The writer Margaret Mitchell is best known for writing Gone with the Wind, first published in 1936. Her book and the movie based on it, tell a story of love and survival during the American Civil War. Visitors to the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia, can go where she lived when she started composing the story and learn more about her life.
Our first stop at the Margaret Mitchell House is an exhibit area telling about the writer’s life. She was born in Atlanta in 1900. She started writing stories when she was a child. She started working as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal newspaper in 1922. One photograph of Ms. Mitchell, called Peggy, shows her talking to a group of young college boys. She was only about one and a half meters tall. The young men tower over her, but she seems very happy and sure of herself. The tour guide explains: “Now in this picture Peggy is interviewing some boys from Georgia Tech, asking them such questions as ‘Would you really marry a woman who works?’ And today it’d be ‘Would you marry one who doesn’t?’ ”
The Margaret Mitchell House is a building that once contained several apartments. Now we enter the first floor apartment where Ms. Mitchell lived with her husband, John Marsh. They made fun of the small apartment by calling it “The Dump ” .
Around 1926, Margaret Mitchell had stopped working as a reporter and was at home healing after an injury. Her husband brought her books to read from the library. She read so many books that he bought her a typewriter and said it was time for her to write her own book. Our guide says Gone with the Wind became a huge success. Margaret Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for the book. In 1939 the film version was released. It won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The book Gone with the Wind was _________.
A.first published on a newspaper |
B.awarded ten Academy Awards |
C.written in “The Dump” |
D.adapted from a movie |
The underlined phrase “tower over” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to_________.
A.be very pleased with |
B.show great respect for |
C.be much taller than |
D.show little interest in |
Why did Ms. Mitchell stop working as a reporter according to the passage?
A.Because she was rich enough. |
B.Because she was injured then. |
C.Because her husband didn’t like it. |
D.Because she wanted to write books. |
Which is the best title for the passage?
A.Gone with the Wind: A Huge Success. |
B.Margaret Mitchell: A Great Female Writer. |
C.An Introduction of the Margaret Mitchell House. |
D.A Trip to Know Margaret Mitchell. |
What is life?Like most great questions,this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple:we know of just one type of life and it's challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life﹣called ALife for short﹣is the systematic attempt to spell out life's fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners,so﹣called ALifers,think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.
So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism,such as declarations of the field's doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith,a complexity scientist,is tired of such complaints. Asking about "the point" of ALife might be,well,missing the point entirely,he says. "The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything." Alan says. "Some people ask me,'So what's the worth of artificial life?'Do you ever think,'What is the worth of your grandmother?'"
As much as many ALifers hate emphasising their research's applications,the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife's cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamoured by a concept called open﹣ended evolution(演化).This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity,to be a sort of "novelty generator". The only system known to exhibit this is Earth's biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life's endless "creativity" in some virtunl model,those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
Compared with the developments of Al,advances in ALife are harder to recognise. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept﹣﹣life itself﹣is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn't help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse,ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled(混乱的)progression is a striking parallel(平行线) to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.
Undefined and uncontrolled,ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be,of course,that these characteristics aren't in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something:perhaps,just like life itself throughout the universe,the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.
(1)Regarding Alan Smith's defence of ALife,the author is
A. |
supportive |
B. |
puzzled |
C. |
unconcerned |
D. |
doubtful |
(2)What does the word "enamoured" underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
A. |
Shocked. |
B. |
Protected. |
C. |
Attracted. |
D. |
Challenged. |
(3)What can we learn from this passage?
A. |
ALife holds the key to human future. |
B. |
ALife and AI share a common feature. |
C. |
AI mirrors the developments of ALife. |
D. |
AI speeds up the process of human evolution. |
(4)Which would be the best title for the passage?
A. |
Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out? |
B. |
Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve,Too? |
C. |
Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day? |
D. |
Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve,Too? |
In recent years,researchers from diverse fields have agreed that short﹣termism is now a significant problem in industrialised societies. The inability to engage with longer﹣term causes and consequences leads to some of the world's most serious problems:climate change,biodiversity collapse,and more.The historian Francis Cole argues that the West has entered a period where "only the present exists,a present characterised at once by the cruelty of the instant and by the boredom of an unending now".
It has been proved that people have a bias(偏向) towards the present,focusing on loud attractions in the moment at the expense of the health,well﹣being and financial stability of their future selves or community. In business,this bias surfaces as short﹣sighted decisions. And on slow﹣burning problems like climate change,it translates into the unwillingness to make small sacrifices(牺牲) today that could make a major difference tomorrow. Instead,all that matters is next quarter's profit,or satisfying some other near﹣term desires.
These biased perspectives cannot be blamed on one single cause. It is fair to say,though,that our psychological biases play a major role. People's hesitancy to delay satisfaction is the most obvious example,but there are others. One of them is about how the most accessible information in the present affects decisions about the future. For instance,you might hear someone say:"It's cold this winter,so I needn't worry about global warming." Another is that loud and urgent matters are given too much importance,making people ignore longer﹣term trends that arguably matter more. This is when a pop star draws far more attention than,say,gradual biodiversity decline.
As a psychologist once joked,if aliens(外星人)wanted to weaken humanity,they wouldn't send ships;they would invent climate change. Indeed,when it comes to environmental transformations,we can develop a form of collective "poor memory",and each new generation can believe the state of affairs they encounter is nothing out of the ordinary. Older people today,for example,can remember a time with insect﹣covered car windscreens after long drives. Children,on the other hand,have no idea that insect population has dropped dramatically.
(1)The author quotes Francis Cole mainly to .
A. |
draw a comparison |
B. |
introduce a topic |
C. |
evaluate a statement |
D. |
highlight a problem |
(2)What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A. |
Climate change has been forgotten. |
B. |
Lessons of history are highly valued. |
C. |
The human mind is bad at noting slow change. |
D. |
Humans are unwilling to admit their shortcomings. |
(3)What does the author intend to tell us?
A. |
Far﹣sighted thinking matters to humans. |
B. |
Humans tend to make long﹣term sacrifices. |
C. |
Current policies facilitate future decision﹣making. |
D. |
Bias towards the present helps reduce near﹣term desires. |
Sitting in the garden for my friend's birthday. felt a buzz(振动) in my pocket. My heart raced when I saw the email sender's name. The email started off:"Dear Mr Green,thank you for your interest" and "the review process took longer than expected." It ended with "We are sorry to inform you…"and my vision blurred(模糊).The position﹣measuring soil quality in the Sahara Desert as part of an undergraduate research programme﹣had felt like the answer I had spent years looking for. I had put so much time and emotional energy into applying,and I thought the rejection meant the end of the road for my science career.
So I was shocked when,not long after the email,Professor Mary Devon,who was running the programme,invited me to observe the work being done in her lab. I jumped at the chance,and a few weeks later I was equally shocked﹣and overjoyed﹣when she invited me to talk with her about potential projects I could pursue in her lab. What she proposed didn't seem as exciting as the original project I had applied to,but I was going to give it my all.
I found myself working with a robotics professor on techniques for collecting data from the desert remotely. That project,which I could complete from my sofa instead of in the burning heat of the desert,not only survived the lockdown but worked where traditional methods didn't. In the end. I had a new scientific interest to pursue.
When I applied to graduate school,I found three programmes promising to allow me to follow my desired research direction. And I applied with the same anxious excitement as before. When I was rejected from one that had seemed like a perfect fit,it was undoubtedly difficult. But this time I had the perspective(视角)to keep it from sending me into panic. It helped that in the end I was accepted into one of the other programmes I was also excited about.
Rather than setting plans in stone,I've learned that sometimes I need to take the opportunities that are offered,even if they don't sound perfect at the time,and make the most of them.
(1)How did the author feel upon seeing the email sender's name?
A. |
Anxious. |
B. |
Angry. |
C. |
Surprised. |
D. |
Settled. |
(2)After talking with Professor Devon,the author decided to .
A. |
criticise the review process |
B. |
stay longer in the Sahara Desert |
C. |
apply to the original project again |
D. |
put his heart and soul into the lab work |
(3)According to the author,the project with the robotics professor was .
A. |
demanding |
B. |
inspiring |
C. |
misleading |
D. |
amusing |
(4)What can we learn from this passage?
A. |
An invitation is a reputation. |
B. |
An innovation is a resolution. |
C. |
A rejection can be a redirection. |
D. |
A reflection can be a restriction. |
The International Olympic Committee(IOC)Young Leaders programme empowers talents to make a positive difference in their communities through sport. Twenty﹣five Young Leaders are being selected every two years for a four﹣year period. They promote the Olympic values,spreading the message of sport for good.
To be an IOC Young Leader,you need to first complete the 4﹣Week Learning Sprint(冲刺).
4﹣Week Learning Sprint
The 4﹣Week Learning Sprint,which will take place during November 2023,is a virtual learning programme. The sessions can be attended live or watched back after they are made available on the IOC channel. Each week,participants will be asked to complete a topic﹣specific reflection task.
The 4﹣Week Learning Sprint is open to anyone,with the target audience aged between 20 and 28.
After successfully completing the 4﹣Week Learning Sprint,you will need to submit a plan for a sport﹣based project,which you will work on if selected as an IOC Young Leader.
Requirements for the Applicants
•You have successfully completed the 4﹣Week Learning Sprint.
•You have completed your high school studies.
•You have at least one year of work experience.
•You have strong public speaking skills.
•You are self﹣motivated and committed.
•You are passionate about creating positive change in your community.
•You are open to being coached and advised by experts and peers(同伴).
•You are able to work with people from different backgrounds.
(1)In the 4﹣Week Learning Sprint,participants will .
A. |
create change in their community |
B. |
attend a virtual learning programme |
C. |
meet people from different backgrounds |
D. |
promote the IOC Young Leaders project |
(2)If selected as an IOC Young Leader, one will need to .
A. |
complete a reflection task each week |
B. |
watch sports on the IOC channel |
C. |
work on a sport﹣based project |
D. |
coach and advise their peers |
(3)Which is a requirement for the applicants?
A. |
Spreading the message of sport for good. |
B. |
Having at least one﹣year work experience. |
C. |
Showing great passion for project planning. |
D. |
Committing themselves to becoming an expert. |
Most of us associate learning with younger people-kids in school and college or recent graduates early in their careers. But at Udemy, an open university offering online courses, Artist Anneke Camstra is engaged in the pursuit of lifelong learning and displays her potential for teaching. She loves the experience of gaining new knowledge and also loves sharing it with others. "I'm retired, but an artist never retires," Anneke said. "The last few years on the internet have been a great joy for me. I've taken so many Udemy courses, and ifs such a great feeling to get my brain working again. I find just as much satisfaction in teaching animation (动画制作) too."
She reaches countless people with her online courses and exposes them to what they can accomplish on their own using animation software, such as GoAnimate and PowToon. Her motivation for teaching on Udemy is "to get the tools to the people." "You can go such a long way to make things that look professional but still have your own voice," she explained.
Most of Anneke's students start out thinking they're not creative and can't draw. Anneke understands how fear can get in the way of so many things people dream of doing. With her five-day challenge courses, she helps them get over the fear. Anneke loves the impact she has on her students. What makes her more proud of them is that they have gone from their first animation to creating their own works.
She encourages people of all ages, especially older people, to cultivate their curiosity for life. Grandparents, for example, can learn to use GoAnimate and make animations together with their grandkids.
"Tm an older woman, teaching and having fun learning again," Anneke said, and she wants others later in their lives to catch up with her on this journey.
56. What does Anneke enjoy doing after her retirement? (no more than 10 words)
57. According to Para. 2, what does Anneke expect her students to do with animation software? (no more than 10 words)
58. What is the main idea of Para. 3? (no more than 15 words)
59. Please explain the meaning of the underlined word in Para. 4(1 word)
60. What do you suggest old people learn to do? Please give your reason(s). (no more than 20 words)