Directions: Write an English composition in 120—150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
请根据下图用英语写一篇短文。你的短文应包括下列要点:
1.简要描写图画内容;
2.这一现象产生的原因;
3.发表你对解决此类问题的看法。
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